A boy and his camera

Sometimes there just seems to be a connection between a photographer and a particular camera; I'm currently in a love affair with my old 1930's Rodenstock 6x4.5 folder. It sports a 75mm f2.9 triar lens, some weird focus distances and even weirder fstops and shutter speeds. Are any of them accurate? who knows? and really - who cares? It continues to give me pictures that I am fascinated by.

I'm not sure if it's the size of the negatives, the lens, the film, ... I do know that it has nothing to do with focusing, autoexposure or even accurate framing - It has none of that. I do a lot of guess work, and move the release lever with an awkward motion of my finger while trying not to get my hand in the way of the lens.

Like a lot of half-frame cameras, this one defaults to a portrait aspect ratio. I like that because it gets me out of the cinematic image space or the landscape default of most cameras. I wish digital cameras, like my Ricoh gx200, would offer a half-frame alternative in addition to square. I suppose it's just as easy to zoom in a bit and turn the camera sideways, but there's just something different about these.