Origins of 4x5?

[DannL]

Here's a bit of info shedding some light on one of the earliest plate sizes . . . .

The Saturday Magazine - Dec. 12th 1840 . . .

"M. Daguerre and Sir John Herschel have expressed opinions that the object-glass of the camera should be perfectly achromatic, i.e., capable of. focalizing light without producing coloured fringes, in order to produce the photogenic effect; but the American professor deems this achromaticity unnecessary, because the different colours which compose the spectrum take different spaces of time to produce their effect on the iodide of silver, and the plate may be removed before the slowly-acting rays have time to act upon the drawing. Many of his drawings were produced with a common spectacle-lens, of fourteen inches focus, arranged at the end of a cigar-box as a camera; with this humble camera, he produced highly-finished plates, measuring four inches by three."

I now suspect the 5x4 came about because someone emptied a cigar box that was a bit larger than the previous.

[jbenedict]

The reason that the Army picked 4x5 is pretty stright forward. We tend to forget that in those days no "press" photographers used plates or sheet film -- everybody used film packs, and the largest practical film pack which could be used to make contact prints was 4x5.

Once again I say: "I wish film packs were still around". 16 shots in the size we make two shots now... Two holders (One for N, one for N-1), a couple of spare packs and, maybe, a couple of holders with some kind of color in it. Or a roll film back and a few rolls of color if lots of color subjects are anticipated. A light camera (think Crown Graphic) a set of light lenses (90 Angulon, whatever came on the Crown (127 or 135), 205/7.7 Ektar) a Tiltall, 2 or 3 filters (your choice), goodies (cable release, dark cloth, small flask of whiskey, ham sandwich, hiking emergency kit.) Put it in a bag and you're good to go. My goodness! That's my kit!

Alas, no film pack... "I wish film packs were still around..."

[jnantz]

forgot the link
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...standard-sizes

[StoneNYC]

Once again I say: "I wish film packs were still around". 16 shots in the size we make two shots now... Two holders (One for N, one for N-1), a couple of spare packs and, maybe, a couple of holders with some kind of color in it. Or a roll film back and a few rolls of color if lots of color subjects are anticipated. A light camera (think Crown Graphic) a set of light lenses (90 Angulon, whatever came on the Crown (127 or 135), 205/7.7 Ektar) a Tiltall, 2 or 3 filters (your choice), goodies (cable release, dark cloth, small flask of whiskey, ham sandwich, hiking emergency kit.) Put it in a bag and you're good to go. My goodness! That's my kit!

Alas, no film pack... "I wish film packs were still around..."

Film packs were horrid! The film is so thin it's impossible to process using any kind of rotary system, it can be used in a crappy sloshing or dip/dunk tank but I think anyone who wants to work with that floppy film is insane haha sorry...

I do get quickloads though, at least that makes some kind of sense to me.

[Jim Rice]

I long ago read somewhere that the popularity of 4x5 stemmed from a contact print in landscape being two newspaper columns wide.

[jnantz]

where's ole when you need him ?!
he always knew answers to questions
like this ... and even though i searched ( here and apug )
for the answer he gave ( and i tried to paraphrased it from memory )
the last time this exact question was asked ... i came up empty ...

[Rapidrob]

While an old post, I do have two 4x5 glass plate negatives in my collection from the 1880's.

[Jim Andrada]

The '4' is Hindu–Arabic (same with '5', I believe), the 'x', probably Latin.


We're a helpful bunch, aren't we?

Interestingly eough some of the arabic numerals look like our current numerals, except they mean something different. the arabic 0 = our 5 and the arabic 7 = our 6. I learned this one night watching a video of the suites on Etihad's A380's and noticed that one was labeled 7 and 6. Sure enough, they both mean VI - sorry, 6.