Speed Graphic a View Camera or not?

[Drew Bedo]

Why are we wasting time on this? Who cares what its called.

[jnantz]

http://historiccamera.com/
has ads photographs &c
if you go by what these cameras were called
historically you will see the manufacturers
had a distinction.

manhattan optical, rochester, conley and others
made cameras in the 1800s and early 1900s
that were nearly the same design as a speed graphic
or crown graphic or "press camera" and they called these
cameras " folding cameras. " view cameras
were advertised at the time and while they folded up ( sometimes )
they did not have a box the camera bed folded up into and a handled case.
another distinction was the folding cameras were portable
and could be bike mounted and view cameras required other "stuff."

(it also seems ) the folding cameras were 1 step above a box camera.
both were easy to use but the folding cameras had a way to focus the image ( not point and shoot )
and they came with a nicer lens ( rapid rectalinaer instead of a choked-down meniscus / wollaston ) ...
and while box cameras for 4x5 format had a tripod mount, they could easily be used handheld
and folding cameras seem to be the other way around, while they could always be used handheld
they seem to be better when used on a tripod.

the folks who used folding cameras were probably snobish and thought they
were more "serious" than the box camera crowd, just like today
there are always folks who use view cameras and think they are more "serious"
than press (folding) camera crowd ...

i don't make a distinction, to me folding or view or box, they are just ... cameras

[Brian Ellis]

One way fairly well-accepted way of classifying cameras that use sheet film is (or at least was) field camera, monorail or studio camera, press camera, and technical camera (a press camera with back movements). "View camera" was a vaguer term but generally meant a field camera or a monorail. Under this classification system the various Graphics are press cameras. If someone wants to call them view cameras they certainly can, there isn't to my knowledge a single uniformly accepted system of classification. But I think "press camera" is the more accurate term.

[Vaughn]

I guess we do like to argue!

Then there is the SLR 4x5 Graphic that D. Lange used...

http://www.shorpy.com/Dorothea-Lange

Check out her shoes -- look like Converse basketball shoes!

[Gem Singer]

See A.Adams, "The Camera" for a discussion of the various camera classifications.

He specifically puts the Graphic cameras in the press camera classification.

Personally, if a camera uses a ground glass for composing and focusing, takes sheet film, has movement capability, and is mounted on a tripod, it's a view camera.

To paraphrase, "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck".

[rdenney]

I guess we do like to argue!

Then there is the SLR 4x5 Graphic that D. Lange used...

http://www.shorpy.com/Dorothea-Lange

Before Dan has a chance to do it, I'll point out that the Graflex SLR was called a Graflex because it was a reflex camera, while the name Graphic was used for the press cameras. I don't think the Graflex SLR was ever described as a Graphic by the manufacturer. My own speculation is that this distinction mattered at a time when Graflex and Graphic were model names when the company name was Folmer and Schwing (or the F&S Division of Kodak). Later, the company name change to Graflex, which, if my speculation is correct, charted a new nomenclature course. I don't remember the dates for sure, but I seem to recall that the Graflex company name appeared after the Graflex SLR ceased production.

Definitions are merely records of accepted meanings. I suspect most people believe a view camera is called such because it is used by viewing the image directly on a ground glass, and not through some intervening viewing system that would give it a different label. The box and folding consumer cameras of a century past seemed to all have viewfinders and some alternate form of focusing rather than using a directly viewed ground glass. Press cameras can be used like a view camera, just as some technical cameras can be used like a press camera (i.e., handheld, with a viewfinder and rangefinder focusing aid).

I also suspect that most people would believe a view camera is such because there is some independence between the front and rear standards, and the associated use of a bellows appears in several definitions I reviewed. That may be a more recent association, but, of course, definitions can change.

Rick "noting that when we use an archaic definition, we have to say so if we mean to communicate clearly" Denney

[Kevin Crisp]

I vote with those astute "who cares?" posters, but you might find this definition from McGraw Hill's technology encyclopedia interesting It would exclude quite a few cameras we all would consider view cameras.


(optics) A camera that can be focused at both front and back, with adjustments for tilts, swings, shifts, and rise and fall, to control the shape of the subject in the image; it has a ground glass on the back which enables the photographer to view the image to be recorded.



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Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/view-camera#ixzz1jpUtinI7

[E. von Hoegh]

How do you work that one out ?

Technical cameras like MPPs, Linhofs, Toyos (45A), Super Graphics etc are all very definitely view cameras yet all can be used on a tripod or handheld.

Ian

I thought I made it clear...... maybe if you read it a few more times. Hint: "designed to be handheld"

[Dan Fromm]

Rick, Graflex' (Graflex, Inc. and predecessors) nomenclature confuses everyone.

Dan "there were no rules in Rochester and they were often broken" Fromm

[BrianShaw]

I'm not as confused as some... I don't believe Graflex Corp ever used the term Graflex in reference to their line of Graphic press cameras, except as a reference to their corporate name.

"Brian" I could be mistaken "Shaw"