4x5 Press Camera

The view camera was one of the earliest camera designs and among serious photographers and hobbyists is still very much alive and well today.  Particularly the 4×5 view camera has a prominent place in the modern film camera market.  There are a lot of reasons for this including freedom for creativity and quality of the photographs.

So what exactly is a 4×5 view camera?  Even though most people used to dealing with digital cameras would find a view camera extremely complex, the truth is the complete opposite.  At it’s basis it’s the simplest a camera with a lens can get.  Very basically it consists of a front standard, a rear standard, a set of bellows in between and a lens.  The front standard is where the lens is mounted and where the shutter (typically inside of all modern lenses) is located.  The flexible bellows provide a light tight expandable and contractable space between the front and rear standards.  And the rear standard at the back of the camera is where the film is held for exposure.  Of course most cameras have a few more parts, particular modern cameras, but this is the typical layout.

The 4×5 part of 4×5 view camera is simply the size film it uses and the size negative which is produced.  4×5 is the most popular due to it’s ease of use and price but view cameras come in many sizes such as 5×7, 8×10, 11×14, 12×20 and many more, not to mention custom sizes.  But 4×5 film can, unlike most of these others, be fairly readily found at most specialty stores and processed for less than a fortune.

Now to complicate somewhat that simplistic view I laid out above, there are a couple of different basic types of 4×5 view camera.

The first type is known as a monorail camera.  This is the type of view camera that’s typically used in a studio.  In this design the front and rear standards are both attached to a single central rail which allow them to slide back and forth for focusing.  Monorail 4×5 cameras typically have a far greater range of moment and are more appropriate for doing many types of technical shots, including macrophotography, than their counterparts.  The downside is that they are usually quite heavy and cumbersome as well as not being very compact for carrying.  Sinar is one company that produces mainly monorail cameras

The other type of 4×5 camera is known as a field camera.  It basically reverses the advantages and disadvantages of the monorail type camera.  While a 4×5 field camera lacks somewhat in movements it is usually far lighter and easier to handle than a monorail.  In addition, the field camera can typically be folded up to quite small dimensions for comfortably toting around.  This is the camera of choice for landscape photographers.  Camera makers such as Toyo have a good line of field cameras.