Police Photographers' Equipment

[Mr. Sable]

http://www.icp.org/weegee/ <--were they all like Weegee's?

 

[MrBern]

Well, do to the limitations of publishing back then, most newspapers & magazines really wouldnt want photos made from smaller negatives. Quality had to be at a maximum. And even then most photos went thru a lot fo retouching to ensure separation of the various elements of the image.

And there were very few pro level 35mm cameras back then.
Even in combat, during WWII, the military photogs were humping around those big 4x5 press cameras.

Now th guy who realllly changed most of that was Eisenstadt at LIFE magazine. Eisie made a maximum effort w/ 35mm german Leica cameras to turn out sharp images. Note his famous pic of the Sailor kissing the Nurse in Times Square on VJ day.

And when you look back at the awards for press images, often the photo's information is listed. Usually a 4x5 press camera of some sort, occasionally a 120 roll film like a Rollei or SuperIkonta, and rather infrequently, a 35mm from a contax or leica.

Weegee used a Speed Graphic w/ a slightly wide lens so he could step in closer than the other reporters.
-bernard

 

[Doctor Strange]

MrBern pretty much covered this, but the short answer is yes, the 4x5 Speed Graphic was *the* professional camera - not just for police work, but for most serious applications - throughout America well into the 1950s. It's true that from the mid-1930s onward, some fashion and sports guys were using rollfilm Rolleiflexes, and 35mm rangefinders by Leica and Contax were gradually coming into use for candid work a la Alfred Eisenstadt and Henri Cartier-Bresson. But 4x5 cameras (and even larger 5x7 and 8x10 cameras!) largely ruled for press, military, police, scientific, portraiture, and most commercial use.

My Dad is an old-school pro, having fooled around with photography since before WWII, and he had his own commerical business from 1946 until very recently. I can tell you from personal experience that he used 4x5 sheet film for *every* important job until well into the 1970s - our medium format cameras only got used for catalog jobs where the images would be run very small, and our Nikons just for things like liquor-license photos, informal environmental portraits, newspaper coverage of minor local stuff... and our own vacation photos!

If you're interested in this sort of thing, check out this article on vintage cameras that I wrote a while back:

http://www.porthalcyon.com/features/200410/cameras.shtml

 

[Mr. Sable]

Thanks, fellas! Much appreciated.

 

[MrBern]

Fine article DoctorStrange.

btw, heres something from the NYTimes earlier this week.Current photographer using an old 4x5 in addition to his digital gear.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/technology/circuits/08schiesel.html



-bernard

 

[db5zx]

As has been stated before, the Graflex Speed Graphic or later the Crown Graphic were *the* camera to use. And I have to say, these cameras still are top of the line, even when they are 60 years or older. I own two 1941 Speed Graphics myself, including flash unit, and just a few weeks ago, for my dad's 60th birthday, I took a lot of pictures with one of the cameras. And I have to say, the images are perfect. Sharp, bright, better than any 35mm negative of today.

Jens

 

[MrBern]

hey....Kodak just announced that its killing good old fashioned B&W print paper cuz so many people have gone digital.
8(
end of an era.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050616/ap_on_bi_ge/kodak_paper_8

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yeah, I saw this yesterday on photo.net. It's downright hard to conceive that it's really happening. It's awfully sad...

In my own case, other pros that are friends with my Dad who have been giving up darkroom work in favor of digital have been passing their unused paper and chemistry to us for the last couple of years. I've now got a supply that should last me pretty much indefinitely, unless I start doing *vastly* more photography!

 

[Andykev]

Photos

As has been stated before, the Graflex Speed Graphic or later the Crown Graphic were *the* camera to use. And I have to say, these cameras still are top of the line, even when they are 60 years or older. I own two 1941 Speed Graphics myself, including flash unit, and just a few weeks ago, for my dad's 60th birthday, I took a lot of pictures with one of the cameras. And I have to say, the images are perfect. Sharp, bright, better than any 35mm negative of today.

Jens

I have a famous professional photographer lives around the corner from me. He says the old large format cameras do take nice pictures, but the film, processing, and labs are very expensive. I believe he said the film (4X5) or so costs ** $5 ** per photo. So you have to have a need to have a large negative for doing special work in the developer's lab. He swears that the digital stuff today is far sharper, and you can manipulate it with compluters for flawless pictures.


By the way, this is my neighbor: http://www.stephenjosephphoto.com/info/infopage.htm

 

[MrBern]

Well yeah, digital is cheaper & you could manipulate it if you have the skillz and all that gear, but theres a reason why those old weegee shots look so good. So much of today's work can be visually bland beyond the subject matter.
In the NYTimes article I previously posted, the point is made immediately that theres a different quality to The old SpeedGraphic that was more impressive than the professional digital cameras used in the same situation.
A photog has to pick the tool most appropriate for the situation. Its nice that some will go to greater effort & expense to really make something really high quality.

 

[Scuffy]

If you guys are interested in the nuances of B&W photography you might want to check out www.apug.org. Its a great photography forum. I happened to get the addy out of a magazine I get occasionally (B&W Magazine- natch!). Anywho.

They are great guys, and if you have any questions whatso ever they'll be the ones to answer it, and in a hurry! I happened to want to get ahold of some B&W infrared film that Ilford recently stopped producing and everywhere I looked had been sold out. So I asked these guys and after just a couple hours they gave the link to a place that bulk rolls of it off their own larger bulk rolls. And for $18 a 150' roll I couldn't pass it up!

The photogs there run the gamut when it comes to equipment. Some still use the extremely large format like 11"x14" as well as 4"x5", others are using the 35mm and medium format, still others on the forum still use Minox and subminiature films. Digital is also on the scene- allbeit B&W of course.

The site is not mine, but needless to say it's probably one of my favorites where photography is concerned. It's a fun place!