Any time I buy a vintage camera online outside of eBay, I go through a semi-agonizing anticipation of what’s to come. You hope the description of its condition is accurate and that you and the seller are speaking in the same terms. Mint almost always means mint and Excellent is often excellent. When you wade into good, really nice, clean, fair, etc… The consistency across sellers can vary. Without high resolution photos it’s really hard to be certain and a resignation to taking a leap of faith.

Buying my new Graflex 4×5 Anniversary Speed Graphic was no exception. The condition was described as ‘good’ accompanied with 8-10 photos. Notice I didn’t say ‘high resolution’ photos.

It finally arrived. Overall, it’s in good shape with the exception of the bellows. They will require either patching or replacement.

The body, both inside and outside, has a decent coating of dust. Nothing major, but it’s there.

The shutter sounds good and seems accurate. There’s an obvious difference in shutter speeds and they seem directionally close. When holding the lens and shutter, the first thing you notice is the solid build and hefty weight. Not heavy, but solid. Respectable. The glass appears to be in good shape and mostly clean. The aperture moves well and the f4.7 to f32 provides a nice range to play with. When looking through the glass, the 4.7 is big and bright while the 32 is tiny and dark.

Moving along to the side, there’s a Kalart Rangefinder that appears to be in good condition. Definitely has some dust, but overall looks well built and intact.

The back is in overall very good condition. It has the Graflok back and the springs are both securely attached and work well. Film holders slide right in and appear to be forming a good seal with the body. The ground glass cover pops open when depressing the latch lever and the ground glass is securely resting in it’s place without ‘play’ or movement. It’s dusty, but clean and no cracks or big smudges. Even the curtains on the side of the ground glass cover open and close without any hassles.

Another cool feature of the Speed Graphic is the rear Focal Plane shutter. Not pictured here, but it seems to be in excellent condition and functioning properly. It’s such a cool feature that it has me researching old style shutterless brass barrel lenses. Stay tuned for a future post on the focal plane shutter.