8X10 or 10X8

[blevblev]

As George Bernard Shaw once said, "England and America are two countries divided by a common language."

I'm always fascinated by the differences in language between the US and the UK. One thing I've noticed just recently (I'm sure the difference has been around for a while, it's just that I have just noticed it) is the fact that in the US, we call it 8 by 10, and in the UK, you call it 10 by 8. What is the origin of this difference? When you buy a box of paper over there across the pond, does it say 10X8 on it?

[Amund BLix Aaeng]

The Brits are weird

I envy the Aussies, they don`t have to deal with the upside down image on the ground glass..

[Hiro]

I vaguely remember reading something like...so please correct me if I'm wrong...In UK, the vertical measurement (height) comes first to indicate the format. This depends on the orientation of the back with (most) large format cameras, so maybe it should be said that the 8x10 vs. 10x8 terminologies refer to the image orientation---a landscape photograph is 8x10, and a portrait 10x8.

If you think about MF (6x4.5 vs. 6x7, etc.), it doesn't seem simply a "UK thing." Any historians?

[Struan Gray]

It's because America and the U.K. are roughly ninety degrees apart in longitude. If Easter Island were a major centre of photography they would use 8X01 cameras.

Before the days of accurate chronometers for ocean navigation, Royal Navy frigates of the line would often carry a photographer with them to provide navigational backup to dead reckoning and lunar tables.

[jetcode]

Before the days of accurate chronometers for ocean navigation, Royal Navy frigates of the line would often carry a photographer with them to provide navigational backup to dead reckoning and lunar tables.

and then string them up every once in a while for getting the film fogged, getting the crew lost, and giving the pesky gulls something to chew on

[Struan Gray]

Gulls that chew? I think not. Real Gulls (TM) swoop in off the gale, shit on your head, tear off a lump of raw shoulder, and gulp it down whole as they glide out of range into the spume. Only thing meaner than a gull is a skua.

Otherwise you're quite right. The reputation of photographers on board early sailing vessels was not good. On Cook's first voyage the vessel ordinances stated that in the event of being marooned in a lifeboat without provisions the photographer was to be eaten first, even before the cabin boy or the ship's cat.