8. 35 mm Cameras

So 35mm camera is all you have and you want to know where you stand  in this business of candid wedding photography. If your camera lens will reproduce eyes clearly in a twelve foot flash shot, you are equipped to shoot. By today's high standards this is but a minimum requirement for the medium-priced camera. Top-priced cameras no longer hold a monopoly on fine picture making. Negatives from a Leica M-3 or the very much less expensive Konica III, or the Retina IIC are equal as far as the candid wedding photographer is concerned.

How do prices range for good 35mm cameras? All the way from about $50 up into the $400-$500 bracket. In between, however, are many fine cam­eras at medium prices. Today you can get a precision 35mm camera with five-element, f/2.8 lens for about $70-$100; or a camera with a six-element f/1.9 or f/2 lens for between $100 and $120. Many of the best buys are made in Japan.

About Lenses

Paradoxically, it was misuse of the older f/2 (and faster) lenses that did much to compromise the reputation of the 35mm camera. Even now, the higher price of a faster lens does not predicate sharper pictures. Fast or super-fast lenses are intended for just one purpose—as an indispensable tool for the man who must shoot under low-light level conditions. Used wide open an f/1.4 lens does not provide the resolution of a good f/3.5 wide open. (Elgeet's intro­duction of a mass-produced aspheric movie lens gives promise of greater resolution at open apertures for high-speed lenses of the future.)

The average amateur has the mistaken notion that the faster and conse­quently more expensive the lens, the sharper the picture. It takes him time to concede that this impressive hunk of glass for which he paid an arm and a leg, is less critical at maximum aperture than his old f/3.5 or f/4.5; and that come to think of it, he has very little use for larger lens openings than f/5.6. At the other end of the scale are the inexpensive cameras with their ineffectual two- and mediocre three-element lenses. They, too, have done much to belittle the reputation of the "35."

Picture Quality and the "35"

Now for the final degradation. . . . The 35mm, unlike its bigger brother the roll film negative, is small and of a sensitive character. Farmed off to the uncaring hands of the local drug store, forsaken by its parent, fed a diet of harsh solutions—is it any wonder that the 35mm frame develops into a grainy and gray picture?

Is it all hopeless? Not by a long shot. There is one shining light—the advanced amateur (and, of course, that glamorous creature, the professional who works with a "35"). Experience has taught him that the slower f/8.5 or f/2.8 is fast enough for flash or daylight exposures. His solutions are fresh and his exposures close. He is the exception who proves by pictures and not talk that a sharp 8x10 or 11x14, without objectionable grainmess, can be made with material stocked by the neighborhood stationery or drug store—Plus-X and Microdol. With Panatomic-X, brother, give him room—he's out for the large and not the economy sizes.

To prove this point of quality, along with a bunch of 8x10 candid pic­tures made from 4x5 or roll film negatives, include several made from 35mm Plus-X developed in Microdol. The average person will look at them as pic­tures, noting no difference. The professional would be splitting hairs in point­ing out the slight graininess.

Pros and Cons

Then why not use a "35" for black and white candids? I don't have to! I have other cameras that will do the job better. Remember, this is my liveli­hood, so why should I do it the hard way? You are the boy with one camera. I say you are equipped, or better still can get along with the "35". Certainly the elongated 35mm frame is not a comfortable shape for making 8xl0's. Packaged 20 exposure film is no cheaper per shot than film for 2¼x2¼ ex­posures and little cheaper in the 36. For me, there is a slight difference in weight, but no mechanical advantage in a "35" over the reflexes I use. Tele-photo and extreme wide angle lenses are not essential for shooting a candid wedding. The one most enviable advantage with the "35" is fewer film changes with the 20 or 36 exposure magazine.

In terms of a hobby you are set. For weddings, I do not recommend the "35", other than as a useful piece of supplementary equipment. With an f/2 or faster lens, high speed film and powerful medium fine-grain developers, ex­posures of 1/25 (or even action-stopping 1/50 or 1/60) will be possible where use of flash is prohibited as is the case with many churches.

Today's films and developers, plus cameras of watchlike precision have made the taking of excellent photographs with 35mm film a simple matter. The "35's" greatest testimonial is its universal acceptance in professional fields. It is the camera of pictorial weeklies, an important tool of fashion illustrators. It is responsible for many of the pictures in your Sunday paper.

For ease of operation this midget has no peer. Its one limitation is film size, and if we admit this limitation and take care in filling our negative and in exposure and development, this obstacle can be satisfactorily surmounted.

Directly applied to candids the more expensive 35mm cameras offer the following mechanical advantages:

1. Ease of handling; principally size of the box.
   
   
2. Fast lenses: f/1.1 to f/3.5. If you do not shoot under low light-level conditions buy an f/2.8 or f/3.5 lens and save a lot of money.
   
   
3. A choice of rangefinder, waist-level reflex, eye-level prism reflex focusing, or the ideal combination of rangefinder and reflex on one camera. In not too bright areas, the rangefinder is faster and more accurate to use.
   
   
4. Tremendous depth of field.
   
   
5. Choice of 20 or 36 shots in one loading—great for candids as it minimizes the nuisance of reloading.
   
   
6. Interchangeably of lenses:   wide  angle  and telephoto,  provide  an almost limitless versatility.

a—Use the wide angle (35mm) for the close areas of smaller rooms. b—Use the telephoto (85 or 135mm) for % length portraits.

However, accessory lenses are not indispensable; the photographer shoot­ing a candid wedding and using flash can get along with a "normal 45mm to 58mm focal length and a maximum aperture of f/3.5. But, if I were given a choice of just one lens, I would select the less restricting 35mm focal-length as the most comfortable lens for shooting candids. Admittedly, there is some danger of distortion with a shorter-than-“normal" focal-length but it is nothing that a little care won't circumvent. With wide-angle lenses, make certain your flash reflector will cover a 65-degree angle of view. The 35mm lens with a 35mm camera is no less "normal" than the popular combination of 127mm lens (made to cover 3¼x4¼)and 4x5 camera.

The "35V Shutter

The focal-plane shutter is common with cameras that provide for inter­changeable lenses as in the Leica, Contax, Nikon and others. Top speeds of 1/500 or 1/1000 are usual. Because of its construction and operation, the focal-plane shutter cannot be used with electronic flash at speeds higher than 1/25 or 1/50 second. And the focal-plane shutter is usually not compatible with Class M No. 5 or 25 bulbs at speeds above 1/25 and 1/50. An FP (focal plane) flashbulb must be used at fast shutter speeds. Indoors with electronic flash, the slow shutter speeds pose no important problem to the wedding photographer. The brief duration of the speedlight (1/500 to 1/2000) and not the shutter determines the exposure. The effect is action-stopping open flash.

Between-the-lens MX shutters are used on cameras with fixed lenses. The Konica III and the Retina IIC are of this class. The X setting is for speedlight; the M for Class M flashbulbs. The No. 5 or No. 25 are two such bulbs. All the new, expensive cameras with between-the-lens MX shutters are fully synchro­nized—meaning, flashbulbs or electronic flash can be used at all shutter speeds.

A third type of shutter, though not yet so popular as the previous two, is the behind-the-Iens type. It is a compromise between the focal plane and the between-the-lens shutter. It is intended to afford the focal plane's ad­vantage of interchangeability of lenses and the MX's full synchronization. It is just what the name implies, "behind-the-lens." The Diax IIb is an example in the more expensive class and the Argus C-44 in the middle price field.

General Suggestions

The 35mm viewfinder should be masked or allowance made to give a Ixiy4-inch instead of lxl½-inchframe. This is to provide for 8x10 enlarge­ments (the standard size for the slip-in type candid wedding album) without having to cut off the feet of your subjects or the people at the end of the group.

If you use a dry-mount type of wedding book either the full frame can be used and all photos trimmed to correspond with the 35mm proportions; or each photograph may be cut to dimensions you feel best contain the subject matter.

For daylight or flash, Plus-X developed in Microdol is an excellent com­promise insofar as film speed, exposure latitude, shadow detail, fine grain and high acutance (sharpness) are concerned. (D-76 will produce generally the same results, but with a slight increase in graininess.) Tri-X will give accept­able results when most of the negative is utilized and 8x10 is the maximum enlargement, but is likely to appear grainy if there is considerable cropping of the negative or 11x14 enlargements are made. Super fine-grain Panatomic-X will give superlative results, but flashbulbs will have to be used if your elec­tronic flash is less than a 100-watt-second unit. Also to be kept in mind: the slower films often produce greater contrast and are usually more constricted in exposure latitude. When you enlarge 35mm film, a double or even triple condenser enlarger and a fine enlarging lens are a necessity. I would avoid the diffusion or cold light systems.

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