For those of you who have no idea of what a view camera is, think of Ansel Adams. Although using a view camera will not turn any of us into Ansel Adams, there are a number of reasons a view camera produces better images than the modern digital camera. For this article I’ll ignore the technical advantages of large film formats, tilting lens & film planes, etc. and concentrate on the effect of having a limited number of exposures available to the photographer.
A typical view camera uses a film holder that contains 2 pieces of film. To take a picture the photographer locks the lens open and views the scene on a ground glass located at the film plane. By the way it takes some getting use to – the image is up side down. Since most of the lenses are fairly slow, the image is dim – the only way to see it is to drape a hood over the camera & photographer. Once the image is composed, the lens is closed, stopped down to the desired f stop, the shutter speed set (all with an external light meter – view cameras don’t have auto focus, auto exposure, etc.) and the film holder slid into the back of the camera replacing the ground glass. A slide that was covering the sheet of film is removed, the shutter tripped, the slide replaced, and the film holder removed. If the photographer wants another image, the film holder is flipped over & the second sheet is available. A second film holder is used for the next two exposures. At the end of the session the individual sheets of film are processed & printed, usually by the photographer.
The reason for describing this long involved process is for you to consider the effect this system has on the photographer. It would be rare for the photographer to carry very many film holders (remember this could be an 8″ X 10″ camera with each holder weighing a couple of pounds) so the total number of images made during a photo session is limited. Compare that with a modern consumer digital camera that holds hundreds of images, or the Casio EXILIM Pro EX-F1, a 6 megapixel camera that takes full size images at 60 frames per second, and 1200 fps in a 336X96 pixel low resolution mode.
Because of the limited number of exposures available, the view camera photographer must spend more time considering the composition of the image than one taking dozens of frames with a 35mm film or digital camera. Although a good roll film or digital photographer will also spend time composing their images, it is human nature to fire away & figure at least one of the results will be “the perfect picture.” The advent of motor drives on film cameras & “continuous high speed shutter release” available on many point & shoot as well as most DSLRs has been a tremendous boon to the action sports & wildlife photographer where the subject is always moving, but, it not used with care, result in tens or even hundreds of poorly composed images of the same thing.
The solution is to pretend the first image you shoot of a scene is your only chance. Take the time to check the camera settings, look for interesting camera angles, frame the image using the techniques discussed in previous “Taking Better Pictures” articles here at RV Blog.net and what you have learned by viewing images made by experts, and then take your first image. After that, feel free to fire away. When you view the images, you will probably determine the first image is better than the rest.
I’d be the first one to agree that the ability to take thousands of frames on a 1/2 ounce compact flash card has its advantages if you are carrying everything on your back, but don’t let the huge number of images you can take get in the way of spending the time necessary to properly compose your image.