Wista 45SP question

[Rafael Garcia]

I recently acquired an old (gold tone/plastic wood veneer) Wista 45SP camera in excellent usable condition - the black-painted parts somewhat peeled, everything else ok, all controls working well and no wear and tear that would affect useability. It lacks the entire back, which I have placed a classified to try find...

I have been able to figure out all the controls and locks except for one lever: There is a flat lever on the left hand of the base as one looks at the ground glass. This lever pushes down. It has the appearance of being used for some operation not used frequently, perhaps to separate the frame from the bed... I do not want to force anything even though the camera is so tough I doubt I could hurt it... What does this lever do?

Thanks in advance. Any other information on the camera is useful if you want to spend time typing it here.

[Bob Y]

I think that the lever that you are talking about is the rear standard swing lock. The rear swing is detented and fairly stiff. Fine tuning is best left to the "micro-swing" knobs on the rear standard.