Best camera for 8x10 landscapes?

[Christopher Cline]

An attorney? Ouch! ;-) No, I'm a physics professor at a college in Salt Lake Cit y (Westminster College).

[Chris Bitmead]

Well the Arca-Swiss FC can be converted between 4x5 and 8x10. Maybe you could st art with an Arca 4x5 and upgrade to 8x10 later. (Or vice-versa).

[Tony Brent]

For many years I used a 8 x 10 Deardorff and printed by contact exclusively.

If you have never seen a good 8 x 10 contact print I would suggest looking at an exhibit of ORIGINAL photos by Edward Weston, among others.

It is certainly the format of choice for the utmost in quality, bit it does have its drawbacks. Equipment is big bulky and heavy. Dont even think about an 8 x 1 0 enlarger unless you are prepared to mortgage the house and car. Film is not ch eap either.

BUT if a thoughtful, careful approach to each photograph is your style, then I c ant think of a better format. Under the dark cloth there is just your vision and that great big ground glass.

If you like the uniqueness of the Polaroid medium, where each photograph is a on e-of-a-kind experience, then you might give some thought to working with it in t he 8 x 10 format. Again not cheap, but very high quality material.

Have fun. Tony Brent

[Dave_958]

Bill: Two cameras come to mind: the Arca Swiss 4 x 5 and the Linhof Master Techn ika 4 x 5. When folded, both are relatively compact. The MT 4 x 5 folds up like a clam, protecting the lens and the focussing glass, to 7 x 7 x 4.5 inches. Both are metal cameras that weigh about 6 lbs, several pounds more than most wooden field cameras. The advantage of the metal construction is greater stability, imp act resistance, and durability. The Arca Swiss is a full system modular camera t hat can be upgraded to 5 x 7 or 8 x 10. The chief disadvantage of the Arca Swiss is the need to switch between wide angle bellows and standard bellows. The MT u ses one bellows for short and long focal length. The Arca Swiss can be configure d with optional geared lens tilt if desired. The MT has standard center axis len s tilt, which eases sharpness adjustment, compared to the base tilt sharpness ad justment of the Arca Swiss (unless the latter is equipped with the Orbix geared mechanism to control lens tilt). Both cameras are at the high end in terms of pu rchase price and prestige as the Rolls Royces of cameras. The Arca Swiss has eno ugh bellows extension that it can use a 210 mm G-Claron apochromatic Schneider l ens for 1:1 macrofocussing with the bellows extended out to 420 mm. This same le ns can also be used for landscape photography at infinity. The MT's bellows exte nsion is limited to 360 mm, limiting the choice of a macrolens to one of the exp ensive 180 mm lenses, for which the bellows has to be racked out to 360 mm to ge t a 1:1 image reproduction. The longest focal length available for the MT is a t elephoto 360/500 mm Nikkor-T lens combination. The Arca-Swiss can be used with t elephoto lenses of 600 and 720 mm, and standard lenses of 480 mm. The relatively small opening of the bellows of the MT does not allow use of lens with rear ele ments measuring greater than 80 mm. This can be a potentially problem with some of the bulkier lense, but most landscape photographers avoid those lenses any w ay because of their bulk and weight, althugh these bulkier lenses may offer adva ntageous bright apertures of 5.6. The shortest focal length is either 35 mm or 4 5 mm lens, I am unsure which. The Arca Swiss has larger knobs to ease operation of the camera. Both can be set up and folded quickly without risk of crimping th e bellows. Aesthetically, some of the wooden field cameras are stunning, with re flective finishes, brass hardware, luxurious leather bellows. However, most of t hem are more difficult to operate.

[Sal Santamaura]

Well Bill, it's been almost two years since you asked this question, so you probably already own an 8x10! However, just in case you're still debating, and noting that David today addressed 4x5 instead of 8x10, here's an enthusiastic recommendation for the Phillips Compact II. It is of unconventional design, extremely rigid, and weighs only 7.8 lb. I don't think a better tool exists for 8x10 landscapes and, in my opinion, it has all the precision anyone could use for that application.