Posted by Les on January 27, 2001 at 21:47:07:
In Reply to: Help to a novice posted by Alex on January 27, 2001 at 19:58:45:
I guess I'm confused as to your confusion. Kalart side mounted rangefinders were a common option in 1949, top mounted finders came along in 1955, although under certain circumstances they made sidemount rangefinder cameras after that.
There was a common sequence to operating a speed graphic that went under the acronymn SAFE
SHUTTER, set the shutter speed either on the focal plane shutter in the back withthe knobs on the side, or the front shutter by adjusting the ring on the lens
APERTURE Set the aperture on the lens.
FOCUS Focus by using the kalart rangefinder to set the lens tothe proper distance and compose the shot by looking through either the optical viewfinder on top or the sports finder by flipping up the peepsight in back and pulling up the wire finder on the front standard.
EXPOSE, expose the film by tripping either the front or rear shutter.
This little memory trick does leave out s few things like making sure you've put film in the film holder and the darkslide has been pulled.
With speed graphics when using the rear shutter the front shutter has to be open, either set to T or using the press focus button on some shutters. Or when using the front shutter, make sure the focal plane shutter in the back is set for "O"