E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I have an old CRT TV set in my studio workroom. It is still working and I sometimes keep in on so I can follow the news while I am working on routine chores. So, I am mounting prints and kinda watching the Jan. 6th hearings and of all things, I noticed a press photograher shooting with a 4x5 graphic. My cable service has a wind-back feature so I froze framed a few and shot them with my cellphone.

I know there's an older guy who frequently covers major event currents with this 4/5 but this seems to be a younger gent.

Of course, the 4x5 was my first "professional" camera when entering the trade. It was sad to be the "badge of the pro photograher". It warmed my heart to see all the usual press pools working feverously with their digital gear, flashing away like mad and "machine-gunning while this fellow chooses his shots in a very disciplined way - anticipating the action and shooting decisively. The other folks were making dozens of shots in the time it took him to flip his film holder. Nostalgia! I would love to see his shots!

Please excuse the raster lines from my 19" OLD RCA TV working with a 300-ohm matching transform to hook up to cable!

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

The first guy mentioned 4x5 here on the ‘hog is David Burnett.
More on him HERE.

Could the guy seen above be Frank Thorp V?
https://www.readingthepictures.org/2021/05/frank-thorp-portrait-capitol-hill-riot/
Interesting story, in any case.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

I saw that too. I’m curious how the images will be used, processed, printed, and published. Hopefully we can all find out. I don’t recall seeing a flash used either. I wonder what film he uses. Seems like he must be shooting wide open at a real slow shutter speed.

Luft93 Loc: Finger Lakes, NY

Super Speed Graphic,introduced 1956, replaced Pacemaker. Google it.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

1n 1959 I purchased a SUPER GRAPHIC. It had a metal body as opposed to wood or Bakelite and was covered in a gray textured material. (not black). It had a 135mm Optar lens and a Grafex shutter with a maximum speed of 1/500 sec. The SUPER SPEED Graphic has the same body but the shutter was a between=the-lens type that had a maximum speed of 1/1000 sec.

At the studio I work at, we had 10 original Speed Graphics., the ones the focal plane shutters. By that time we had converted from flash lamps to strobe and most fothe cameras were equipped with front (between-he-lens) shutters so the back shutters were either removed or disabled to avoid accidental activation where the back shutter would be closed.

The SUPER AND SUPER SPEED Grphics had a footage scale and guide number calculator atop the body as well as a footae scale on the bed. The lens board had a build-in solenoid which was powered by a 22.5 Volt battery in a compartment just below the rangefinder eyepiece.

The TV image is too fuzzy to accurately identify the camera model. The Super Speed had a built-in lens that was also the shutter cocking mechanism- I'll take a closer look. The back of the camera had more rounded corners on the spring-loaded pressure plate that retains the film holders.

Hard to tell but the camera in the TV photo seems to have an outboard but synchronized Kalart to Hugo-Myer rangefinder. The Soper mode had the RF built-in to the body. The back of the bed looks more like an older model Speed or Crown Graphic.

Settlit Loc: Baton Rouge LA

I asked a friend who works as a videographer in DC for NBC News, and he said the gentleman at the January 6 hearings with the 4x5 camera is David Burnett.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

This is a different person.
See my post above

Robert Ley

The Super Graphic was my first 4x5 also, although I got mine many years after you. I liked the camera and it was good for a first 4x5 and I learned how to use the 4x5 film with this camera. I eventually traded it in for a Wista VX which had more movements including back tilt and swing and removable bellows. I loved the control of the image that you could get with the Wista. Not a great camera for bird photography but hard to beat for landscape.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

And it look like who ever taught this man taught him well, Tirgt Way Film Holders, the best!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

For sure- David Burnet t is a well-known photographer who is currently using a 4x5 press camera. He is an older gentleman with white hair and is usually seen with a falsh-equipped 4x5 press camera. The photographer in the TV picture seems younger and the camera is on a monopod and apparently, he is using available light.

The chamber where the hearings are held is lighted for television so I imagine there's sufficient light to work with at reasonable apertures and shutter speeds. TRi-X or a simial emulsion wud work, especially if were processed in Acufine and exposed at 800 or 1200. 50 to 100-foot/candles would do the trick for high-quality TV- I could see working at f/5.6 or f/8. at 1/30sec. or thereabouts.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

The uniqueness about this photograher using large format press cameras is they are using them hand-held for photojournalism as they were originally designed for. They had certain view-camera-like adjustments (swigs, tilts and rises, but these were limited and the 135mm lenses did not cover extreme vertical rises- they would vignette at the edges.

Many current large format press camera users shoot landscapes and general shots but would, like yourself, advance to a view or field camera with more versatile came movements and to accommodate a wider variety of lenses and shutters.

jimbuckley Loc: Arizona

For a little more detail...

(Download)

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

As I noted above, Frank ThorpV

i am frank thorp v and this is why i shoot film.

Settlit Loc: Baton Rouge LA

Sorry. I thought folks were still trying to identify the older gentleman with the 4x5 camera at the January 6 hearings.