TOOLS FOR THE JOB

Choosing his tools is something that any photographer must go about wisely.   The choice of camera will have a great influence on the results produced.   Today it is all too easy to let someone else take this decision for us, but this would be a mistake as one might finish up with several gadgets and facilities which do not help in the production of artistic photographs.

The basic elements of the camera have remained unchanged from the beginning of photography.   These are the camera body protecting the light sensitive surface, a lens with stops for controlling the volume of light to be admitted and a shutter mechanism to control the time for which the sensitive surface is to be exposed to light.

The size of the camera body depends on the type of sensitive surface format used.   Large film plates were used initially, but roll film was introduced soon after.   Smaller roll film sizes reduced the size of the cameras, until 35 mm film as used in the motion picture industry was introduced in 36 exposure cassettes and the miniature camera came into existence.  Other formats, which arrived later, were the cartridge loading 126 and sub miniature 110 sizes and more recently disc film.   Without doubt, the most successful has been 35 mm film in cassettes, and one tends to assume that today a serious photographer will make a start using this format.   This size has the advantage of being in widespread use and since virtually all emulsion types are available, it gives the photographer great flexibility and scope for creative work.   The small size also allows extreme portability and ease of use.

The camera lens will have a great bearing on the final results of the photographer’s work.   The basic optical research necessary to produce lenses of excellent quality has been done more than fifty years ago and so good lenses are easy to come by and not expensive at all.   An excellent basic lens in a 35 mm camera would have four elements and a maximum aperture of f: 2.8 with a focal length of about 45 mm.   Such a lens would be capable of resolving detail to the limit imposed by the film grain size at all apertures and would also be free from distortion to a large extent.   It would maintain this quality within a focussing range of 1 metre to infinity.

The shutter of the camera will be a piece of mechanical engineering, either incorporated in the lens itself, or at the focal plane just in front of the film.   The most useful shutter speeds range from 1/10 second up to 1/500 second.   Other speeds are only used in specialised work.   However, a “B” setting is very desirable, as I will have the occasion to mention later.

So, a serious photographer would start with a camera similar to the above description.   Two important accessories are a rangefinder and an exposure meter.   These can be usefully incorporated in the camera design and can be mechanically coupled with the camera controls.   There are also minor details which are however of importance in a camera.   A wise photographer will see that his camera will have a standard cable-release socket, a standard co-axial synchronisation socket, a standard accessory shoe on top of the camera and a tripod bush placed centrally at the bottom.

In case one wonders what a camera with the above specification would cost, I think that he does not need to worry.   High prices are only linked with specialised cameras having built-in electronic brains and numerous gadgets, which are not needed by our aspiring photographer at the present moment.   I dare say he would spend about the same amount of money for an artist’s easel, paint brushes and a set of colours.   The rest of the money will go towards buying the canvas – sorry, I mean film stock!

RL 24/4/85