11Evolution of the View Camera
11.1 Early Innovations
If the crude early camera that consisted of a tripod-mounted box containing a lens and a ground glass is considered to be the prototype of the modern view camera, one of the first refinements was a device for changing the lens-to-ground-glass distance. Telescoping metal tubes on the lens mount, with a simple set screw or a rack-and-pinion device, enabled the photographer to focus on objects at different distances.
An 1857 camera with this focusing adjustment is illustrated in Figure 11-1. This camera also has the unusual feature for a box camera of being collapsible.
The importance of being able to make more drastic changes in lens-to-ground-glass distance to accommodate different focal ...
Get View Camera Technique, 7th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
