As I'm slowly getting back into shooting film, something crossed my path the other day. My wife and I stopped at my favorite frame shop to see if they could cut a piece of anti-reflective glass that I could use with my new scanner. They have several alcoves where local painters and artists rent space. One of the local photographers who is mainly known for his portraiture had a series of about a dozen 4x5 contact prints for sale. Now, I've always known about large format, but have never actually seen anything printed or contact printed from one of these cameras. Heck, I've never even seen one of these cameras in the flesh, so to speak. The detail in these little prints was absolutely astounding! They were inside shots of an abandoned industrial warehouse here in town. I've seen other images of it online, but they ALL pale in comparison.
While most people I know, including myself, go for prints with some size, these just drew me in like a moth to the flame. I completely ignored the larger prints he had. Before I even saw the images clearly, just the size made me want to go see what they were. They were matted on about 11x14 mats, vertical shots. My wife agreed. We talked about what do most people do who look at a photo, even the really big prints? They walk right up to the thing and go jeez, that's blurry With those 4x5 contact prints, the closer I got the better they looked. Perfect for a visually impaired person like myself.
I now have my long term goal. Take these 35mm's (SLR and RF's) that I have collected, these MF TLR's that I have, and learn, learn, learn. Learn how to compose again, learn how to judge the light again, learn all the basics again, learn darkroom techniques again, start all over--again. In the meantime--save, save, save, and save some more. These dang kids and their college cutting into my photo fund! 4x5 and especially 8x10 looks to be a fairly expensive venture, but I have never been a large volume shooter so it might work out on the fiscal end, if the prices don't just skyrocket on everything in the next several years. I'm definitely thinking at least 3 years out.
Anyway, I'll be lurking and learning in the background.
Welcome. Which part of the world do you live at ? Don't forget that there is also 5x7....I picked one up for a song and am in the process of refurbing. Sure, you can pick up
4x5 relatively inexpensively. The beauty about LF is that you don't need to enlarge the negative much to get good results. But, sometimes it's the feeling, so the image does not need to be crisp (have some of those). One can apply the same focus to photo taking, whehter it's MF, LF or digital. This place offers lots of info, I mean visually and in text. Enjoy.
Blooze, you really don't have to spend much. I am pretty much poor (not exaggerating - thanks economy!) I have a wonderful old 8X10 with 4 lenses, a wonderful old 5X7 with 3 lenses, plenty of film holders and a few tripods. Heck, I spent more on a LTM Voightlander 25mm lens for my 35mm Bessa-L than I spent on any of my large format lenses. The most prohibitive expense for me now is film, but with the discovery of X-Ray film here on the forum, it is less expensive for me to shoot 8X10 than it is to shoot 120 through my medium format cameras.
Suggestion - get one old camera (4X5, 5X7, 8X10), one old lens, a few film holders, black T-shirt for a dark cloth, a tripod if you don't have one that will support your new machine, and enjoy. I gave up 4X5 years ago simply because I had trouble composing on the "small" ground-glass due to old eyes. My Eastman 33A 5X7 is probably lighter and not much bigger than most 4X5 cameras.
Just some thoughts.
A used 4x5 outfit is usually cheaper than a comparable medium format outfit. Like most things, you can get into it cheap or expensive depending upon what you want. Expensive is nice but it doesn't make you a better photographer.
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