Part I: History of the medium format Graflok back New users or prospective purchasers are encouraged to start with Part I experienced photographers may wish to jump straight to Part II. It is divided into two Parts: a history of the standard, including the many products made for it, in chronological order, and a guide to each back, organized by format.
This Guide is the result of years of research, testing, collecting, photography, and design, largely driven by the Mercury project. Graflex, Mamiya, and Horseman users have all had to make due with web resources devoted only to their own brand, which are necessarily incomplete (and often quite inaccurate). Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive repository of information about the array of backs that have been released by various manufacturers for this standard. It is the default medium format back standard adopted by the Mercury Open Camera System, opening the standard to a new generation of photographers and camera designers. It was the standard adopted by Horseman for their high-end medium format view cameras for decades (until they stopped making view cameras entirely). It is the standard utilized by perhaps the most influential medium format portrait camera in the history of photography: the Mamiya RB67. It drove the adoption of removable roll film backs for decades of influential Graflex cameras in the postwar period, such as the Crown and Speed “Baby Graphics,” the Century Graphic, and the influential Graflex XL system. It was and remains the only multi-brand 6×9 format standard for removable backs. It was the first medium format back protocol to gain sufficiently widespread adoption to be considered a “standard” at all. No medium format removable back standard has been more influential than Graflok 23. Introduction: Graflex, Mamiya RB67, Horseman, Mercury
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