The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-21
HANDLING A
CAMERA.
The Author of "The Confessions
of an Amateur" Gives Advice.
He Tells Many Things That Are Of Interest to
Thcss Who Want to Push the Button
and Let Some One Else Do the Rest

HgHOTOGRAPHY without the hand
fa camera might have remained, so far
ES"S as the amateur is concerned, hobby
Of limited popularity. 1t would have
been more than mere fad" but would
scarcely have captured the popular affection.
When the hand camera came the fate OF
photography was settled. 1t remained only
question of time when everybody would
be an amateur photographer. writes Alex
ander Black, author of The Confessions Of
an Amateur" in an article recently con
tributed to Wide Awake.
Isn't it plain that you simply have TO AIM
and press the trigger, and everything is done
with? There was a mischievous rascal Of
an amateur out West who captured an old
professors picture with his detective"
The negative was developed, a print made
and mounted. A few days later this rascal
met the professor again and made pre-
tense of swapping the professor when the
victim was looking. Then he said: "Pro-
fessor, did you ever see one of tn ese remark
able inventions? They take picture and
finish it right up on the spot"
"ls that SOP" said the professor in aston
iShment.
Then the amateur, after a few passes with
the mechanism of the camera, pulled the
finished print he had previously made from
to the professor the counterfeit presentment
of himself. To say that the professor was
astOnlshed is putting 1t mildly
TIE HAND CAMERA.
There is, in fact, an impression among
people who have not investigated the hand
camera a superstition that there IS some
mechanical magic about it, Requests to
make "shots' indoors and in places alto
gether wanting in sufficient illumination
show clearly that the necessity for light,
and plenty of it, is not at all understood.
1t is difficult to explain to the uninitlatcd why
if railway train car be easily photographed
at hundred yards, trotting horse cannot
be as easily taken at twenty-five feet Am
bilious young people arm themselves with
detectives " and spoil good many pack
ages of precious plates before they find out
that photography, even with detective
camera, is not so easy as it first appears.
The fact is, of course, that the speed and
capacity are in the lens and plate, regard
less of which camera they may be placed In.
The glass of which lenses are made Is not
| all Of equal tranSparency-not all of equal
| power in transmitting the light that flashes
| through the opening. But the difference be-
| tween one lens and another, SO far as mere
| speed is concerned, Is very slight. The
! greater difference is in the plate-ln the
! sensitive surface that receives the impress
sion. The difference between hand cam
| era and tripod camera is not in the plate
| or lens, for the same sort OF lenses and
| plates that are used in one may be used
| in the other. The popularity of the
| detective camera is that it is made TO get
! along without tripod, to focus BY mathe-
NAUTICAL device, to determine the location OF
| the image on the plate by the aid OF find
| err or camera obscura attachment. But all
| Of these Improvements are sometimes used
| on tripod cameras, and even the automatic
| shutter or exp0ser that opens and closes the
! aperture of the hand camera lens Is the same
in principle as the shutters used for lnstan-
| taneouS views with the ordinary camera. SO
| that the expression Instantaneous camera"
| does not mean anything at all. Any camera
| becomes an instantaneous camera that con-
| tains an instantaneous or rapid plate.
| FOCUS.
It is generally considered necessary that
| hand camera should have lens with as
short a focus as possible. Many portable
cameras contain lenses having what is
| called universal focuS-that is, that require
no focusing Tor different distances. Every
| thing beyond few feet will be evenly in 10
| Gus. The trouble with these lenses is that
! they distort things frightfuly. Near objects
are very large and distant objects are very
| small. An ordinary room Is made to look
| as long as public gallery. A lens that re-
| quires some focusing will give better proper
| tons, and the shorter the focus the easier
| will be the general chances in focusing.
| Many skilled workers prefer long-focuS
| hand-camera lens for various reasons, bnt
| the beginner will succeed better with the kind
/ have suggested.
A very useful table of distances for use
| with detective cameras has been prepared by
DR.. j. j. Higgins This table, prepared
| with the standard 'sf' openings in the dia-
| phragms, gives five different focal distances,
| and shows the distance in feet for which a
| camera may be set in order to have all OBJ
| jects beyond in focus. Here is the table: