How expensive is 8x10?

[Leigh]

As with most endeavors, it can be as cheap or as expensive as you wish.

- Leigh

[ROL]

Your girlfriend's shoes probably cost more than that, Stone….

Hmmm... having a hard time imagining that.

[StoneNYC]

Hmmm... having a hard time imagining that.

I don't have he type of GF's that spends a lot on shoes, though she does have a fancy leather boots that almost costs as much... But they are high quality... Like my pair of leather hiking boots that costs more than $200... But I think you meant high heel shoes, and that's just not part of her agenda, not that type of girl...

[Drew Bedo]

How Expensive?

The cost of Large Format Photography goes up exponentially in a complex relationship with the square of the area of the format. For formats larger than 8x10 the cost goes up by the cube of the area. For panoramic formats it seems to be a higher power.

Anyone have the formula for this?

[Brian C. Miller]

By square inch, it's cheap.

Ilford HP5+
11x14, 25 sheets, $224, $8.96/sheet, 154sq.in., 6 cents/sq.in
8x10, 25 sheets, $121, $4.84/sheet, 80sq.in., 6 cents/sq.in
4x5, 25 sheets, $36.49, $1.46/sheet, 20sq.in., 7 cents/sq.in.
35mm, 1 roll, $7.49, .20/shot, 80sq.in., 9 cents/sq.in.

If you want to spend the least for each shot, then buy a half-frame camera or a Minox.

[djdister]

Sounds like a job for a requirements analysis. How many shots do you expect to take per year? What do you envision for printing - enlarging or contact printing? What is your current shots to "keepers" ratio? Will you be processing the film yourself? Is weight and transportability (car/plane/backpack) a factor?

[Luis-F-S]

How Expensive?

The cost of Large Format Photography goes up exponentially in a complex relationship with the square of the area of the format.

If you're comfortable with 4x5 I'd stick with it. Much cheaper and easier and you can reasonably enlarge it. 8x10 enlargers are beasts, had a Chromega F years ago and got rid of it. 4x5 cameras and lenses are also going much easier to find and much cheaper than 8x10, particularly if you're "broke".

[StoneNYC]

By square inch, it's cheap.

Ilford HP5+
11x14, 25 sheets, $224, $8.96/sheet, 154sq.in., 6 cents/sq.in
8x10, 25 sheets, $121, $4.84/sheet, 80sq.in., 6 cents/sq.in
4x5, 25 sheets, $36.49, $1.46/sheet, 20sq.in., 7 cents/sq.in.
35mm, 1 roll, $7.49, .20/shot, 80sq.in., 9 cents/sq.in.

If you want to spend the least for each shot, then buy a half-frame camera or a Minox.

On 35mm did you take care to actually eliminate the perforated area from the total square inch calculation? The wasted area on 35mm is much higher

And forget about 16mm surface area waste...!

[ROL]

I don't have he type of GF's that spends a lot on shoes, though she does have a fancy leather boots that almost costs as much... But they are high quality... Like my pair of leather hiking boots that costs more than $200... But I think you meant high heel shoes, and that's just not part of her agenda, not that type of girl...

Damn! I hoped you were ignoring me. FTR, none of that is what I meant.

[Drew Wiley]

How do you wrote a cost equation where is quantitatively states, I shoot 8x10 because I want to ... I like it. Rationale enough.