Am I insane to reenter large format

[Alois Lazecky]

Hi ! Am I insane to return to large format again ? I always liked using 4x5 and then digital age got better of me, but I never lost interest in doing photography the good old fashion way. I have an opportunity to purchase Arca Swiss model C with Geronar 210 for very good price and I wonder if I should do it again in these modern digital years. What do you think ?

[Ralph Barker]

Yes, and yes. Welcome to the asylum, and welcome back to LF. ;-)

Digital is a wonderful medium for what it's good at. But, there is also great satisfaction, as well as excellent images, to be made with large format - work that simply cannot be done with a 35mm-frame digital.

[Alan Davenport]

Well, assuming you accept that you were off your rocker the first time around, why should this time be different?

I firmly believe that digital photography will supercede film, and it won't be another hundred years down the road either. But while it's here, I'm shooting LF. I practically get goosebumps every time I compose a picture on the GG; never had that happen with any other kind of camera...

[Graeme Hird]

No. If you have to ask if you're off your rocker, you're not. I suggest spending the next few years buying semi-obsolete digital gear, always trying to get better and better quality out of your computer.

That should drive you absolutely batty, and only then will you be ready - without having to ask the inpatients of the asylum if you can join them. You will already be committed to the cause.

(Just go and get it. You can always sell it off in a few months if you find you don't really like it.)

Cheers,
Graeme

[J. P. Mose]

None of us are insane...maybe a little eccentric...but certainly not insane!

[Alois Lazecky]

Thank you all for your confirmation, I will go and pick it up. 4x5 is the smallest I'm willing to work with. I realy loved the 8x10 but Calumet C1 was unfriendly in the field. Thanks again Louie

[CXC]

Yes, ASAP, while film is still available.

[Gem Singer]

Hi Louie,

Yes, you probably are insane. But, so are the rest of us in this asylum. I suggest that you invest in a Polaroid 545 back and use Type 55P/N film. Scan the negatives and print them digitally. That way, you will have the best of both traditional and digital with no need to set up a wet darkroom.

[Dan Wells]

You may be insane, but it's really rewarding. Have you got a local friend who is also interested? I just jumped in with a dear friend and frequent photo buddy, and it is great fun to go out together with the big camera (not to mention that it's easier to remember all the little pieces with two people.) I still shoot digital as well, but I average 100 digital shots to get one really great one. With LF, we shot 9 on a recent expedition, with 7 being beautiful. It is largely the slower way of working that increases the number of "keepers".

-Dan

[Brian Ellis]

"What do you think?"

I think you should not bother asking other people questions that only you can answer.

[Calamity Jane]

Yer perfectly normal. I know 'cause the voices in my hed told me so!

[Bernard Languillier]

Glad to hear that I am not the only "new" 4*5 user around!

As an amateur shooting mostly landscape, I am coming from high res 35 mm DSLR too... I am now trying to figure out when I should use the DSLR and when I should use the 4*5...

Either way, the images will end up digitalized in the computer and out to the printer.

Best regards,
Bernard

[Thomas Nutter]

I too enjoy using film cameras of all sorts--My last project was a series of portraits in 4X5.

I do often find myself with a sad sense of doom, wishing that digital stuff would go away...and when I'm shooting raw files on my canon digital, realizing it's almost impossible to make a digital picture that can't be at leaast "fixed" in post production, I sigh with despair at how the craft of photography has been so cheapened by these digital gizmos.

On the other hand, I owned an 8X10 csmera and an 8X10 polariod processor for about a week...only to be so overcome with guilt about wasting my money "at this time" in the business, I had to sell it again on ebay.
I still have a 4X5, still have a Hasselblad, and Yes.... my beloved Leicas! I shoot personal work on film. Assignments usually end up digital in the end.

I say do as you like.....in the immortal words of the great Rock poet, Sheryl Crowe--"If it makes you happy, why are you so sad?"

Now, Where's that whiskey!?

[Mike Buehler]

bernard,

The DSLR should only be used as a paperweight for your notebook :)