Info on 4x10 camera and films, please

[Paul Droluk]

Hi John,

in answer to your questions regarding our Fotoman 410PS camera...

The lens can easily be mounted and dismounted... exactly the same way you would from a standard lens board. Once Calibrated, all of the components of the Cone Assembly remain together as a single unit, so nothing will get lost. Just re-mount the lens when you're done with it elsewhere and you're back in business... no need to re-calibrate. Do exercise the same caution you would when mounting and dismounting the lens from a lensboard... as Oren pointed out the threads are finely pitched and can easily be damaged if misaligned.

4x10 film is more problematic. Currently there are is only 1 supplier for pre-cut (J&C), and that's for B&W only. To solve this problem, we are currently working on a dedicated 8x10 to 4x10 rotary film cutter. Just like a paper cutter, but dedicated to the task. This will allow the use of all emulsions avaialable in 8x10 size.

Lastly, there will be a shift adapter available for our 410PS camera around December 1st, allowing both rise and fall. Tilt on panoramic formats is not as valuable as it is on more square formats, due to the reduced amount of fore/background. Conequently rise and fall will most usually address the needs for ample DOF and perspective control (in the most common horizontal orientation).

[Brian Vuillemenot]

It is not too hard to adapt a paper cutter to cut 8X10 film in half in a dark room or tent. You just need to make some guides out of mat board that the sheet of film and cutter fit into so that you know they are lined up just right. I cut Velvia in this way to use in my 4X10 camera, and only need to make a single lengthwise cut. If you are really sold on the idea of shooting 4X10, and have access to an 8X10 camera, you might want to consider cutting out half of a darkslide and using it to shoot two 4X10s on a single sheet of 8X10 film.

[John Hoang]

Thank you all, gentlemen, for your great help. I will take time to read the suggested readings before making decision, now including 8x10 with half-darkslide...

Also thanks to those who make this thread become so interesting to read. -John

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

John,

As others have mentioned, I wrote a two part article on the 4x10 format for View Camera that was published in the Sep/Oct and Nov/Dec 2005 isues of View Camera. Part 1 of the article covered all of the 4x10 cameras that were available at that time, as well as film holder options. Part 2 of the article covered lenses and film choices for 4x10. If you're serious about giving the 4x10 format a try, you may want to locate the issues in question. They treat the subject with a lot more depth than anything I've written online.

Since the articles were published, two more 4x10 cameras, the Fotoman and Shen-Hao, have appeared on the market. I hope to write a review of the Shen-Hao as soon as I can get my hands on a sample.

Kerry

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

For consideration, a slightly contrarian view (and I'm a 4x10 shooter): If you use 4x10 and do your own darkroom work, you'll be limited to contact prints unless you have an 8x10 enlarger.

Depends on your printing method. If you print digitally, either color or black and white, the 4x10 format lends itself very well to an affordable desktop scanner/printer combination. Epson makes some very reasonably priced desktop scanners that can scan 4x10 negatives/transparencies (no stitching required). Combined with an affordable 13" wide-carriage desktop printer and you can make very nice 12x30 prints (or digitally enlarged negatives for contact printing) from your 4x10 originals.

Kerry

[John Hoang]

Thanks, Kerry. I will sure read the articles. As far as scanning and printing, I have been doing exactly what you have said for some cropped images on my 5x7 films. I have just read your article about 4x0 Format and Film Holders on The Large Format Home Page. It contains a lot of information that very helpful to me. Again, thanks for that.