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I'd like to build a 12in x 12in camera and I prefer to work in color. I know I'l l probably have to make my own film holders. Who produces color film in this siz e or will consider special orders ( I'm an amateur not a pro )?
If anyone else had a yearning to build such a camera, how would you proceed?
Larry,
Step 1 would be to order film.
I think you'll have a hard time getting color (chrome or print) film in this size. If Kodak, Agfa or Fuji would accept the special order, be prepared to morgage the house and to change one of your rooms into a fridge to stock the truckload of film. Anyway you need at least some very deep pockets.
I recently exchanged a few emails with someone that wanted to buy Ilford 11x14 FP4+ B&W film: he was told that the minimal order was 30 boxes, I believe it summed up to about $5000,--.
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Don't post if you're not willing to use a working e-mail address!
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Fuji supposedly make CDU E6 duping film in large sizes, but don't distribute it worldwide. It's slow, tungsten balance, and you have to fiddle to get the colour balance right, but it does exist.
The closest standard format to 12x12 would be the european 30x40 cm. CDU is the only colour film I have ever heard of in this size. Various B+W and graphics arts films are available if you can live with B+W or are prepared to do tri-colour work.
If you made your camera 11x11 your film choices would expand quite a bit, although I'm not sure colour films are still available in this size. Kodak used to do 11x14 colour negative which B+H said they could special order for me, but that was two years ago, so things may well have changed. Contact B+H and/or Kodak professional services to find out.
About your only other option is to use printing papers for colour slides such as Ilfochrome. Contrast control is hard to impossible, but if you want art rather than accuracy good looking results are possible.
Before kids put my ULF projects on hold I played with the idea of making pseudo-autochromes by inkjet printing a colour dot pattern onto the surface of a B+W emulsion. I couldn't find inks which survived the processing steps, but that was before the pigment inks that are now available. Might be worth some experiments if you really want to do colour in ULF.
sounds like an enormous amount of trouble to me. Kodak makes aerial color films in 9-1/2" rolls- otherwise 8x10 would be the largest any more. why not shoot 11x14 and trim to 11" square? Not difficult enough? You could use the wet-plate method on 12" glass plates, people still do that.
Larry, if that's your real name, If I ever had a yearning to build any camera, especially a 12X12 format, the first thing I would do would be to get a psychiatric evaluation. Then, after the treatment phase, I would take up a new hobby-- setting fire to my hair, and beating out the fire with a baseball bat!
I would do something retro-why not shoot separation B&W negs-one ea. through blue, green, red filters. Then,work digitally or triple-layered gum bichromate would be an incredible approach to super-format color photography. I don't have the URL handy but the Library of Congress has an outstanding exhibition on-line of a Russian photographer, assigned to document the far-flung Russian Empire at the time, who shot such "tri-color" glass negatives. The exhibit shows how the original negs were scanned and re-born; you can even download the separation files. As others will suggest, medical x-ray holders may be a good source for mega-holders. G
David,
Thanks for the clue about the Russian Photographer at LOC. What an amazing technique! <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire>
Sorry, I was supposed to include the URL:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ empire/??