8 x 10 is another country

[BarryS]

I swear--it was much easier going from medium format to a light 4 x 5 field camera than going from 4 x 5 to 8 x 10. When I'm shooting 4 X 5 I feel like an artist, but with the 8 x 10--it's more like being in a wrestling match. It was in the 30's today and I felt so clumsy with the 'dorff--it felt like being on the brink of catastrophe. It probably didn't help that I was trying to shoot landscapes with a #4 Vitax on bridges over rushing rapids. Incidentally, I think I've discovered the largest lens you'd ever want to consider using on a V8. I had the V8, Vitax, 6 holders , tripod, meter, and darkcloth (no loupe--doh!) loaded in my backpack and it was beating me into the ground as I walked. The 8x10 negs are great and I want to do some alt-process contact printing, but 4 x 5 seems so much easier. I must be nuts because I *was* thinking about 8 x 10 wet plate in the field. Just wondering if this this going to get any easier--or blow out my joints!

[David A. Goldfarb]

For me 8x10" was more immediately intuitive than 4x5" because of the large groundglass image and the fact that I was printing at the same size as the image on the glass. I had to shoot 8x10" for a few years before I felt comfortable with 4x5".

The cold doesn't help, but I remember a winter LF outing in New York that convinced me to look a little more seriously at a carbon fiber tripod to replace my aluminum Bogen, and it looks like you've got one of those. You can probably a pound or two by replacing the tripod column with a flat plate.

My big portrait lenses, though, stay in the studio.

[Tracy Storer]

GNBN,
with wet plate, you only carry one holder.

[Vaughn]

Get yourself a Reis, you wimp!



Vaughn

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Nice lens! I agree it looks to be the limit though. Move to ULF and then the 8x10 will be a piece of cake. 4x5 will be sooooooooo easy then.


Jim

[Mark Sawyer]

We all have the right format size for each of us. Some can't move from 35mm to medium format. I feel at home with the 8x10, and a bit outsized by the 11x14. And for some people, 20x24 is juuuust right...

It's all good...

[Ron Marshall]

Split the difference: go for 5x7 or whole plate!

[Songyun]

And you put it on a ball head and a tripod with center column....

I can hike with my 45 very easy, maybe I can hike with my 8X10 with a good backpack, but not with dorff and a huge lens like that.

[John Kasaian]

Thats a heck of a beak on your 'dorff!

FWIW it's probably best to start with an 8x10----that way it makes other formats seem lightwieght and tiny!

Guys who complain about how heavy some 4x5s are really crack me up!

[Walter Calahan]

I love my 4x5, but 8x10 rules my life.

The 8x10 ground glass is like looking through a window. A 4x5 ground glass is a viewfinder.

I have Gitzo tripods with ball heads. I'd would NEVER put my 8x10 on one.

Do yourself a favor, get a tripod made for 8x10. Preferably a wooden tripod. They work far better in the winter cold. You want a tripod head that can only move in one direction at a time. An 8x10 camera has too much mass for a ball head. With a traditional plate tripod head I can center my camera in seconds.

Finally, my Arca-Swiss compact 4x5 monorail camera weighs more than my KB Canahm lightweight 8x10 field camera.

This is what my 8x10 looks like sporting a Cooke XVa in the 476 mm configuration: http://www.walterpcalahan.com/Cheers/Info.html

Notice the snow, the wood tripod, and the smile on my face. HA!