The Moving Camera - Text 1A
Moving pictures became a practical reality not long after the appearance of the first fast emulsions and still cameras enabling photographers to freely snap pictures without having to set their camera on a tripod. The more substantial weight of moving picture cameras, combined with the frequent use of a crank to set them in motion, nonetheless forced the first filmmakers to use tripods systematically. The Cinématographe Lumière was, for instance, provided with a “tripod to hold the apparatus.”[1] The tripods used by the first makers of animated views resembled those used by professional photographers. They could be adjusted to level the camera, but were not designed to permit the making of tilts and pans.
Filmmakers nevertheless soon came to believe that motion pictures could be more than a mere extension of photography, which led them to contribute to the development of new tools and accessories to help them more fully realize the potential of the new medium. For instance, they quickly caught on to the novelty and fascination exerted by motion picture panoramas recorded by a camera that was itself moving. This led to the rise of new genre, that of phantom rides created with cameras installed on all sorts of vehicles moving through space, such as trains, tramways or gondolas. This led, in turn, to the creation of tools designed to facilitate the taking of such views.