In Praise of 5x7... Post'em !

[Marko]

Matt, I like that first one very much. There is something in it that draws the eye in and keeps it there.

[h2oman]

Yeah, Matt, the first one IS nice. (I like the second just as much, I think.) Are you familiar with the work of David Plowden? You would probably enjoy it:

http://www.davidplowden.com/

Check out the "Rural America" shots.

[sanking]

Oh my, that's the camera I've always wanted, a Canham 5X7, it's enough to make a grown man cry. I love 5x7 and have a junker Seneca 5x7 that will probably never get restored, why bother, and a clean and nicely restored Kodak 2D 5x7, the bulldog of 5x7 cameras. But the Canham is the one I have always wanted to buy, own, and use.

Curt

Curt,

The wood Canham 5X7 is a very good camera, lots of bellows and plenty of movements and reasonably compact. But you might also want to consider a Shen Hao FCL57-A if money is a consideration. It is much less expensive than the Canham and has lots of movements and bellows draw (enough for 450mm lenses, slightly less than the Canham), sets up quickly and very rigidly, and is about as compact as the Canham 57. I have owned both and on balance prefer the Shen Hao.

Sandy King

[Matt Miller]

Thank you Marko & h2oman.

I am familiar with Plowden's work and do enjoy it.

[sanking]

Here is a 5X7 image with some nice clouds. Canham 57 with Nikkor 450 lens.

The famous pictorialist Ortiz-Echagë made many Fresson prints of this subject, near Huesca in Aragon, Spain. But most of his prints with clouds are composite pictures, with the clouds printed in from other negatives. My clouds were right there in the original scene.

Sandy King

[Allen in Montreal]

Great detail in the sky Sandy,
very nice.

[Donald Miller]

Another 5X7/210 symmar. This is my one obligatory tree picture for 2009 taken in the poplar forests of northern Italy.

[henrysamson]

Curt,

The wood Canham 5X7 is a very good camera, lots of bellows and plenty of movements and reasonably compact. But you might also want to consider a Shen Hao FCL57-A if money is a consideration. It is much less expensive than the Canham and has lots of movements and bellows draw (enough for 450mm lenses, slightly less than the Canham), sets up quickly and very rigidly, and is about as compact as the Canham 57. I have owned both and on balance prefer the Shen Hao.

Sandy King

I second Sandy's endorsement. The Shen Hao FCL57-A is a great 5x7 and it is the lightest 5x7 I have ever used (except for the Charten which I owned very briefly, but it had limited movements). If you are planning to carry it on your back for any length of time, weight matters.

Hank

[Ray Bidegain]

I have a new 5x8 I have been using and these are a couple of new images I made with it. Platinum prints.

Ray

[Eric Biggerstaff]

After years of 4X5 work, I moved up to 5X7 a couple of years ago thanks to Chauncey Walden. It took me about a second to realize it was the format for me!

Here is a little aspen image from this fall.