Customizing my Annie Speed - Questions

[EASmithV]

Hello all, and meet Annie;



I got this as a restoration project from a fellow APUG member, and stripped the leather that was in poor condition, and cleaned and refinished the wood underneath, etc. Looking at my Pacemaker, I noticed that i could take the lower part of the front standard, and transfer it to the Anny and give it front tilts, however the rangefinder lip on the bed interfered with the standard somewhat. I can take the prong off, easy. But the rails on the Anny are a little rough anyway.

Since I've modified it, this is what i use for backpacking, etc, as i don't care if it gets a little dinged. It's kind of my test platform. I've already put a grafloc on it, and done the steampunking.

What my question is... Are Pacemaker rails compatible with an Anniversary Speed Graphic? And how to I mate the bellows to a Pacemaker front standard? I could leave the front standard bakelite square attached, and just switch the outer part, but I'm thinking that it might be nice to standardize lensboards.

Also... Could I even fit a front standard from a Super on here? It's what i've been using for backpacking/field camera so the extra movements would definitively be a plus.

[Ian Grant]

The Anniversary rails are the same as the Pacemaker but the bellows attach differently.

When I asked the same question I was told that a Super Graphic front standard wouldn't fit on Pacemaker rails, and having just tried they don't However it would be simple to make them fit - the guides that slip into the rail and also lock the standard are approx a millimetre wider on the Super Graphic, they'd need filing to fit. A Pacemaker standard fit's a Super Graphic rail easily

Your other option is modify a Pacemaker standard to get more movements. I'd add that the metals used are hardened and not easy to file/modify.

What ever you do you'd need to re-glue the bellows.

Welcome to the Naked Graflex Club



Ian

[EASmithV]

Wow, she's pretty... Someone stole the front door to your camera >.<

I bought another front standard and new rails on ebay, so I can at least give pacemaker tilt to the anny by swapping the lower part... IDK how viable it is to swap the whole standard. Are the bellows actually glued to the front? I don't want to break a glue seam, that never turns out well.

[Ian Grant]

Not sure on the Anniversary, mine above is pre-Anniversary and the bellows are glued to part of the front standard on the Pacemakers they have a thin metal frame that bolts to the standard.

The camera above was modified from new to be a wide angle camera, no front door and the front trackbed is fixed inside the body, the top cut away to allow focus and the wire finder to be used with a WA lens no idea which but shorter than a 90mm.

Ian

[Steve Smith]

I'm also a member of the Naked Graflex club! Mine looks similar but as the shutter mechanism was beyond repair, I removed it and filled the holes with a similar coloured wood.


Steve.

[EASmithV]

BUMP, I really would like to be able to use the same lens boards across all my cameras.