The Speed Graphic press camera
1912 to 1973
A folding 4×5 inch camera with a fast focal-plane shutter, used by most American press photographers for half a century, including for the flag raising on Iwo Jima.
How it began
Folmer & Schwing in New York made large reflex cameras called Graflex. In 1912 they launched the Speed Graphic, a lighter folding camera with a focal-plane shutter for action, and it became the tool of newspaper photographers.
How it works
The front folds out on a bed, and bellows connect the lens to the back, which takes 4×5 inch sheet film in holders. A rangefinder and a wire-frame finder let photographers focus and aim quickly; a flashbulb gun fired in step with the shutter.
Why it mattered
The big negative printed sharply on rough newsprint, and the camera could take a beating. From the 1920s to the 1950s most famous American news pictures were made with one, including Joe Rosenthal’s Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima in 1945.
Limits and what replaced it
Each sheet had to be changed by hand, so a photographer might carry a dozen shots. 35mm cameras such as the Nikon F replaced it in the 1960s.
Today
Collectors and large-format enthusiasts still use them; the 4×5 format lives on in view cameras.