Inspired by https://www.largeformatphotography.i...uot-5x7-Camera

the "best" 5x7 camera rose up the noted preference of light weight field folder cameras over virtually any monorails view camera.
This appears to be what practice of view camera images have become. From silver gelatin prints to color prints via traditional wet darkroom prints to scanned negatives then prints made from digital files to carbon prints, wet plate and a long list of alternative image making process has come much alive today.

Rolling the large format time machine backwards, this was not always the world of large format. There was a time when apprenticeship into the ways and methods of view camera happened in Photography school often using a 4x5 Calumet or Burke & James or similar monorail view camera with a Ilex Paragon or similar lens. These were the instructional tools for learning how to view camera, how camera movements worked and all the basic skills needed to view camera. More often than not it was done under controlled and supervised conditions with a qualified instructor. Much of this was to groom photography students to have the abilities to do studio and similar view camera (monorail was THE camera of choice) work that was in demand back in then film Foto days.

~BIG strobes with the needed light modifies were a "thing" back then.~

Much of this appears to have changed, many today venture into LF via curiosity after growing up with digital or curiously wanting to try LF.. The image making inertia from using essentially a box camera be it digital or film is often carried over to expectations and demands for what a view camera needs to be. Add to this the "Ansel Adams" factor of trying on the shoes of group f64 landscape photography. All good in many ways as a sizable sheet film user base means sheet film companies have a better chance of continued production of sheet film.


Discuss...

Bernice