Twin lens reflex (TLR) cameras were all the rage in the 1950s and 1960s. They were replaced in popularity first by Kodak's Instamatic point-and-shoot camera, then by 35mm single-lens reflex cameras. High-end TLRs were popular with portrait and wedding photographers, too. The biggest problem with TLR cameras was that the view the photographer has is reversed left to right.
Instructions
1. Hold the camera at about your waist level. The viewfinder on most TLRs is called a waist-level viewfinder. This is detachable and replaceable with a prism viewfinder. Some people need to hold them a little higher to focus the image on the ground-glass view screen.
2. Look through the viewfinder and move it from left to right and right to left to get an idea of how images appear. The image will be reversed left to right, so moving the camera left will make the image move right and vice versa. This takes some getting used to in order to be able to shoot images reasonably quickly.
3. Push up the popup magnifier for sharp focus. Most professional-level TLRs, such as Yashica, Mamiya and Rolleiflex have popup magnifiers in the viewfinder hood. When you open the hood on the waist-level viewfinder, the popup magnifier will be hinged to the front of the hood in the same direction in which you are pointing the camera. It does not pop up automatically. Push in on the front of the hood to make it spring up. When using the magnifier, hold up the camera to your eye and look directly into it while focusing.
4. Buy a prism finder if reversing the image in your head is too distracting. Prism viewfinders correct the image from right to left in both the Mamiya and Rolleiflex. They also allow you to hold the camera in a more familiar way, directly up to your eye.
5. Check the parallax compensator scale before taking images that are close-ups.There will be a slight difference between what you see in the viewing lens and what the camera captures. Some cameras have a parallax calculator on the side or directly in the viewfinder to help you track of compensate for the difference in the two lenses. You can guess at exposure and just tilt the camera up slightly to compensate.
Tags: left right, front hood, hold camera, Mamiya Rolleiflex, popup magnifier, reflex cameras, reversed left
