Making the jump-- 4x5 to 8x10

[Dan Smith]

The camera you get can make all the difference. I had one of the metal folding Kodak 8x10's and hated it. It just didn't work with my photo style at all. Was so unfriendly I gave up 8x10. Sold it to a friend & he uses it constantly & loves it. Got a nice older Deardorff & it 'fits' like a glove. Somehow it is comfortable where the Kodak was not. Just personal as both are nice cameras. With the Deardorff, a 'bendy wood camera' I shoot a lot. With the Kodak, a Toyo M and a Calumet, I didn't. The Kodak was a pain in the butt and the other metal cameras felt like tools, not like comfortable friends. It is all a personal thing so if you get one & it doesn't work out too well but you still like the format and the idea of the format, try another camera. Seems silly doesn't it, that a camera can make that much difference when the film size remains the same. But, for me and many others, the process and the right tool in hand makes it a lot more than an exercise in controlled tarnishing of silver.

[Urs Bernhard]

Hi Chris, dont hesitate to do the jump. It's worthwhile. Take in serious conside ration the ARCA SWISS 8x10 F-line with collapsible rail. It is only 4 kg without lens. I carry it since years in every corner of the world. I use a Stanford -Davis compact tripod with a Gitzo Mk2 Lowprofile head. I wait now for a custommade Backpack/Wheelcarry case made for me by STREBOR (www .strebor.com) to make it a bit more like "my way". The ARCA is a very rugged, intelligently designed camera. It never gave any reas on to complain. It is the camera you can easily forget, because it works and works and everything is so smoothly built in your hands, that you can simply concentrate on your picture. Even to set it up it takes about no time( in any case not more than any 4x5). For any further question, don t hesitate to drop a line. Good luck! Urs

[Leonard Robertson]

First let me say how much I enjoyed the pictures on your webpage. I am mainly a B&W fan, but I really, really like your color work. It seems to me anyone who has the dedication to do this caliber of work will have no trouble handling the adjustment to 8X10. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/listcameras.html has reviews of several of the 8X10s mentioned in the previous posts. Do you plan to go to the camera swap meet at Puyallup WA Saturday April 28? It should be a chance to see several different 8X10s and compare them. Email me if you need details on the meet. Have you seen the Michael Fatali feature in the March/April 2001 "View Camera" magazine? He is doing 8X10 Velvia in somewhat low light. F32 seems to be stop he tends to use. You might think of what it would be like to do the kind of work you do at f32.

[Yongfei]

Check out htt://www.fatali.com for Micheal's work. His pictures emotionally move my soul in a very touching way. Now I start to understand the importance of lighting. Can't wait to see his book coming out!

[David A. Goldfarb]

I would also recommend starting with a shorter lens than 420mm. You can get more information on a bigger piece of film, so I find that my lens choices for 8x10" are usually wider than what I would expect for various situations based on my choices with smaller formats. Aside from the short DOF of the long lens, if you're shooting outdoors and using a small aperture to compensate for the short DOF, remember you'll be contending with a lot of bellows, which can get hairy in windy conditions.