As cameras were expensive and not widely available in the early part of the last century, families would often visit a local photographer studio to have their photo taken.
These shots were turned into postcards so they could be sent to family and friends.

Why is it named Compact?
The Graflex Compact Camera is a reflex camera designed to take postcard format film or plate and was reduced in weight and size compared to the 4x5 or 5x7 inch Graflex reflex cameras.
Unlike the square construction of the mirror house of the bigger Graflex cameras at that time, the Graflex Compact Reflex was designed with a slant position of the bellows frame.
The smaller size of the mirror enabled to reduce the size of the mirror house and thus a more compact size of the camera.

This slant position allowed the mirror to move freely in the mirror house and thus saving about 2 inches of space comparing to a regular straight up position like the regular reflex cameras at that time.
The W.F. Folmer's patent here below shows this clever and ingenious design in all its facilities. The Compact Graflex is all that the name implies. It is not only relatively small in size,
but built with the accuracy and rigidity necessary in a 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 reflex camera.

Directions for Operating
Open camera and focusing.

1) Release catch near centre of camera to open the top cover.
2) Raise the cover which automatically extends the focussing hood.
3) Press down the two side arms which will draw the focussing hood taut and hold it rigidly in position.
4) Open front of the camera by pressing the release lever R.
5) Pull the drop bed down until it locks itself.
6) Squeeze the spring actuated clamp of the lens standard and pull the lens standard to the infinity mark on the track of the drop bed.
7) Adjust fine focus with rack and pinion on right side of the drop bed.
8) Turn diaphragm to adjust wide open and less open aperture and check the effects on the ground glass.
9) Enjoy focusing on near by and far away objects and practice opening and closing the drop bed.


What do you need to know before starting ?

This Graflex embodies many -for that time- new features and particular attention is directed to the "new" automatic safety curtain.
This curtain is actuated by the swinging mirror frame, protecting the sensitive layer on the plate or film for incoming light when the mirror is set.
As soon as the release lever is pressed the swinging mirror takes its place in top of the exposure house and at the same time drops the safety curtain to allow the focal plane shutter to make the exposure in the usual way.

The mirror frame in this camera is constructed of aluminium, which reduces the weight of the camera and as the mirror frame seats against an air cushion in the top of the camera, it eliminates all danger of vibration,
which is a valuable feature when making slow exposures holding the camera in the hand.
An improved mechanism was provided for setting the shutter for Time or Instantaneous exposures and the improved shutter winding tension
is so constructed that all mechanism inside the plate is thoroughly protected. However its successor had a square plate and improved Time release lever.

The focusing hood is made amply large to afford full view of the focusing screen when making exposures with the camera held in position for making either horizontal or vertical negatives.
This hood is made so that it detachable affording easy access to the focussing screen. The lens board support is made out of metal and is fitted with a spring actuated clamp which firmly grips the track at any desired point.
The Compact Graflex Camera is fitted with the regular Graflex Focal Plane shutter permitting exposures of any duration from Time to 1/1000 second .
Two tripods sockets were provided, one in the base for horizontal and one in the left side for vertical exposures.
The back of this Compact Graflex camera was constructed to take the postcard film pack holder. More about that here below.

 
Why is this camera called COMPACT

Beside all these above mentioned new features there is another one which deservers our attention.
First of all the ingenious developed storage system of track and bellows. This invention enables swift, safe and easy set up of the camera, ready to shoot and then pack and go!
This new feature made the camera to be a lot more compact than its predecessors and allows the use of Postcard film format.
As the name suggests this film format was very popular with the professional travelling city postcard photographers.

Example of such a city postcard photo

Having said that, you know or at least would soon find out, that there is no postcard size film on the market anymore.
The manufacturing of the 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 format has been discontinued in the 20 th of the last century.
However there are two possibilities to try out to take pictures with this fine classic camera.
There are still 3 1/4 x 5 1/5 roll film holders to be found on eBay. However, as said before, unfortunately no appropriate film.
The good news is that there are film adaptor kits for sale on eBay to enlarge your 120 film spool to the larger size of the old 124 Kodak Film
 which was the appropriate film for the Graflex Compact 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 camera. In other words, the normal available 120 film spool, gets an adapter on both sides to fits
between the spool reception mechanic of the camera.

Another option is to use the old Postcard sized film pack holder. This holder was used with the no more available 3x5 film pack.
These holders are often to find on eBay and mostly very low priced.
No need to alter this film pack holder. Just a block of wood or plastic with the size of the inside hinged cover of the Film Pack Holder to serve as
a filler and light baffle as well.
It fills the gap between the back of the sheet of film film and the cover of the holder and closes the slit of the holder light tight.
 You only have to cut down the 4x5 sheet film to 3 1/4 5 inch and place it with the sensitive side to the front with the darkslide.
Place the block on top of the sheet film back and close the hinged cover.
Unnecessary to tell that loading the holder with film has to be done in fully darkness.

Preparing the settings for Instant exposure

The calculator table on back of the focussing viewing hood will help you to choose the exposure time setting.
Nowadays we can use an electronic exposure meter rather than guessing.

Press down lever H into the mirror focusing position
Set bar beneath disk on I = instant by sliding the bar D to the left to its utmost position. " I " appears left from the disk.
Now wind the curtain by turning the key to the left, until the required number appears in the window F.
If the curtain is set at a smaller aperture than required, release the curtain by pressing the lever M downward until the proper aperture is registered at window F.
Note: as the first Compacts were not equiped with a long lever, operation is not easy. You may like testing this procedure several times.
Note: A safety lock prevents the rewinding of the curtain before the mirror is set in focusing position. This prevents fogging the film
making it necessary to set the mirror before rewinding the shutter curtain.