[rollei_list] Re: "A single 4X5 Speed Graphic" (was: Is your Rollei your only camera ?)
- From: Ardeshir Mehta <ardeshir@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:23:11 -0500
On Monday, March 28, 2005, at 11:18 AM, Allen Zak wrote:
> [...] It was not unusual to find professionals setting up shop with a
> single 4X5 Speed Graphic [...]
The Speed Graphic, with a few Grafmatic backs plus a roll-film back or
two, is a MOST versatile instrument, and If I had to have just one
camera, my Speed Graphic would be it. (It was the first camera I
seriously bought on eBay, and indeed I bought it to be my only camera
initially! I never thought I'd be able to afford an f/2.8 Rolleiflex,
even on eBay.)
Just consider the Speed Graphic's immense versatility. With a 127 mm
lens it works as a semi-wide (when shot full frame), normal (when shot
with a roll-film back), or almost-telephoto (with the negative or slide
cropped to fill the size of a 35mm frame or thereabouts) ... and with
an additional 240 mm or 300 mm lens, the Speed Graphic is a
long-telephoto camera as well. It can be shot hand-held with no more
trouble than a modern Polaroid camera. Indeed it can also shoot
Polaroid films, for times when you want to show your friends their
pictures right away: in that sense it's almost as rapid-result as a
digital camera, indeed even more so because the pictures are of a
decent size, not that dinky size visible only with a magnifying glass
in the digital camera's LCD viewfinder. The Grafmatic back, when used,
allows one to shoot six shots in quick succession, almost as rapidly as
with a Rolleiflex or a Leica (though admittedly not as rapidly as with
a modern motor-wind camera). And different Grafmatic backs or roll-film
holders loaded with different films allows one to change films during a
shoot as rapidly and as easily as with a Hasselblad or a Rollei SLR.
The Speed Graphic's shutter speed (1/1,000 sec!) and wire-frame finder
allows one to shoot action shots very easily. Its large negative size
allows one to shoot using VERY high speed films, which can moreover be
pushed to - what? 6400 ISO? More? - without the resultant images
suffering from the slightest graininess: thus allowing available light
photography under most conditions. Of course flash can be added as and
when you want. Its Kalart rangefinder allows one to focus even more
accurately than a Leica or a Rolleiflex. The Speed Graphic even has a
few movements, so it can be used for landscapes and architectural shots
as well, at least the less extreme ones. Macros? No problemos.
And six 4x5 slides - a fully-loaded Grafmatic's worth - taken of a
landscape or architectural scene, can be stitched together on computer
to fill a slide the size of an 11x14, giving one a gigabit-plus picture
which can be enlarged to mural-size without any loss of sharpness!
Heck, what CAN'T the Speed Graphic do, except shoot movies? All it
needs is for someone to sell a 30- or 40-megapixel digital back
designed for it specifically, and you'd be in the best of all possible
worlds, just like Professor Pangloss.
And finally, if one wants an enlarger - not that an enlarger is
necessary any more, but if one really does want one - a Speed Graphic
can be converted into one without much trouble! Hoo boy. Talk about
versatility. (Why they don't make them any more is a mystery to me.)
Cheers.
Other related posts:
- » [rollei_list] Re: "A single 4X5 Speed Graphic" (was: Is your Rollei your only camera ?)
