I'm new to LF, brand spankin' new. However, both of my Nikon and Mamiya RZ67 are loaded. The former with NPH and the latter with Provia 100F. The Nikon is mostly for snap shots of family and friends where the end results are 4x6" Fuji Frontier prints. The Mamiya is for more "serious" matters and even less "serious"matters, depending on mood.
So far, I've only put a few Polaroids through my LF gear, but I am falling in love with this format. It's slow, but it is so much fun, at least to me.
CJ---
MF for
a) portraits when the sitter is not comfortable with, or accommodating of, the machinations involved with a view camera;
b) experiments which might, but probably won't, yield a good picture---the film cost is about half, but more importantly, all twelve develop together in the time it would take to process one sheet of film; and
c) making record shots of still-life setups that I might want to try to reproduce later (am I the only one who does this?).
35mm for snapshots and color; also anything really fast, like horses jumping. It is also great for teaching, since with bulk-loaded film the cost per negative is practically negligible.
Think carefully about disposing of the smaller gear--some day in the distant future you might want to join the likes of Adams, Cunningham, Stieglitz and such, who became famous for large format work and late in their careers continued with medium format.
Regards,
Harold
I take most of my "serious" photographs with a Linhof Technika V. I use Nikon FEs for occasional 35mm film shots but mostly use an Olympus C-60 digicam for point-and-shoot stuff (not that I'm all that happy with it). I had a Yashica T4 film p&s which was a great camera, but I, um, accidently ran it through the washing machine. *sigh*...
Mike Lewis
mikelewisimages.com
To add mine to the survey, I shoot 35mm only for macro/closeup insects (during the warm months) and 4x5 for everthing else (all months.) An occasional 35mm flower (in the field) is shot but I usually shoot them indoors with the 4x5.
I became reacquainted with my Olympus 35mm almost 10 years ago and since then carry at least one 120 film camera set up, e.g., a Bronica S2A or an ETRSi, when I am not able to use my Large Format tools...Tachihara 4x5, Kodak 2D 8x10, Korona 4x5, 5x7, 8x10. My Large Format "therapy" is almost 2 years along with its specialized "counseling" and it appears it will continue to grow as do the number of lens and related "therapeutic" tools, e.g., Dagors, G-Clarons, Fujinons, Kowas, Wollensaks, etc. I also see at least a darkroom on the horizon. I am also working hard to expand the adventure to include "group" therapy with my better and just recently introduced her to medium format. She has always enjoyed B&W 35mm...so I am sure she will love it on up the line to LF. Our youngest has used 35mm, but found it is more cost effective for him to use a digital camera...which in reality is an inexpensive learning tool for the family group sessions.
Well, let's see. Minolta 16 (3 working cameras), 35 mm half frame (one camera, currently waiting for a method of correcting the focus setting other than "guess and develop half a roll"), several 35 mm full frame, 6x6, 6x9 (with masks for 6x6 and 6x4.5), and then my 9x12 cm plate cameras. Don't own a 4x5 yet, but I have some film waiting for a pinhole venture. The 6x9s are the "always" cameras, the ones most likely to be with me when I'm just out and about.
If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D
No 35 but I do a lot of 120. Sometimes its windy and I want to do many exposures to see different motion effects. Or I'm in a place where I don't want to put my equipment on the ground. Or too many people around for me to enjoy the LF experience. Or just don't feel like carrying the stuff that day. Or in a place where carrying it would be very difficult for an older out of shape guy. I'll take more risks with roll film knowing I have more than 12 exposures with me. I have found that 120 can make very good smaller prints. I guess the most important thing is to use something.
Hmm...Let's see, 35mm,126,127,120,4x5 and5x7. The cameras range from very early Brownies and things like that, to very current ones, X-Pan etc. Over the last two years the 5x7 is the one I've tried to spend the most time with. A 5x7 neg., enlarged only 2x to 3x, holds up pretty good. Oh, almost forgot, a little waterproof, pocket sized camera, that doesn`t use any film...
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