Film Advance Lever

The film advance lever was a much needed evolution for film cameras. Before the film advance lever was perfected, there were worst ways to advance the frames in a camera. The knobs on the Argus C3, or the dials on the twin lens reflex cameras were all very slow and sometimes stiff and very rough to use. This brings us to a point to talk about the different kinds of film advance levers. There are three distinctly different kinds of levers, multiple stroke, single stroke and the single stroke lever with the option to do multiple strokes, which I prefer.

• Multiple stroke: requires multiple full strokes to advance a single frame. i.e Mamiya 645e requires two full strokes to advance one frame on its optional film advance handle.
• Single stroke: requires one full and complete stroke to advance a single frame.
• Single stroke with the option to do multiple strokes: requires one full and complete stroke to advance a single frame, or several partial small strokes to advance a single frame.

The advantage of having a single stroke with the option to do multiple small strokes is that it allows me to advance with a single hand. It comes in very handy when my left hand is preoccupied with other tasks (like holding my three year old sons hand in public). When taking a picture, I advance the frame with my right hand,  put the camera against my face, and use a fast enough shutter speed to steadies the shot. This is why the cameras with the levers that has a single stroke with the multiple strokes option gets more sun and the others stays at home. 

What kind of lever is on a film camera should be a point to considering if you ever need to shoot one handed.

Single stroke lever with multiple stroke option on the Canon AE-1 (1980s).
I use this camera about 5 days out of the week.

Single stroke lever on the Minolta X-370 (1990s)
I use this camera twice in the last 3 months.

Between the Canon AE-1 and the Minolta X-370, the camera industry had a decade to figure out how to make cameras cheaper by reducing useful features, a process of constant cost improvement.