As the gas lamp market declined, the company expanded into other areas including bicycles and photographic equipment, leading to the release of the first Graflex camera in 1899.

[3] Eastman Kodak made all of the Graflex cameras in their professional equipment manufacturing plant on Clarrisa street in Rochester NY.

The Graflex Reflex was also popular among early 20th Century fine art photographers, leading several lens manufacturers to design special soft-focus lenses, including the famous Wollensak's Verito, to support the camera's creative potential.

[7] Speed Graphics have also been used with success by many fine art photographers, as they work quite well with special un-shuttered lenses that were manufactured originally for the Graflex Reflex.

Speed Graphics are still widely used by modern fine art photographers because of their unique image creation capabilities and simple, easily serviced mechanical design.

However, both the Speed Graphic and the Graflex SLR have focal plane shutters that allow use of large un-shuttered barrel lenses.

As an example, a Kodak Aero Ektar 178 mm f/2.5 lens can be fitted to Speed Graphic 4x5 cameras and used to take soft/sharp photographs with complete control of the depth of focus.

[15] The lightsaber prop used in the 1977 release of Star Wars was a modified 1940s Graflex 3-cell flashgun, which was designed to hold flash bulbs for vintage "Speed Graphic" cameras.

[18] A stylized logo of a Speed Graphic camera appears on the flag of the New York Daily News[6] Graflex, Inc., a company in Jupiter, Fla. manufactures precision optical, electronic, and mechanical devices, mostly for the military.