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Thread: 8x10 or 11x14

  1. #41

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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    I think that it can all be done by 8x10, architecture, landscape, whatever. BUT, at what cost and effort?

    8x10 enlargers do come along on EBay. For example, the Beseler conversion pops up every once and a while. Even a Durst 8x10 can sometimes be found. And of course, there's always the possibility of scanning.

    One can get the super-wides for 8x10 architecture, but they cost a ton, and they weigh a ton. For me (all be it at retirement age), "hiking a few miles tops from the vehicle" and 8x10 don't belong in the same sentence.

    For those who remember, Chris Jordon in Seattle is a great example of someone who walked this very same path. He wanted large prints and fine detail. He tried 8x10 and ended up selling all his equipment to the rest of us at very good prices in the FS forum. He went to stitching digital, and the rest is history.

    But sticking to film, I'm thinking that 5x7 is a reasonable, pragmatic alternative. Both architecture and landscape can at times make use of an elongated format. 5x7 cameras aren't sails in the wind that 8x10 cameras can be. Many of the lenses that one might choose for 4x5 can also be used for 5x7. In a 5x7 format, even a Durst enlarger can be affordable. Don't Durst enlargers tip to become horizontal enlargers, when one needs to make very large prints?

    I think that 5x7 would be my choice in the situation that the OP has described.

  2. #42

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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Makes perfect sense Neil. I just don't think sense is one of the criteria.

  3. #43

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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Quote Originally Posted by Luis-F-S View Post
    Makes perfect sense Neil. I just don't think sense is one of the criteria.

  4. #44
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Who cares what a Hasslebland costs? And who gives a damn who switched to digital or who didn't. They probably had their reasons, which might be completely
    logistical and not oriented to optimum image quality at all. Not everyone needs to make prints big enough to thumbtack over a major league stadium scoreboard. If you like sitting on your butt attached to a high-fructose corn syrup IV fiddling around in Photoshop until you resemble a lump of half-melted lard, go digital. If you want to gaze at wonderful opalescent images in a goundglass and gravitate towards tactile darkroom craft, commit to 8x10. But 8x10 enlarger do require more space than 4x5 ones. With patience, even good ones can be found for free. It does help to have basic shop skills, since such things generally need some repair and general maintenance. But don't kid yourself about what it takes. I'm looking down the gun-barrel of my 70's not so far away, and am still
    hiking with an 8x10 up some pretty steep hills. It keeps me in shape; but that formula only works if you keep at it. You gotta be in shape. For long backpack trips I resort to a lightweight 4x5 system instead. The days are long gone when I was comfortable with an 85 or 90 lb pack for days on end. But I would reiterate, unless you are strictly contact printing, I see absolutely no advantage in 11x14 over 8x10. Finding an enlarger for anything over 8x10 is going to be
    an ordeal, though you might be able to make your own from a big graphics copy camera.

  5. #45
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Bob, are those metric inches?

    I have a newsprint poster made 30 years ago, 24x36 inches from a Leica.

    Looks great. That's 24x enlargement.


    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    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.
    Tin Can

  6. #46
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Forgive me when I tend to snicker at the present "giant print" fad. It takes a LOT of money and gear to even learn to do that well. Otherwise, just take your Minox shot to the nearest billboard company and it will come out perfectly adequate for the "normal viewing distance" of half a mile away. I'd rather see an 8x10 contact
    print.

  7. #47
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Damn Minox!

    I started photography at age 7 with Minox 8mm Spy camera. I developed and made contact prints. Dear old dad insisted that was plenty and an enlarger was frivolous. He would not allow me to buy one with my paper route money. Turned me away from photograghy for years until I stole his unused Pentax H1. Then it was Kodachrome slides, never prints.

    Now in my retirement I collect 8x10 enlargers.

    I do see the insanity of it all, but nobody cares. Do they?


    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    Forgive me when I tend to snicker at the present "giant print" fad. It takes a LOT of money and gear to even learn to do that well. Otherwise, just take your Minox shot to the nearest billboard company and it will come out perfectly adequate for the "normal viewing distance" of half a mile away. I'd rather see an 8x10 contact
    print.
    Tin Can

  8. #48
    Corran's Avatar
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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Quote Originally Posted by jnanian View Post
    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.
    That kinda reminds me of some collectors I've seen...they absolutely want to get a Leica but they are dead-set on getting it for $15. So they troll yard sales, flea markets, and thrift shops for 10 years until they find the magical $15 Leica - and then everyone is really envious until they think about the time spent doing it. But for them, the journey is part of the experience, and I get that. If you want to sit down and make photographs sometime this century, one might have to forego finding a $500 11x14 with all the necessary accessories. Perhaps that $600 11x14 in the classifieds would be a good start, and then fix it up or whatever. All that for probably a completely invisible increase in image quality from 8x10 to 11x14, and a lot more headache in the post-exposure world of developing, scanning, etc.

    But then I use 4x5 in a lot of situations that are stupid and more appropriate for MF or 35mm so you know, whatever, but I also have a lot more experience shooting 4x5 and didn't jump in to the deep end right off the bat. Even if one has a tiny amount of 4x5 experience (he mentioned one negative, if I understood correctly?) it's still a far cry from ULF.
    Bryan | Blog | YouTube | Instagram | Portfolio
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  9. #49
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    I'd love to have an early Pentax again. There are plenty of them out there cheap enough; but I imagine all the dust seals have gone gummy and need replacement. I like the look of the older lenses and have even kept my own old Pentax lens all these years, long after the camera shutter speeds wore out. Right now I'm fooling around with a 6x9 Fuji rangefinder - 1/10th the cost of a Leica but just as portable and with 10X better image quality. Medium format was invented in order to keep
    marriages intact, especially on vacation together, or when your film receipt gets found. But I usually get caught anyway, because the wife has to dig past my pile
    of 8x10 film in the freezer to hide a frozen turkey in there when I'm not around to protect my shop turf! Every format has its pros and cons, but it's all fun.

  10. #50

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    Re: 8x10 or 11x14

    Quote Originally Posted by Corran View Post
    So they troll yard sales, flea markets, and thrift shops for 10 years until they find the magical $15 Leica - and then everyone is really envious until they think about the time spent doing it
    eh..they'd be out there at the garage sales anyway.. and btw - that's where I got my 11x14 and lens.. and three holders - from a garage sale (old cameras)

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