Press camera

A press camera is a medium or large format view camera that was predominantly used by press photographers in the early to mid-20th century. It was largely replaced for press photography by 35mm film cameras in the 1960s, and subsequently, by digital cameras. The quintessential press camera was the Speed Graphic. Press cameras are still used as portable and rugged view cameras.

Press cameras were widely used from the 1900s through the early 1960s and commonly have the following features:

Some models have both a focal plane shutter and an iris lens shutter. The focal plane shutter allows for fast shutter speeds and the use of lenses which do not have an integral shutter (known as a barrel lens), while the iris shutter allows for flash synchronization at any speed. The Graphlex Speed Graphic models and the Ihagee Zweiverschluss ("two shutters") Duplex are examples of press cameras that had both focal plane and iris shutters.

The most common sheet film size for press cameras was the 4×5 inch film format. Models have also been produced for the 2.25×3.25 inch format (6×9 cm), 3.25×4.25 inch format and various 120 film formats from 6×6 cm. through 6×12 cm. European press cameras, such as the Goerz and Van Neck, used the 9x12cm format, marginally smaller than the 4"×5" format.

The press camera is still used as a portable medium or large format film camera for photojournalism and among fine art photographers who use it as a low cost, more portable alternative to a view camera. In news photography, the press camera has been largely supplanted by the smaller formats of 120 film and 135 film, and more recently by digital cameras. The advantage of the 4x5 inch format over 35 mm format is that the size of the film negative is 16 times that of a 35 mm film negative image.

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