[rollei_list] Re: PJ and the Rollei
- From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:02:39 -0700
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter K." <peterk727@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 9:41 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] PJ and the Rollei
With all the discussion about Hasselblads and Rolleis, it
seems interesting
to me thatthe vast majority of PJs during the 50s and 60s
were using Rollei
TLRs. Yes, there were some Nikons, Leicas, and of course a
few Speed
Graphics but why no Hasselblads for PJ work. Anyone have any
idea as to why
this was? Just curious.
--
Peter K
Ó¿Õ¬
I don't know but I have a couple of guesses. All the
above named cameras allow the photographer to see the image
at the moment of exposure. This is not true of any single
lens reflex other than a very few that had beam splitter
viewers. The latter have a whole set of vices all their own.
Also, most early SLRs stayed blacked out after the exposure
until the shutter film was wound and the shutter was reset.
There is a story, and I have no memory of where I first
saw it, of how the Speed Graphic came to dominate press
photography. Initially it was the Graflex camera, usually in
5x7 size that most press photogs used. Well the tale is that
a New York Times photog was killed photographing an
automobile race from track-side because he had his face in
the finder hood and did not see an oncoming car that hit
him. The Times ruled that no more Graflexs be used so the
fellows switched to Speed Graphics. While the early Graphics
had no means of focusing other than the ground glass or the
footage scale they were usually used at such small apertures
that guess-focusing with the aid of the scale was good
enough. The GG on a Graphic is just too slow for press work.
The story may be true and it is certainly a fact that the
number of Graflex cameras which show up in press photographs
diminished quite rapidly around the mid-1920s although many
remained in use through the 'thirties. Anothere advantage of
the SG is that its an eye level camera. A Graflex, or a
Rollei, for that matter, is blocked when the photog is in a
crowd. Either can be held above the head to make a sort of
periscope but a Rollei is a whole lot lighter and smaller
and is quite practical for this.
Also, I think the Rollei was something of a
transitional camera. Press photographers and newspapers
found they could get good enough quality from 35mm and
rapidly changed over to it. 35mm cameras give the
photographer a lot more fire-power so to speak than the
press camera. I think the Rolleis were somewhere in the
middle of this evolution giving a negative somewhere in
between in size and more forgiving of process handling than
35mm.
I grew up with the Speed Graphic and like them but
there is no doubt that either a Rollei or 35mm camera is
much faster, lighter, and easier to handle.
--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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