C41
Kodak Portra 160
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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The Anniversary Crown Graphic is the 4x5 press camera Graflex introduced in 1942 as part of its "Anniversary" line, so named to mark roughly 40 years of Graflex camera production. Where the contemporary Anniversary Speed Graphic retained a focal-plane shutter for high-speed action stops, the Crown Graphic omitted it entirely, relying solely on the lens-mounted leaf shutter. This made the Crown lighter and less expensive - better suited to field reporters and photographers who didn't need the Speed's high-speed capability. The Anniversary Crown ran from 1942 to approximately 1947, when it was succeeded by the Pacemaker Crown Graphic.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 4x5 format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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About this camera
The wartime Crown - Graflex's 1942 press camera built without the focal-plane shutter, lighter and cheaper for a nation at war.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 4x5 |
| Mount | Graflex lensboard |
| Years | 1942-1947 |
| Shutter | Lens-mounted leaf (Kodak Supermatic, Wollensak Rapax typical) |
| Shutter range | ~1s - 1/400s (lens-dependent) |
| Focus | Rangefinder coupled + ground glass |
| Focal-plane shutter | None (unlike Speed Graphic) |
| Battery | None |
| Movements | Limited front rise and tilt |
Graflex, based in Rochester, New York, had built the Speed Graphic press camera into the dominant tool of American press photography through the 1930s. By the early 1940s, the camera existed in multiple parallel variants at different price and weight points. The "Anniversary" designation appears to have been applied to the 1940-1942 series as a marketing milestone; Graflex had been producing cameras since the early 1900s.
The Anniversary Crown Graphic was introduced in 1942, during the United States' entry into World War II. Wartime material constraints made a lighter, simpler camera practically sensible: the Crown omitted the focal-plane shutter mechanism entirely. This was not purely a cost reduction - many press photographers preferred the cleaner leaf-shutter-only operation for its quieter firing and more predictable flash synchronization. The focal-plane shutter on Speed Graphics required careful speed selection for flash use; a leaf shutter synced at any speed.
The camera incorporated the Graflex coupled rangefinder, which allowed focusing without removing the darkslide and composing on ground glass - an important speed advantage in news situations. Front limited rise and tilt movements remained, giving some perspective control unavailable on rigid press cameras.
By 1947, Graflex replaced the Anniversary series with the Pacemaker Crown Graphic, which offered improved fit and finish and revised mechanics, while maintaining the same Crown concept: a 4x5 leaf-shutter-only press camera with rangefinder.
The Anniversary Crown Graphic represents the American press camera at the moment of its greatest cultural weight. In 1942-1947, press photographers covering the home front, returning veterans, and the rapid social changes of wartime and postwar America were overwhelmingly using Graflex cameras. The distinctive profile - folding bed, drop front, wire-frame finder cocked to the side, and the photographer's hand holding a flashbulb reflector - defines what press photography looked like to the American public.
The Crown specifically, by stripping out the focal-plane shutter, made the format more accessible to a wider range of working photographers. A Speed Graphic was a specialist's tool with a specialist's price; the Crown democratized 4x5 press photography.
The "press camera" idiom the Crown embodies - multiple focusing methods, large negative, handheld operation, flash-ready - influenced camera design well into the 1960s, including the Mamiya Press line and Linhof Technika derivatives.
The Graflex lensboard accepts any lens on the appropriate board size. Common fitted glass of the era:
Accessories of the era:
BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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