I have made several right turns in photography in the past 20 years. After many years of 4x5 use, about 10 with a Zone VI camera, I made a rash decision (something I am good at) and sold lock, stock , and barrel of 4x5 gear and got an old 8x10 Deardorff.
In short, a disaster. I purchased a tired old camera, leaking bellows, non-functioning knobs, just a bad camera after a pristine Zone VI camera. Same with the lenses---going from modern lenses with good shutters to less than perfect lenses, one in a Packard shutter..... After a few short months I found myself cursing the camera and just wanting the 4x5 back. So I dump it all and purchase a new Ebony RW45, three mint condition lenses, new holders, new meter, blah, blah, blah....
That was about a year ago. Have made several hundred negatives with it and there is nothing wrong with them. About two months ago I started going through the 8x10 contact sheets I had made and was just astounded (again) at how much elegant life there is in those images. I had been so angry with the beater camera that I had never really allowed myself to really look at the 100 or so negatives I had made.
To keep this short, I find myself again wanting to produce those contact images that I just cannot produce in 4x5. Obviously I have to ask myself if I am just not doing the same thing all over....
So here is my question for you seasoned 8x10 users, perhaps you can detect the crap in my thinking.
1. I believe there is a genuine formal difference in the quality of the 8x10 contact that cannot be replicated with a 4x5 camera. This is something independent of the picture content.
2. There is a fundamental and drastic difference between working in 4x5 and 8x10. The ritual and process has different demands and affects the final image as a result of that ritual---reflective, meditative, comtemplative, etc...
3. I suspect my displeasure with the camera was not the format as much as frustration with a disfunctional tool.... had I purchased something of similar quality to the Zone VI, had I bought a Deardorff that did not leak, that I could actually raise the lens and not have it slip because the locking knob would not tighten, I believe I would still be shooting 8x10.
4. I can accept life without enlarging the 8x10. (I have an 8x10 enlarger, I use it to make 20x24 contact sheets from 35mm negs)
5. I will be 50 this July, I'm not too old to start lugging an 8x10 around am I?
I am looking at two cameras----an excellent condition Deardorff or Zone VI. A Wisner would be OK. Would love an Ebony but that is just not going to happen. I could sell my truck I suppose....
And while I have 3 lenses for the 4x5 I generally use one. I think I could shoot for a long time with just a 240.
Any theraputic or psychological help would be appreciated before I tell my wife I am going to make some changes again...
steve
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