CAMERAS 93 



The tripod is a necessity in all except candid and sports photography. The tripod 

 must be chosen for the function it is to perform. If it is to support a small camera 

 for a single shot, it need not be so heavy or so stable as the tripod which must support 

 a heavy camera such as that used for making color-separation negatives. For the 

 small camera the metal folding tripods are suitable, those made in the Orient excepted. 

 In nearly every case these Oriental tripods are "weak in the knees." They must be 

 chosen with extreme care. A 9- by 12-cm. camera can be supported on a metal 

 telescopic tripod for a single shot, but, if separation negatives are to be made, a 

 sturdier support is needed. In this case where three exposures must be made from 

 exactly the same point of view, a wooden tripod of heavy construction is recommended. 



The tripod will tend to slip along the floor or surface less if its legs make a fairly 

 large angle with the floor or ground. On the other hand, it will tend to move less 

 when changing films, etc., if the angle with the ground or floor is small, i.e., if the 

 tripod legs are well spread out. Rubber feet are useful on floors; spokes are advisable 

 when the tripod is to be used out of doors. 



Hand cameras as purchased are usually supplied with three plateholders. These 

 are metal single plateholders into which cut-film sheaths may be placed. Reducing 

 sheaths are available for these metal plateholders. These sheaths fit into the slots 

 where the plates ordinarily fit, and the sheaths themselves have grooves into which 

 the cut film may be used. A film-pack adapter is merely a holder made of metal, 

 usually, with an extension on the rear into which the film pack may be placed. 



Folding roll-film cameras are seldom equipped with plateholders or detachable 

 backs into which cut film, plates, or film-pack adapters may be placed. Studio or 

 view cameras employ film or plateholders habitually. These are usually made of 

 wood and are made in forms which will take either plates or films. In those which 

 hold plates, film sheaths may be placed so that either plates or films may be employed. 

 Therefore the plateholder is more universally useful than the holder adapted only 

 for cut film. 



Wooden plate or film holders tend to warp in damp places; metal holders tend to 

 rust. 



Synchronized flash guns are devices which enable the photographer to fire off a 

 flash bulb at the same instant the shutter of his camera is opened. In principle they 

 are all alike although the practical application of the several types may differ. 

 When the shutter release is pushed to the point where the shutter is opened an 

 electrical contact is made. Such devices are generally used with between-lens shutters 

 and not with focal-plane shutters. In the latter type of shutter, the various portions 

 of the film or plate are exposed in sequence as the shutter opening moves across the 

 image plane. The photographer is likely to find on his negative only a portion of 

 the expected picture when the focal-plane type of shutter is used, unless the syn- 

 chronized device is properly engineered with this type of shutter in mind. 



A lens shade is an accessory that is little used, but which should be in every 

 photographer's kit. Many a photograph, taken slightly against the light, which has 

 turned out to be rather hazy would have been sharp if a lens hood or shade had been 

 used. 



CAMERA-OBJECT RELATIONSHIPS 



The material in this chapter, up to this point, deals with the physical equipment 

 by which photographs are made. Good pictures, however, depend not only upon the 

 equipment but upon the manner in which this equipment is used. Much depends 

 upon where the camera was placed when the exposure was made, e.g., how close to or 

 how far from the object. It is here, and in other matters, that the photographer must 

 use judgment; and, while this handbook is concerned almost exclusively with physical 



