Nash,Originally Posted by nash
On some cameras, the backs can be switched between 5x7 and 4x5. Essentially, this gives you both formats on the same camera.
It's a great way to go if you want to play in both formats...
Cheers
Nash,
On some cameras, the backs can be switched between 5x7 and 4x5. Essentially, this gives you both formats on the same camera.
It's a great way to go if you want to play in both formats...
Cheers
Life in the fast lane!
I think that you're second-guessing yourself to death. Large format photography is neither difficult (from the managing the gear point of view,) nor expensive. Look at it this way: you want to try photographing from a new perspective. Fine. Good idea for any decent photographer to aspire to occasionally. Approach it from the same perspective as doing anything new: get the basics up front and learn from it before worrying about what comes next.
Did you get your dream vehical as your first car after getting your license? No, you got what you could get and figured that the Ferrari (or whatever) would come along later. Did you buy your dream guitar on the same day you signed up for your first lessons? No, you got something which fit your skills at the time. As you get better at what you do you also get better at knowing what you need to exercise those skills. Photographing with large format (or anything else, really,) is no different.
Maybe 11x14 is the perfect camera for you. Maybe it isn't. It doesn't sound as though you can afford the dream right now, which is fine since you don't know whether it is or not. Sometimes lack of experience can save us money. Get an inexpensive 4x5 camera, a lens or two, some film holders, some film, and give it a go. After a year or two you'll at least know what questions to ask and you'll be in a much better position to know whether 11x14 or something else is your future. The key point is to get out and go with it instead of trying to analyze it to death. Just do it!
Good luck, and remember: in this forum we may or may not answer your questions but we will definitely talk them to death!
Mike
Bacause you would have 4x5 negs for enlarging (easier to find and cheaper enlargers in that size) and 5x7 for contact printing.
It is a nice option if available but not necessary. Besides, not all 4x5 lenses cover 5x7.
Get a good book from your local library on 4x5, find a reasonably priced 4x5 and one lens, and get used to the equipment.
Last edited by Ron Marshall; 16-Nov-2006 at 10:03.
The proportions for 5x7 and 11x14 are not the same. 5x7 is more rectangular. I am not saying better or worse, just different.
The idea of a 5x7 wih a 4x5 back might make some sense. I am a fan of 5x7. I like the proportions and it is big enough IMHO, to make wonderful contact prints.
steve simmons
Last edited by steve simmons; 16-Nov-2006 at 09:59.
Hey! Mike I agree. I went to a some more difficult stuff in my past just like other people.
I shoot a great deal of 5x7. My main camera is a 5x5 Canham T57 for which I also ahve a 4x5 back. Changing backs takes seconds and the extra back takes up minimal space in my bag. Just another 2 cents worth. BTW, Midwest also sells a 5x7 "holder" that permits the use of a Polaroid 545 holder directly in a 5x7 back without switching to a 4x5 back.
Last edited by Ted Harris; 16-Nov-2006 at 12:59.
Absolutely, the 4x5 will cost less to buy, *far* less to use, and you can recover most or all of the cost of the 4x5 later if you a) don't like large format after, or b) don't feel you need 4x5 any longer after moving up to a larger format.
No matter how badly you screw up in large format, you won't be going anywhere most of us haven't been before. I've got an unusually good record, and I still screw up about 1 negative in four by one means or another, not even counting the learning curve of tray processing. I'd suggest that you'll probably save the cost of your 4x5 outfit (compared to making the same mistakes in 11x14), just in *film*, by the time you're confident enough to hike away from your car to make an image and take just one double sided film holder (which is likely to be the case most of the time in 11x14, due to cost and weight).What throws my confidence off is have to adjust the standards. The tilt , swing etc in LF. That is the bicycle part to me. Will I have to learn all that before I can take my first shoot? I am going to be lucky in get thought the 20 steps the how to articles says. I am more afraid of these 20 steps than I was learning to fly an airplane. Can I go ahead and learn the 20 steps and take pictures before I start working with tilt, swing etc? My luck I will be putting the dark slide in to take the picture and pulling it back out to remove the film holder. I am should a lot of you went thought this also. But to have my friends ask me how did I get that picture so clear and sharp means something to me.
Even better, nothing you can screw up in large format can possibly cost as much as a big mistake in an airplane (and is extremely unlikely to kill you -- backing off a cliff trying to reset your tripod is one of the few reliable ways to die in large format, though in a South Carolina swamp there's always tangling with a cottonmouth...). Leave the gear up while landing, and *at best* you'll be out the cost of two or three complete 11x14 rigs including film holders and tripod (though you're a bit more likely to be insured against the loss with the airplane). Drop a complete 4x5 off a cliff or into a slough, and you can start over for what you paid originally (maybe less, since you'll know a little more about what you want and don't want).
If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D
Do not worry about making mistakes...they're unequivocally guaranteed!! The least expensive variable in the entire chain is film. You absolutely will/must burn a lot of it in order to learn anything at all. If you insist on cheap, stick with your digicam and fire of a terebyte of images. If you want to learn and appreciate the nuances and subtleties of LF, miss a couple of meals, buy lots of film, and 'burn' it with the understanding that it is the essential dues you must pay. As reiterated so often above, 4x5 is the least financially painful and most readily available format to begin.
Last edited by John Voss; 16-Nov-2006 at 15:53.
Or, to put that another way:
"Failure is not an option -- it's standard equipment."
If you can't stand to fail most of the time, you'd better get into some serious warranty discussions with your maker...
If a contact print at arm's length is too small to see, you need a bigger camera. :D
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