Obviously photo journalists used it to great acclaim, a number of Pulitzer prize winning photos were taken with them. But did photographers use them for landscapes, portraits, etc?
I think the largest format Speed Graphic was a 5x7, a lot smaller than the 8x10 large format film used by a lot of artists.
Could you shoot wet or dry process glass plates with them?
Dennis
Being able to use wet or dry plates is usually a hallmark of view cameras as you need to change the entire back of the camera to convert from shooting film.
Press cameras, OTOH, are built for the perils and tumbles of life on the run, so to speak. Some models did have ground glass focusing screens that you’d remove and replace with the film pack to take a shot, but the amount of time this took makes it highly probable that you’ll miss the shot completely. Usually, the photographer would rely on depth of field to produce a usable image. If you’re shooting 5x7 or 4x5 film and the photo will be printed in a newspaper at some smaller size, you can “get away” with a lot of off-exposure or soft focus, especially when your task was to get ANYTHING usable.
Press cameras have their fans today - there are plenty of photographers using them as “low-end” view cameras, especially for portraits and landscapes where they can put the camera on a tripod and take their time composing and focusing. They’re perhaps not so good for architecture shots as they don’t have all of the lens/back movements of a view camera.
I was a photographer in junior high school back in the late 50’s. I used a speed graphic that belonged to o e of the teachers. Usually with a 120 roll film adaptor, sometimes with a Polaroid back. Only used sheet film once or twice.
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