Favorite 8x10 Field Camera and why?

[Drew Wiley]

I love the proportion of 5x7. It's just that when that kind of decision confronted me, especially as a color photographer, I realized that 5x7 was going to be inconvenient due to poor film availability. I'd have to buy 8x10 film and cut it down. And working with actual 8x10 is more precise when it comes to things like
mask registration, sheer degree of print size etc. Then there's 4x5 - just drive down the street to the store and grab a box of film anytime. Sooo... when I'm really
in a 5x7 mood, I must confess that I grab a 6x9 back, which also is forgiving to the wallet. But once I'm in the darkroom, I sure wish it had been sheet film to begin with, instead. Learning to make 6x9 film pretend it's 5x7 is basically an investment in old age, when I might be forced to carry lighter equipment.

[Bill_1856]

Well Bill, ...5x7 is nice too, but there's never seems to be a good selection of film around for that. I.

B&H lists 8 different B&W films from ISO=100-400, including HP4, FP5, and Tri-X. Why would anyone want anything else?
(For color,with CIBA and Dye Transfer materials no longer on the market, digital is the only way to go.)

[Alan Gales]

I love the proportion of 5x7. It's just that when that kind of decision confronted me, especially as a color photographer, I realized that 5x7 was going to be inconvenient due to poor film availability. I'd have to buy 8x10 film and cut it down. And working with actual 8x10 is more precise when it comes to things like
mask registration, sheer degree of print size etc. Then there's 4x5 - just drive down the street to the store and grab a box of film anytime. Sooo... when I'm really
in a 5x7 mood, I must confess that I grab a 6x9 back, which also is forgiving to the wallet. But once I'm in the darkroom, I sure wish it had been sheet film to begin with, instead. Learning to make 6x9 film pretend it's 5x7 is basically an investment in old age, when I might be forced to carry lighter equipment.

I enjoy other people's 5x7's. I enjoy 4x10 panoramas too. I just find it a lot easier for me to visualize with the squarer formats.

[Drew Wiley]

Bill, why on earth would I want to take a huge step backward and want to do color digitally? I can print directly from film right in house, right onto color paper,
better than ever. Color film is still made, color paper is still made, even in big sizes. 8x10 film really rings true in a large print that digital capture generally cannot. It took me awhile to get my color neg printing up to the same level as I did for years with Cibachrome, but with Fuji Supergloss even the same look can
be achieved. This stuff has come a long ways in recent years. Hopefully it will still be around awhile. RA4 paper certainly doesn't appear in any danger soon.
But yeah, I do have a freezer full of dye transfer supplies just in case I need another challenge, and lots and lots of old 8x10 chromes to work with.

[Corran]

For color,with CIBA and Dye Transfer materials no longer on the market, digital is the only way to go.

Hmm, I must've missed the magical digital camera that renders colors the same as film, with the same highlight rendition and saturation. Oh and 50-80mp, but not the cost of a house.

[Luis-F-S]

My favorite field cameras by far are the Deardorff. Considering they were first produced in the 20s, and continued production without major changes until the 1980s, they just sit nicely in front of you with the controls in intuitive places. I've used Canhams & Ebonys & Toyos & the Masterview, but the Deardorff showed itself to clearly be the one. If I weren't carrying it for miles,...... like Ari, I really like the Toyo....but my back doesn't.

+1!!!!!, +1 !!!!!!! There's nothing like a V8!!!!!!

[chris jordan]

I went through several wood 8x10s, none of which had a single 90-degree angle anywhere, before finding my 8x10 soulmate: a Toyo 8x10M field camera. LOVED that rig-- rock solid, smooth, reliable, took a beating in my backpack and in various suitcases as I traveled to places like post-Katrina New Orleans. Fell off the tripod two different times and landed on the tarmac, once when I had it slung over my shoulder with the tripod extended at least 7 feet off the ground, took some chips off the paint but otherwise good as new. Got some grit stuck in the focus gears one time and had to send it to Toyo for a recondition; came back a couple of weeks later BETTER than new. I badly regret selling it when I made the shift to digital MF, would love to have it sitting on a tripod here in my studio with my gorgeous Rodenstock 360mm mounted in front, even if I never took another photo with it. It made every image in this series without ever a single complaint: http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/katrina/#reddoor

[Corran]

http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/katrina/#reddoor

I was in NO this past Christmas and they had an exhibit on Katrina in the Presbytère, but this is much more interesting and gripping.
Much of my family lives near Biloxi and I was actually there a week after Katrina and witnessed the devastation along the coast, especially the casinos. I only wish I could have documented it back then but I hadn't really gotten back into photography.

[Luis-F-S]

Too depressing to document back then, and too busy trying to eat by working out of town. You missed the pictures of the trucks in the trees in Port Sulphur. I did the structural inspection of the Buras High School with the dead cows in the lobby. Lovely. L

[Juergen Sattler]

I use a Wehmann. It is built like a tank, closes in on its own metal shell and is still light weight. The standard bellows accommodates almost any lens (wide or long) and the movements and controls are intuitive. It is not the prettiest camera around but she is perfect in the field.