ABSTRACT
Various methods have been used during the evolution of the view camera for replacing the ground glass with the light-sensitive plate or film after completing the composing and focusing operations. Of all the adjustments on the more versatile modern view cameras, the tilt and swing movements of the lens and the rising and shifting movements of the back were the last to be widely incorporated by view camera manufacturers. It has always been easy to modify cameras to make negatives smaller than the cameras originally were designed for. If the crude early camera that consisted of a tripod-mounted box containing a lens and a ground glass is considered to be the prototype of the modern view camera. Slow lenses and slow sensitized materials used with early view cameras precluded the need for instantaneous shutters, and the exposure time could be controlled with sufficient accuracy by removing and replacing the lens cap.
