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Thread: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

  1. #1
    Rob Simmons
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    Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    I have seen pictures of view cameras with the bellows all twisted and turned and tilted. Is there ever a situation that you would do something that extreme or is it just showing how much movement a particular camera can do? I might do rise and tilt and maybe a little swing but my camera never looks that contorted.

  2. #2

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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    By and large, that's hype. If you got an image from those contortions, it'd be amazing. IMO.

  3. #3

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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    View camera makers and users like to show off what they can do. Most of the time, only one movement is needed -- and occasionally pretty extreme -- and sometimes two movements are needed, but less extreme. But before most photographers would ever get close to the contortions you mention, the Image Circle created by the lens would not even hit the film!

  4. #4

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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    I end up using pretty extreme movements more often than I'd like. I define extreme as 1) being at the very edge of a lens' coverage and/or 2) pushing the limits of what my camera can do. I shoot field cameras, so there are more limitations as concerns movements than a monorail. Still when you run out of both rise and shift and have to add tilts and swings in order to get enough of both, that's rather a lot of movement. Below is a shot of my Wista SW with both rise and shift at maximum and added swings and tilts to get a bit more of both. Note the angle of the bed.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    The shot was successful, but right at the edge of the lens' coverage. This is about as far as I ever push movements. I don't know if you'd call it "crazy," though.


    Best,

    Doremus

  5. #5

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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    Quote Originally Posted by snommisbor View Post
    I have seen pictures of view cameras with the bellows all twisted and turned and tilted. Is there ever a situation that you would do something that extreme or is it just showing how much movement a particular camera can do? I might do rise and tilt and maybe a little swing but my camera never looks that contorted.
    The meaning of these pictures is indeed to prove/show the mechanical possibility of camera movements. Nothing bad with it. The way you recognize this sense of the pictures is the photographically often illogical nature of the movements that are shown. The front left swing and upwards tilt combined with right back swing with downward tilt etc.

  6. #6

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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    You know the movements were set up for marketing when the light would never reach the film...unless the inside of the bellows was reflective!

  7. #7

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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Patterson View Post
    You know the movements were set up for marketing when the light would never reach the film...unless the inside of the bellows was reflective!
    Once, in a photo shop I overheard a son looking at such pictures and asking his father with a 35mm camera - how can you take pictures with the lens going in that direction? The father answered - the bellow must somehow reflect the light...

  8. #8
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    And then some good old view cameras have a tab near the middle of the bellows to which one attaches a strap, rod or a string to keep the bellows from sagging into the light path when there are no movements at all.

  9. #9
    Rob Simmons
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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    Yeah I was on Thalmann.com and he had his camera looking like a Chinese dragons �� you see in parades. I thought to myself, surely one doesn’t need that extreme movement. Just a slight tilt will do wonders.

  10. #10
    8x10, 5x7, 4x5, et al Leigh's Avatar
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    Re: Crazy Movements of View Cameras

    Quote Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder View Post
    The shot was successful, but right at the edge of the lens' coverage. This is about as far as I ever push movements.
    Hi Doremus,

    Why don't you show us the image that resulted from those movements?

    - Leigh
    If you believe you can, or you believe you can't... you're right.

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