[rollei_list] Re: Press Cameras
- From: Jon stanton <Jon.stanton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:56:17 -0700
I have a Speed Graphic for anyone interested
Olympia, WA
On Mar 24, 2012, at 2:20 PM, "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Williams" <dwilli10@xxxxxxx>
> To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2012 12:18 PM
> Subject: [rollei_list] Press Cameras
>
>
>> Just a random comment-
>>
>> Today I just happened to watch, on TV, the show about the "21" quiz
>> show where Charles vanDoren and others were found to have been given
>> answers to the questions. Maybe half of you will remember it.
>>
>> As I watched the movie, I noticed there were many press cameras and
>> some pretty cheap cameras in the courtroom scenes.
>>
>> From a very young age I wanted a press camera, maybe a Speed
>> Graphic, or something similar. I now realize that having a press
>> camera would have been a real bother and I would have had no need for one.
>>
>> Are there others who had the same thoughts as a young amateur photographer?
>>
>> DAW
>>
> I remember 21 and the awful scandal it brought about. It seems to me that
> cheating was found to be common on these high-jackpot shows. All meant to
> make the shows more exciting for the audience and sell more soap or
> cigarettes or whatever.
> The Speed Graphic was the standard press camera. There _were_ others such
> as the B&J camera. After the Crown Graphic came out in 1947 a lot of photogs
> switched to them because they were noticeably lighter. The difference is
> that the Crown does not have the focal plane shutter of the Speed. Busch also
> made good folding cameras, and at one time, advertised one with a focal plane
> shutter in it. This was probably to meet a military spec for the Speed but
> the Busch shutter was much advance over the very crude one found in the Speed
> Graphic and Graflex cameras. I've never seen one of these Busch cameras in
> the flesh so I don't think many were made. I had a Busch Pressman long ago
> (a burglar go it) it was a fine camera.
> The Speed Graphic became the defacto standard press camera sometime around
> the late 1920s. Previously the Graflex SLR was very often used, especially
> in the 5x7 size. The story, which may be apocryphal, is that a N.Y.Times
> photog was using his Graflex to photograph an automobile race and was hit and
> killed by a run-away car because his face was in the hood and he could not
> see it. The Times forbid the use of Graflex cameras and so did other papers
> so the Speed Graphic came to the fore.
> The film of the time tended to be grainy so having a large negative was a
> virtue. Also, plates and sheet film lent themselves well to rapid processing.
> Also, the usual technique was to use a powerful flash, stop the lens down,
> and use the camera as pretty much a fixed-focus or guess focus camera to
> speed up action. Even if the wanted image was captured on only a corner of
> the negative it could still be blown up with enough detail for the very low
> resolution half-tone printing of the time (sometimes with lines drawn around
> the important parts). After WW-2 smaller cameras began to make inroads.
> Initially Rolleiflexes started to appear and then 35mm cameras.
> I was brought up on press cameras. One of my teachers in highschool had
> been a working press photographer and showed me how to use a Speed Graphic,
> both to take pictures and as a weapon (metal re-inforced corners). I still
> like these old dinosaurs and can work pretty fast with one.
> Of course, modern press work is simply to point your cell phone at the
> subject and take a low frame rate movie of it. One can then select the right
> picture. In the old days one had to have a nose for the "right moment".
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ---
> Rollei List
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