I see a lot of contradicting opinions on this, and really, I hold a lot of contradicting opinions about this. So I've been shooting LF for about eight months (two packs of Shanghai 100 and a couple of new handmade dry plates from J. Lane on Etsy,) on a 4x5 Pacemaker Speed Graphic (pre top-rangefinder, pre-Graflok).
My first instinct is to say that using a large-format handheld at all is a waste of film. The real advantage of LF to me is the ability to record detailed, sharp, technical images. The Speed Graphic's handheld nature, really, is a product of a long-gone era when A: LF was the predominant form of photography, and B: AP photographers needed to be able to distribute usable prints to the presses in a hurry, and so would want a large format such as 4x5" or 5x7" for making contact prints--I think of dear old Uncle Uscher developing in the trunk of his car. Most of us don't have the concern about making prints for the newspaper now, and 4x5 is usually at least a dollar per shot, so it would seem like there's no excuse to shoot LF without a steady tripod and critical focusing to get the best quality image possible.
But I also see contemporary LF photographers shooting 4x5 handheld. For instance, there was a YouTube video where a guy talked about his Crown Graphic and his Linhof Technika (I think), saying he treated them both the same way he treats a small-format camera: handheld when the need arises, tripod where possible, et cetera. Furthermore, most people that I've seen online with restored Graflex SLR's from the real old days often shoot them handheld, as was the practice at the time. I've seen a lot of pictures of people in recent years shooting handheld, especially with Speed Graphics. So... what do they know that I don't? Can you really get an image quality worth spending the money on by shooting a Speed Graphic handheld? And if so, would you do it with the front or the back shutter? I could see arguments for either. I will say that I have very precisely calibrated my rangefinder, if that helps matters.
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