PhotoHistory

From: Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography
Volume I - Elementary Photography

The Camera How to Operate It

By J. B. Schriever, 1909

While the above title might indicate that this volume is intended only for the beginner, yet we would advise those who have had some experience, but have possibly begun wrong, to carefully read these instructions. The house that is built on a poor foundation will never withstand the force of the elements, and so it is in photography. Start right. Be sure of your foundation. Then the difficulties which you will assuredly meet as you advance in this most interesting and profitable profession will be readily overcome.

In this instruction we will avoid, as much as possible, technicalities and theories. Be honest with yourself in this study of photography, and your own energies, taste and ambition will lead you to success.

The camera has now become almost a household necessity. Nearly every home has one or more, yet only about one-third are actually in use. Hardly one-half of the users do their own finishing but depend upon the professional or wide-awake amateur to do finishing for them. The reason for this is plain. When the camera was first purchased they were led to believe that all that was necessary was to point the instrument at the object they wished to photograph, press the bulb or push button and “presto chango” the picture was finished. In nearly every instance, they have met with failures. Most of those meeting with success do not readily understand how they attained their success, and when they meet with failure blame the photographer who developed their plates or films, or come to the conclusion that their camera is a poor one. If they have not lost their enthusiasm and are well supplied with worldly goods, they buy a more expensive instrument; perhaps keep on producing indifferent results until they finally become disgusted, place the camera on the shelf, and lose thereby a most interesting source of education, pleasure and profit.

This is the reason why, in so many homes there is more than one camera. It also partly accounts for the fact that the out-put of the different manufacturers is growing larger every year and the number of new cameras is steadily increasing.

While it is advisable for beginners to have as good an outfit as possible, it is better, however, for them to have a cheap one and to know how to use it intelligently. Many a cheap instrument is condemned because the user is ignorant of its limitations and tries to put it to uses for which it was never intended. The gun that is guaranteed to shoot true at one hundred yards is not expected to do so at three hundred. The same applies to a camera.

The knowledge and experience thus gained will be the foundation of your future photographic studies. You will meet with failures and successes. They should teach you to study the reasons for both. Learn to think photographically for yourself. Do not go ahead blindly, but when in doubt, stop and think. Reason out for yourself the why and wherefore of things and you are bound to succeed, overcoming, with ease, difficulties that otherwise seem to be unsurmountable.

While cameras sent out by most manufacturers are furnished with a descriptive booklet, giving general instructions, there may be some points not perfectly clear to the beginner. Since the different types of cameras are so numerous that it is almost impossible to cover them all in detail, we will only describe here the more important parts of the modern instrument.

Box Cameras

The Box Camera is the cheapest and simplest of all types of cameras. Some are made for use with films, others for plates, but they are seldom obtainable in sizes larger than 4 x 5. Box cameras are fitted with single lenses, and the shutters supplied usually allow of both instantaneous and time exposures, although there are more elaborate types of box cameras provided with more perfect shutters, giving greater range of exposure. All box cameras are arranged to take pictures both vertically and horizontally, being fitted with finders on both the vertical and horizontal sides. The majority of such cameras have an arrangement for changing the size of diaphragm or lens opening. To effect the movement of the shutter most of these cameras are provided with a lever or button, which, for a time exposure, in the first case must be pushed over in one direction to open the shutter, and back to the original position to close the shutter; or, in the latter case, where a button is provided, it requires one pressure to open the shutter and another pressure to close the shutter. When set for instantaneous exposure one movement of the lever, or one pressure of the button, will cause the shutter to open and close. Any length of time can, of course, be given for a time exposure, while the instantaneous exposure will generally average about 1/33 of a second. Box cameras are not provided with rising front or swing-back attachments.

Magazine Cameras

The Magazine Camera is a form of box camera, but is loaded with a given number of plates that can be dropped into position, one at a time, ready for exposure, by the mere pressing of a button or the pushing over of a lever.

Folding Cameras

A folding camera is, in effect, a box camera, but with this difference, that the lens support is attached to a collapsible bellows. This bellows, folding into small compass, enables the camera to be made more compact. The front of the camera, on being released by a button, drops on its hinges and is held rigidly in position at right-angles to the body of the camera, disclosing a track attached thereto, on which the lens support can be moved in or out, extending or collapsing the bellows according to requirements. The better types of folding cameras are fitted with a rack and pinion on the front of the camera, which enables a very careful adjustment of the lens support. A finder is usually placed on the front board, or attached to the lens support. The lens board in the support is also frequently made to raise or lower. There are, of course, many other attachments and adjustments on folding cameras, the more expensive types affording greater possibility of movement.

Film Cameras

Film cameras are practically the same as plate cameras, but are arranged with a particular reference to the use of daylight loading roll films instead of glass plates. They are made in both box and folding types, with all the various adjustments and movements already given in previous paragraphs. As each manufacturer provides a descriptive booklet with each camera he puts out, it will be unnecessary to describe more closely the various workings of the different cameras. The film camera is more generally known as a kodak, in distinction to the plate camera. The operation of the kodak, aside from the manipulation of the film, is practically the same as the plate camera, and the rules regarding focusing and the securing of the proper register of the image are exactly alike.

Film-Plate Cameras

The Film-Plate combination camera is one in which either plates or cut films may be used. The cut film is put up in the shape of a pack and arranged so that the pack may be slipped into what is known as a film pack adapter, a substitute for a plate holder, being the same shape and size. A pack of films may be slipped into, or removed from, the adapter in daylight. Adapters are inserted in the camera in exactly the same manner as the plate holder. Film-plate cameras are provided with adjustments and attachments similar to plate or film cameras, and are operated in the manner previously described.

View Cameras

The view camera is an instrument not unsimilar to the Folding Camera previously described, but is not made in the enclosed box form of the latter, and its particular purpose is to be used on some form of a support or tripod, as against the folding camera, which is more essentially a “hand camera.” In its attachments and method of setting up for use it is almost identical with the folding hand camera, although, generally speaking, the view camera may be considered to have a greater range of use. View cameras are made in all sizes from 4 x 5 up to 11 x 14, and larger, while folding hand cameras are rarely made in sizes over 6-1/2 x 8-1/2.

Reflex Type of Cameras

Another form of camera more recently introduced, yet finding great favor with amateur photographers, is the Reflex type of camera. This is a box form of camera, which is provided with a mirror arrangement in its interior, enabling the worker to see his picture the full size of the plate, the right way up (all ground-glass images obtained in folding and other types of cameras show the image upside down), and visible to the moment of exposure. Such cameras are provided with a special type of shutter, called the Focal Plane Shutter, which works at very high speeds. The Reflex camera, of which the Graflex and its various prototypes are the best examples, is especially adapted for the photographing of moving objects, children and scenes of everyday life.