Originally Posted by
Oren Grad
My favorite format, have been using it for more than 20 years. Makes a beautiful contact print on 8x10 paper, with a margin for safe handling and corner mounting. Because of the slightly smaller coverage requirement, lens selection is easier than for 8x10, and lens sets will tend to be smaller and lighter because you can often get away with lenses in #1 shutter where lenses of comparable specification for 8x10 come in #3. My standard lens for WP is the 210 Apo-Sironar-S, but even the regular 72-degree plasmats in that focal length, which are cheap and plentiful, offer ample coverage for WP.
When I was getting started more than 20 years ago, it was easier to find vintage cameras and holders, often at bargain prices, as hardly anybody was interested. I stumbled across my first WP camera, an Eastman No 2 with a few holders, at a local camera show - was intrigued, took a chance on it, and the rest is history. I think that would be much less likely today. But now you can at least buy the Chamonix WP camera and holders new, and Ilford film is available factory-cut in that size through the annual special order program.
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