8x10 or 11x14

[Jeffrey Arthur]

Ah but the simple joys of alternative process options with ulf and contact printing.

[jesse1996]

I am after pretty big prints, and honestly theres a decent market here in nashville given all the tourism and the massive amounts of gentrification, in the last 7 years the areas that are "nice" have pretty much tripled. Most of these people have nice remodeled modern homes and love their big prints, i dont know why people in the area love massive prints, they also have a habit go really nosing the prints at the galleries. So i would like plenty of detail. The end goal is to compare to Clyde or Massimo Vitali who really got me hooked on large as life prints. Around 8'x10' enough for a group of people to view at once.

on that note, thoughts on the aforementioned "one good square inch of film gives one good square foot of print"? whats the largest some of you guys have printed with still sharp results?

[jesse1996]

The current top-of-the-line Hasselblad is $46,000 without a lens.

- Leigh

for that sort of money i could buy a camera in every format with money to spare for top lenses and a car to haul ass in

[jesse1996]

What people do with their money is not my problem, but if one is "saving" for a camera purchase, it stands to reason that a much cheaper option that is affordable much sooner would allow for more actual photography. That would be my reasoning.

Clyde is using a Sony A7 of some stripe, maybe the 42mp A7iir? It's amazing how cheap such a camera is - just $3200 new, so the same price as a Chamonix 8x10! He has the Canon 17mm TS-E ($2200) I believe.

I do enjoy digital photography, i have a T6i that gets the job done in terms of professional gigs and such, but the LF camera would be for my own work in fine art. And granted i am saving so there is a max budget, i feel that $3200 would be plenty to get a decent used set up in either format if I'm patient enough.

[jnantz]

Let's do a thought experiment. Say you decide to buy a high-quality camera and a few good lenses with plenty of movements, if possible.

11x14:

Chamonix 11x14 - $4250 (new), maybe less if you can find a used one, but that's doubtful
4 film holders - $600 maybe, just a guess
Nikkor 450mm f/9 normal lens - $650
Computar 305mm f/9 wide-angle - $1000, if you can find one at a decent price in a shutter
Artar or similar 24" lens - $1000, in shutter
25-50 sheets of film - $500+ depending on new or secondhand deals, just a guess
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$8000+ and you will be burning a lot of cash on film as time goes on.


How about 8x10?

Chamonix 8x10 - $3200 (new), around $2500 used, and they do come up for sale on occasion here. There's also a lot of options on the second-hand market, down to even $500 or less for an old Korona or similar, which are still good cameras.
4 film holders - $200 used
Schneider Symmar-S or similar 300mm f/5.6 normal lens - $300 or cheaper and easy to find
Graphic Kowa 210mm f/9 wide-angle - $450 or so
Nikkor 450mm f/9 - $650
50 sheets of film - $250 or so for FP4+ straight from B&H, and you don't have to wait for a once-a-year run or try finding secondhand
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$4500 max and if you go with a cheaper used 8x10 perhaps as low as $2500 for the whole kit.

Now assuming you are digitizing your negatives and are an expert at that already, your typical $500-1000 scanners can't fit an 11x14. So now you need to spend lots of money on outsourcing scans or maybe get a high-end flatbed and spend another $1000-2000 outfitting that, if you are lucky.

Just running some numbers for fun. I almost bought an 11x14 camera a long time ago. It was pretty inexpensive as 11x14 cameras go, but I didn't. I'm glad I didn't and when I found a 8x10 for peanuts it was fun to jump into a bigger format. 4x5 is still the bread-and-butter of my LF passion. I personally do not find it lacking, and I've made some pretty big prints - as big as I can reasonably make and mount without spending a fortune on presentation. A 36-inch wide print from a well-done 4x5 negative has detail even with your nose pressed onto the print. I wouldn't hesitate to go bigger - though I also have an excellent scanner which makes pulling that kind of resolution off a negative easier.

hi corran

i spent a fraction of that on my cameras.
its like anything, you can go high-line
or you can buy stuff that works perfectly well
and doesn't cost as much as a house.
if need be, i can make up some BS story
about how i schlepped my gear 20 miles in a
yukka pack, built a lean-to and processed my film
by starry night on the peak of some mountain
or how some of my gear was acquired from
xyz photographer or frank zappa so there is a mythos with the photographs ..
at that point buyers care about the gear and how expensive it was/wasn't
how awkward it might have been to use &C .. but in reality
one can easily sell a 30x50" print made from a pentax k1000 developed in
plain-jane developer scanned on a 10 year old epson scanner and people would
be just as happy ..

if i had the opportunity to buy a cheap 11x14 camera back in 1988 the day i walked into
ep levines on lincoln street in boston ... and a handful of film holders and a cheap lens
i would have never bothered with smaller formats. ( i paid as much for an 11x14 i use today[2 backs, bunch of holders]
as i for the 34 year old speed graphic i bought back then ) unfortunately back then 11x14 cameras/holders
cost a fortune, probably more than today. shutterbug was the only place aside form a pro-used shop ...
seeing pierre hadn't started ebay yet ...
like randy, i think the OP should buy the biggest camera he can afford.

as with everything YMMV

[TrentM]

I spoke with Clyde B. a few months ago and he said he as using the Sony A7iir adapted to a Cambo that gave him movements. He is using Hasselblad lenses with it. Otherwise he is using Canon lenses with the Sony, and still drags out the view cameras every now and then. Showed me a new image taken with the 12x20. Nice!

[djdister]

Since the OP wants big, big prints, and I'm guessing he won't be making them himself, he should ask the printer what they want. I'm guessing they would want a digital image file. So you have to ask yourself, apart from the equipment, how much will it cost you to get a drum scan from a 4x5 or even 8x10 vs. from an 11x14 negative?

Here's another tip - beg, borrow or steal a 4x5 and then an 8x10 and shoot with those for a few weeks before deciding that's not big enough for you.

[Luis-F-S]

For what you want to do I'd get a 4x5 or a D810! There was a complete 8x10 darkroom in Nashville a while back. If you PM me I'll send you the info on it.

[bob carnie]

I just made a series of BW prints 24 x30 on 30 x40 sheets from the new Leica Monochrome... just saying that the results were quite comparable to larger formats

If the OP is going to a printer for hire, then I would think 4x5 camera with high resolution scan would be quite nice.

[John Kasaian]

I agree with jnanian. If the OP has it in his mind that he wants to shoot 11x14, he should heed the muse