Or find a temporary dance partner.
Before "inve$ting" in a 8x10 outfit, consider finding a local LF photographer who would be willing to share and allow using their 8x10 camera and related film image making system. Do this over an extended amount of time can go a ways to help with the choice.
Think, try before ya buy.
Bernice
Originally Posted by Randy Moe
Not that easy to find even in my last big city, Chicago. Now I am rural.
I started LF by DIY and asking questions on this forum in 2011.
I have learned the same way since I was very young. No mentor ever appeared in my life. I used books to learn anything. Or by riding and racing motorcycles just doing it. My father told me photography was for the ‘experts’. He also forbid motorcycles.
I started riding on a hidden bike at 16 and now at age 67 I still ride motorcycles. Carefully!
8x10 and any film camera is now way cheaper than it ever was. So I got a few. I am now building my second home Darkroom with 6 enlargers in a spare bedroom. Not rich. I live on Social Security as I did pay into the system all my life.
My new Darkroom has Beseler 2x3, CB7 4x5, 2 Elwood 5x7 for beauty and usage. An 8x10 DIY Beseler V XL conversion and a 35 mm Leitz Focomat V35. $100 SS sink. Hot press. Scanner but no inkjet.
No, I am not the greatest photographer and in fact have extreme eyesight issues. So what!
The sky will soon burn.
Dancing as fast as I can. 😍
While that's excellent advice, it's not easily done.
Decent 8x10's now exist which don't weigh much more than your Technika. Filmholder weight and general bulk will increase. And film is much more expensive, though most of us who shoot 8x10 shoot it more carefully than even 4x5, so the overall expense is almost inherently tempered. I really enjoy the kind of visualization the larger ground-glass provides. I'm a format schizophrenic who bounces around between different cameras, depending on my mood and the kind of subject matter involved, and alas, at times my budget too. I also like the extra pack weight of an 8x10 system for its exercise value.
I shot roll film this past weekend with a specific film test in mind, but had to carry two different MF camera systems as well as the big Ries wooden tripod to get the weight up to where I need it for conditioning. Backpacking season is rapidly approaching. BUT ... if you want to enlarge 8x10 film rather than just contact-printing it, you need significantly more darkroom space, especially ceiling height, than for 4x5 work.
8x10 is a blast!
If you thought 4x5 is slow, 8x10 is even slower yet, but it is fun! Especially if you like contact printing. Composing on an 8x10 gg is an almost mystical experience.
Sure it's more expensive, but you can do this on a budget.
Sure everything is heavier and more bulky and logistics is a challenge if you venture beyond 100' from your car, and interaction with other people and wildlife somehow takes a more bizarre turns when you're sugar-anting an 8x10, big tripod and stack of Life Magazine sized film holders around the mountains, beach or marsh.
Sort of like this
Go for it!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
When I had better health and had the money, I tried to justify the jump from 5x4 to 10x8. But I couldn't justify it. The extra weight, the extra cost, the loss of resolution due living in the diffraction zone, etc...
My conclusion was that the only way to justify it was to want to print contact prints. 10x8 excels at contact printing, no question. But if you're going to be making enlargements, 5x4 excels at that, and up to pretty darn large prints too (10x is typically no problem at all). And if you're going to be scanning, again 5x4 wins.
But of course, that was only true for what I was doing, and the workflow I wanted to use. As Consummate_fritterer says, "As it pertains to you, I haven't a clue."
Bruce Watson
I think 4X is pushing your luck for really crisp prints. As far as scanning goes, the bottleneck is how you're going to print the thing - inkjet can't equal laser prints or optimized optical enlargements; and in the case of the latter, 8x10 can be conspicuously better than 4x5. I say "can" mainly because there's quite a learning curve to managing depth of field issues in 8x10 work compared to 4x5. My take on it is that 4x5 is in fact more versatile; but when size matters, size
matters. And then there's the all-important Fun Coefficient to think about. Some of us really enjoy working with 8X10. Unfortunately, I cannot agree with Bruce about qualitative loss due to diffraction. Sure it's gonna kick in a bit at f/45 versus f/22; but heck, if you know how to keep your film flat, you've got four times the surface area with 8x10, so the overall effect can be distinctly more detailed if that is what you are seeking... whatever; it's all good.
I remember setting up the big Tachihara, focusing, adjusting the movements, refocusing, checking the light, setting the aperture and shutter speed, making sure the preview lever was in the closed position....exercising the shutter....and just at the moment that I was ready to pull the dark slide and make the exposure....I'd think, is this really worth $3.00 (just for the sheet of film) ? and stop...paralyzed. Then i'd take it down, pack it up and move on....eventually, I just wouldn't set it up...and then, I just left the whole 8x10 kit at home. I think I made fewer than 25 8x10 negatives total. Most are portraits of my kids.
I am perfectly content with 4x5 and 35mm....oh,and one 6x9 folder that i should probably sell.
But (!) the OP needs to feel this, to experience this for himself.
You were hedging over a $3 per sheet for 8x10 film ?? I can identify with that fear because 8x10 color film plus processing now costs about $30 a pop. But 3 bucks is currently 4x5 black and white territory. It's all relative. More shots doesn't necessarily equal better shots. Sometimes I just like looking through the big ground glass of the 8x10. Then I'll pause ... is this REALLY a shot that's worthy of being printed? If not, I still get a kick out of "pretend composition".
Yeah...foolishness , I know. Especially, when compared to the cost and effort to get to a place.
it's funny because I have no such qualms (and never have had) about exposing a sheet or four of 4x5.
...then too, things change with time. we grow older, more mature, maybe a little wiser. Perspective changes.
I think about all the money I wasted chasing cameras...only to end up with what I started out with.
I go out for breakfast with my son every Saturday morning...nothing special, same local diner we've been going to for 20 years (since before he was born)...He has pancakes and bacon, I have eggs, sausage and hash browns, we both have plenty of coffee...with tip, it cost $40 and I wouldn't much care if it were $100.
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