You can pick up Crown or Speed Graphic (4x5) these days for a
halfway reasonable price if you take your time.
I cut my teeth on a Crown Graphic and absolutely love that
camera. There are just enough lens movements to get by with
perspective control and the camera is designed to be used with
or without the ground-glass.
One super-cool feature the press cameras had was the lighted
rangefinder focusing aid. At night you had a light which shone
down through the rangefinder and projected two dots on your
subject. You were in focus when you got both dots merged
together.
The Graphics have a nice feature in that the focusing rails have
pre-stops for pulling the lens/bellows out and hitting the
standard marks without having to recalibrate the focus every
time you opened the camera up.
My wife and I watched "Evita" the other night and I had to laugh
at how the "photographers" were using the press cameras. The
bellows were cranked out so far that the focus point must have
been about three inches. Made for good visuals, but not
realistic. They made the same mistake filming "The Right
Stuff".
I've never used them, but I'm told that these "ready-packs" of
4x5 film are the way to go. Beats loading and carrying film
backs and changing bags.
4x5 Crowns and Speeds are realy in a world of their own. There
are "copies" in different formats, and from other manufacturers,
but the original still rules.
And they have lots of chrome!
AG-Schnozz
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