This is one of the cameras I've used to take photographs. Using a camera like this is a great way to really learn the art of photography. I wore a dark cloth that covered my head, shoulders and the back end of the camera so that I could see the image on the 4 inch by 5 inch ground glass that's used to compose and focus the image. The image is upside down and reversed left to right which forces you to really look at it. This helps quite a bit in composing the photograph. The dark cloth also eliminates outside distractions so I could concentrate on what I was doing.
The lens and film can be tilted up and down, shifted side to side, raised up and down with respect to each other and the world around it. This allows for quite a bit of control over the image focus and perspective distortion. There is also no built in light meter, so I used a hand held spot meter and made notes of the light in different parts of the scene to determine the exposure to be used for the photograph. Photograph by Rick Scott.
Updated: 23 November 2003