[mhcfires]

I'm with eclarke and wy2l. Operating an LF camera is no different from operating any other kind of manual mechanical camera except for the movements, about which there is much information on the Web. The key to learning about movements is experimenting. The results will demonstrate their effects. Not long ago I bought a simple point-and-shoot digital camera, the present-day equivalent of the old box camera and Kodak Instamatic. When I looked up the online manual for this simplest of digital cameras I was amazed to find it contained 127 pages! I hate to think of how complicated the instructions might be for a pro-quality digital model. The old manual-focus Nikon and Leica and Rolleiflex film cameras are so easy to use . . .

Hah! I still haven't read the manual for my D700! Yeah, I know, RTFM, but screw 'em! I either read the manual or I figure out the damned thing and use it. My GF was upset with me because I couldn't do something with the damned thing a few weeks ago, not even sure what she wanted me to di, but I couldn't make the camera do what she wanted. I treat it like any other camera. I put it on "M" manual mode and use it. Works fine for me. I have no idea if and when there was a manual for my old pre-WWII Rollei.