THE PLEASURES OF A SMALL CAMERA 



By R. S. KELLOGG 



XN THIS day of take-down guns, condensed foods, and pocket editions, 

 the small, high-powered camera fills a distinct need. The camper who 

 goes into new country with his outfit on his back, the tourist who is 

 already loaded with luggage, the scientist who carries necessarily heavy instru- 

 ments, the everyday lover of the outdoors all these observers find many a 

 bit of scenery, many a tree or waterfall, rock or habitation, which they would 

 give much to reproduce later at home, in ofiSce, laboratory or school room. To 

 such as these, mere weight and bulk forbid the use of the ordinary camera, 

 plates and tripod, which have long been thought essential to the production 

 of good pictures. And to them the small, light, high-powered, fixed-focus, film 

 camera has a wide range of pleasure and usefulness. Such a camera is always 

 ready for action; it cm be snapped almost as quickly as a gun can be fired 

 and with as much acLuracy. It is sighted like a gun, the object is seen at 

 the instant of exposure, and bodies in motion are taken as readily as those 

 at rest. 



Moreover, such an instrument fills the long-felt want of a camera which 

 will give depth and definition in snapshots and even on cloudy days. Its 

 possessor is, therefore, much less limited by conditions and obtains a much 

 larger percentage of good negatives than is possible with the old-style 

 machines. None but the professional photographer who waits until every 

 condition is exactly right can hope to get perfect results. The rest of us 

 want an instrument that will record fairly well the passing scene at the 

 instant we happen along; we can't wait for conditions to become favorable 

 the shot must be made then or not at all. With our old cameras we kept 

 snapping away and trusting to luck for occasional good results. With the new 

 kind we do better and are content to sacrifice size of negative for depth and 

 definition under conditions that formerly gave neither. 



Now we have an instrument weighing only two and one-half pounds, case 

 and all, that we can carry anywhere and at any time, that works well under 

 adverse conditions, which gives negatives that can be greatly enlarged if 

 desired and which are especially adapted to making slides and illustrating 

 articles. After carrying large cameras for a long time, the writer is thoroughly 

 converted to the use of a small one. He prefers the l%x2l^ to the 5x7 for 

 several reasons, but chiefly because he gets many pictures that with a larger 

 instrument he would not have gotten at all. The camera is taken along now 

 where it was formerly left at home, and the size of the negative is of little 

 importance if quality be present. 



The accompanying samples partially show the possibilities of the small 

 hand camera. All of them are snapshots, the exposures varying from 1-30 

 to 1-500 of a second. The first four were taken on a day of complete cloudi- 

 ness, the others in bright sunshine. 



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