Why Aren't There More 4x5 Reflex Cameras?

[cjbroadbent]

As a young amateur I used a very large and heavy 4x5 German Reflex equipped with an extension bar and a 360mm portrait lens - I still have it. The idea was to keep focus and framing to the last second but it proved to be impractical because it required shooting wide open to see anything at all. The 'sshlunk' of the mirror and focal plane shutter was a notable feature and jarred the camera.
As an inexperienced pro I then made the mistake of buying a Plaubel Makiflex (it shot a square 4x4 on 4x5 film). The camera is in fact the neatest and probably the latest big reflex ever made (I looked at them all) and a great joy to own, but I soon found it impractical and it never earned what I paid for it. Impractical, because losing visual contact with the subject when the mirror went up and then having to change the film-holder and re-cock the camera did not help in directing the subject. Another awkward feature was the double cable release.
As a moderately experienced pro I found considerable happiness with the 4x5 twin-lens reflex Cambo and Grafmatic holders. It paid for itself a hundred-fold doing fashion catalogue work and portraits.
But that is like comparing the original Hasselblad 1000 with the Rolleiflex. Everybody used used two Rolleis (one was being reloaded by an assistant) rather than the Hassy for portraits because the Hassy's mirror had to be re-cocked.
Later, I had accrued experience and enough money for flash power to shoot a plain folding 4x5 with a press shutter at f32 (albeit with the subject's feet nailed to the floor), focus and framing was no longer a big deal and I never lost eye contact with the subject again.

[IanG]

If you look through pre-WWII British Journal Photographic Almanacs you'd find many 5x4 Reflex cameras and the continental 9x12 equivalents, and from a very wide variety of companies.

The advent of roll film SLR's in the 1930's along with the switch to using Rolleiflex and 35mm camera's like the Leica and later the Contax killed them off in Europe as press camera's which was their main use.

Ian

[W K Longcor]

The Gowlandflex is pretty huge, and is a very tall camera. The one I saw had a 240mm lens setup, and it didn't exactly look interchangeable. It seemed like a good camera for full-length portraits, but you'd need a stepladder close to a subject to avoid the up-the-nostrils TLR perspective problem, I think..

A studio I wrked in had an early Gowland TLR 4x5. It had a mirrored viewing box on top which allowed the focus screen to be viewed from the rear, rather than from above.

Keep in mind that a ("old time") formal portrait photographer would compose and focus at the start -- then work with the subject - watching composition from along-side the camera. Only if you really moved the sitter around a lot, did you re-compose / refocus. It made the sitter feel more at ease -- you were paying attention to them rather than peeking down into a dark box!

[Jim Rice]

Would anyone happen to know if Ron Wisner ever acually produced his 4x5 SLR?

[Sevo]

As an inexperienced pro I then made the mistake of buying a Plaubel Makiflex (it shot a square 4x4 on 4x5 film). The camera is in fact the neatest and probably the latest big reflex ever made (I looked at them all)

Not quite the last. Plaubel followed up with the Pecoflex (same camera base, but with monorail instead of rack-and-pinion bellows) a year or two later (the Pecoflex may have been discontinued earlier than the Makiflex). And Arca built their reflexes up into the 1980's. The Gowlandflex TLR positively is the last so far, and may perhaps still be purchased from Gowland (though it is hard to tell from that largely unmaintained web site whether it really is in stock not).

Sevo

[Bosaiya]

Has anyone used 4x5 in Super D, Gowlandflex, ART-FLEX, or Arca Swiss Reflex? Any opinions on SLR vs TLR? Does the Super D's mirror function automatically, or does it need to be engaged and disengaged manually - (if so, is this still better then having no continuous focusing ability)?

I do most of my shooting with Graflex RBs (4x5 and 3x4) these days. The biggest disadvantage is their size and weight. Other than that I love them.

[Sideshow Bob]

I have a reflex viewer on my Ebony. Helps me with composition.

Gale

[Gordon Flodders]

Shooting 4x5 portraits I can't help but wonder what it must be like not to lose sight of the subject after the film is in place ...

Simple answer is to use a rangefinder!

GF.

[Discoman]

And somewhere out there is a 100-sheet 4x5 film magazine.

PS -- motor driven, also!

I heard about that one too!
can't find it anywhere-no mention of it.
RRRGH!!!
have you heard of the vacuum 4x5 back?
it was rumored to be a linhof product.

[John Schneider]

Bob Salomon may chip in with the definitive answer, but vacuum backs are/were common for aerial cameras, so no doubt Linhof made one for their Aerotechnika.