Types of view camera There are several types of view camera for different purposes and allowing different degrees of movement and portability They include Monorail camera This is the most common type of studio view camera with the front and rear standards being mounted to a Single Rail that is fixed to a camera support This design allows the greatest range of movements and flexibility with both front and rear standards able to tilt shift rise fall and swing in similar proportion These are generally made of metal with leather or synthetic bellows and are difficult to pack for travel Sinar and Toyo are popular manufacturers of monorail view camera systems ARCA Swiss produces monorail cameras for field use in addition to models for the more conventional studio applications Many manufacturers also offer monorail extensions which permit the front or rear standards to move further away from each other allowing for focus on very close objects macrophotography Field camera These have the front and rear standard mounted on sliding rails fixed to a hinged flat bed that is fixed to a camera support tripod etc These cameras are usually made of wood or sometimes lightweight and strong composites such as carbon fiber When the bellows is fully retracted the flat bed can be folded up reducing the camera to a relatively small light and portable box The price for this portability is that the standards are not as mobile or as adjustable as those of a monorail design the rear standard in particular may be fixed and offer no movement These large format but transportable cameras are popular with landscape photographers Tachihara and Wisner are examples of modern field cameras at opposite ends of the price scale Extremely large field cameras using 1114 film and larger or panoramic film sizes such as 410 or 820 are sometimes referred to as banquet cameras and were used to photograph large posed groups of people to mark an occasion such as a banquet or a wedding Studio and salon cameras are similar to field cameras but do not fold up for portability Press and technical cameras are true view cameras as almost all of them have a ground glass integral to the film holder mechanism that allows critical focus and full use of the sometimes limited movements More expensive examples had a wide array of movements as well as focusing and compositing aids like rangefinders and viewfinders They are most often made of metal designed to fold up quickly for portability used by press photographers before and during the second world war A more modern development in the highly portable Sinar arTec view camera which fails to fit within any of the above criteria and was designed primarily to be used by achitectural photographers It has the novel ability to take panoramic stitched images by means of built in step and repeat mechanism View cameras use large format sheet film using one sheet per photograph Standard sizes in inches are 45 57 410 512 810 1114 717 820 1220 and 2024 It is usual to list the short side first in the Americas and the long side in many other countries thus 45 is the same as 54 A similar but not identical range of metric sizes is used in many countries thus 912 cm is similar to but not interchangeable with 45 inches The most widely used format is 45 followed by 810 A few rollfilm cameras have movements that make them as versatile as a sheet film view camera Rollfilm and instant film backs are available to use in place of a sheetfilm holder on a single film camera Movements Photographers use view cameras to control focus and convergence of parallel lines Image control is done by moving the front and or rear standards Movements are the ways the front and rear standards can be positioned to alter perspective and focus The term can also refer to the mechanisms on the standards that allow the position to be achieved Not all cameras have all movements available to both the front and rear standards and some cameras have more movements available than others Some cameras have mechanisms that make intricate movement combinations easier for the photographer Some limited view camera type movements are possible with SLR cameras using various perspective control lenses Also as use of view cameras declines in favor of digital photography these movements are being simulated using computer software Rise and fall Front Standard Rise Rise and fall are the movements of either the front or rear standard vertically along a line in a plane parallel to the film plane Rise is a very important movement especially in architectural photography Generally the lens is moved verticallyither up or downlong the lens plane in order to change the portion of the image that will be captured on the film In the 35 mm format special shift lenses emulate the rise or fall of view cameras The main effect of rise is to eliminate converging parallels when photographing tall buildings If a camera without movements is pointed at a tall building the top will be cut off if the camera is tilted upwards to get it all in the film plane will not be parallel to the building and the building will seem narrower at the top than the bottom lines which are parallel in the object will converge in the image To avoid this apparent distortion a wide angle lens will get more of the building in but will include more of the foreground and alter the perspective A camera with rising front allows a normal lens to be raised to include the top of the building without tilting the camera This requires the image circle of the lens to be larger than is required to cover the film without use of movements If the lens can produce a circular image just large enough to cover the film it will no longer cover the bottom of the film as it rises Consequently the lens coverage must be larger if rises and falls and shifts are to be used In Figure a below images are upside down as a photographer would see them on the ground glass of a view camera the lens is in the ormal position Notice that much of the unwanted foreground is included but not the top of the tower In Figure b the lens has been shifted up the top of the tower is now inside the area captured on film at the sacrifice of unwanted green foreground Figure a No Rise Figure b After Rise Shift Front Standard Shift Moving the front standard left or right from its normal position is called lens shift or simply shift This movement is similar to rise and fall but moves the image horizontally rather than vertically One use for shift is to remove the image of the camera from the final image when photographing a reflective surface Tilt Front Standard Tilt The axis of the lens is normally perpendicular to the film Changing the angle between axis and film by tilting the lens standard backwards or forwards is called lens tilt or just tilt Tilt is especially useful in landscape photography By using the Scheimpflug principle the lane of sharp focus can be changed so that any plane can be brought into sharp focus When the film plane and lens plane are parallel as is the case for most 35 mm cameras the plane of sharp focus will also be parallel to these two planes If however the lens plane is tilted with respect to the film plane the plane of sharp focus will also be tilted according to geometrical and optical properties The three planes will intersect in a line below the camera for downward lens tilt The tilted plane of sharp focus is very useful in that this plane can be made to coincide with a near and far object Thus both near and far objects on the plane will be in focus This effect is often incorrectly thought of as increasing the depth of field Depth of field depends on the focal length aperture and subject distance As long as the photographer wants sharpness in a plane that is parallel to the film tilt is of no use However tilt has a strong effect on the depth of field by drastically altering its shape making it asymmetrical Without tilt the limits of near and far acceptable focus are parallel to the plane of sharp focus as well as parallel to the film With forward tilt the plane of sharp focus tilts even more and the near and far limits of acceptable focus form a wedge shape viewed from the side Thus the lens still sees a cone shaped portion of whatever is in front of it while the wedge of acceptable focus is now more closely aligned with this cone Therefore depending on the shape of the subject a wider aperture can be used lessening concerns about camera stability due to slow shutter speed and diffraction due to too small aperture The purpose of tilting is to achieve the desired depth of field using the aperture at which the lens used performs best Using too small an aperture risks losing to diffraction and camera or subject motion what one gains from depth of field Only testing a given scene or experience will show whether tilting is better than leaving the standards neutral and relying on the aperture alone to achieve the desired depth of field If the scene is sharp enough at f 32 with 2 degrees of tilt but would need f 64 with zero tilt then tilt is the solution If another scene would need f 45 with or without tilt then nothing is gained See Merklinger and Luong for extensive discussions on determining the optimal tilt if any in challenging situations With a forward tilt the shape of the portion of a scene in acceptable focus is a wedge Thus the scene most likely to benefit from tilting is short in the front and expands to a greater height or thickness toward the horizon A scene consisting of tall trees in the near middle and far distance may not lend itself to tilting unless the photographer is willing to sacrifice either the top of the near trees and or the bottom of the far trees Assuming lens axis front tilt here are the trade offs in choosing between a small degree of tilt say less than 3 and a larger tilt A small tilt causes a wider or fatter wedge but one that is far off axis from the cone of light seen by the lens Conversely a large tilt say 10 degrees causes the wedge to be more aligned with the view of the lens but with a narrower wedge Thus a modest tilt is often or even usually the best starting point Small and medium format cameras have fixed bodies that do not allow for misalignment of the film and lens planes intentionally or not Tilt shift S or perspective control C lenses that provide limited movements for these cameras can be purchased from a number of lens makers High quality TS or PC lenses are quite expensive the price of a new Canon TS E or Nikon PC E lens is comparable to that of a good used large format camera which offers a much greater range of adjustment Swing Front Standard Swing Altering the angle of the lens standard in relation to the film plane by swiveling it from side to side is called swing Swing is similar to tilt but in the horizontal axis Swing may be used to achieve sharp focus along the entire length of a picket fence for example Back Tilt Swing Angular movements of the rear standard change the angle between the lens plane and the film plane just as front standard angular movements do Although rear standard tilt will change the plane of sharp focus in the same manner as front standard tilt does this is not usually the reason rear tilt swing is used When a lens is a certain distance its focal length away from the film distant objects such as faraway mountains are in focus Moving the lens farther from the film brings closer objects into focus Tilting or swinging the film plane puts one side of the film farther from the lens than the center is and the opposite point of the film is therefore closer to the lens One reason to swing or tilt the rear standard is to keep the film plane parallel to the face of the object being photographed Another reason to swing or tilt the rear standard is to control apparent convergence of lines when subjects are shot at an angle It is often incorrectly stated that rear movements can be used to change perspective The only thing that truly controls perspective is the location of the camera in relation to the objects in the frame Rear movements can allow a photographer to shoot a subject from a perspective that places him or her at an angle to the subject yet still achieve parallel lines Thus rear movements allow a change of perspective by allowing a different camera location yet no view camera movement will actually alter perspective Lenses Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed January 2008 A view camera lens typically consists of A front lens element sometimes referred to as a cell A shutter which consists of an electronic or spring actuated iris which controls exposure duration Some early shutters were actuated by air For long exposures a lens with no shutter a barrel lens can be uncovered for the duration of the exposure by removing a lens cap The aperture diaphragm A lensboard a flat board typically square in shape and made of metal or wood designed to lock securely into the front standard of a particular view camera with a central hole of the right size to insert a lens and shutter assembly usually secured and made light tight by screwing a ring onto a thread on the rear of the lens assembly Lensboards complete with lenses can be removed and fitted very quickly A rear lens element or cell Almost any lens of the appropriate coverage
