Useless question out of curiosity: 4x5 versus 5x4

AgX

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In England, Fanny refers to the area around the front rather than behind..... and female only!


This makes me see the title of that novel "Fanny Hill" from a complete new perspective...
 

Two23

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I always thought that 5x4 was an Australian thing, since they are upside down anyway.


Kent in SD
 

Bruce Watson

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Cartesian coordinates

You'll get lots of answers. I'm an American and I call it 5x4. Because I normally shoot in landscape mode, and I'm an engineer. When working in a Cartesian coordinate system, x is the horizontal axis, y is the vertical. So 5x4 is the "correct" way to state it for landscape mode, while 4x5 indicates portrait mode.

But the point is to communicate, not necessarily to be "correct" so I'll take it either way.
 

JBrunner

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I know it really doesn't matter, but I'm curious as to why some people refer to a camera/film as 4x5 and others 5x4 (or 8x10 vs 10x8, etc). Is it a cultural thing (I notice a lot more English and European than American photographers call it 5x4).

It's due to the Coriolis effect, which happens worldwide, not to be confused with the Corleone effect, which is prevalent mostly in Chicago and New York.
 

lxdude

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You see, JB is really in the witness protection program, which is why he's in Utah, and and his name is...well, I can't tell you, for obvious reasons, but it's not Coriolis. He prefers to profess ignorance about any goings on over on the smelly side of the harbor.

Why is New Jersey called the Garden State? Because plants really like growing over shallow graves!
 

MattKing

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I have a friend who emigrated to Canada from England. He was amazed by the reaction at his office one day when he made an error in some pencil notations he made and asked one of his female co-workers if she had a "rubber" he could borrow to make the necessary correction.
 

Steve Smith

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Kodak uses a Silver Gallon in the plant, but a Silver Mole in KRL. Coatings are in mg/square foot, and so the last conversion in the coating calculations contains 454 in it to convert the units.

We used to have a silver plating line at work. The plating current is determined by the area measured in square decimetres. I think this method is common to most types of plating including through hole plating for printed circuit boards but it always seemed strange to me.


Steve.
 

RH Designs

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In the UK petrol must be sold by the litre, yet govt official fuel consumption figures for cars are in miles per gallon. Carpet is sold by the metre, yet often priced per square yard. You can legally buy a pint of milk or beer, yet any other fluid must be sold by the litre. Madness!
 

Jose LS Gil

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I think ALL of you missed the obvious correct answer to the OP's question.

The reason why it is 4X5 and not 5X4 is because that is the way it is written on the yellow Kodak box

And we all know that Kodak has never made a mistake or let the LF world down
 

jacarape

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The really mad mad world part of that is we PAY for this. Ok, maybe not me as a Yank, but we have our own madness we pay for.

I live in Virginia and Norfolk is paying 100 million dollars for light rail track that goes from Norfolk to a 7/11 in Virginia Beach. Madness! If I want to take a bus 9 miles it takes 2 1/2 hours and I have to walk a mile.

Back on topic, has anyone ever seen a 10x8 camera? I hear they're collector items.
 

RH Designs

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Back in around 97 Roger Hicks wrote a review for Shutterbug magazine of some British darkroom products, ours included. Among them was Nova's 5x4 developing tank which, he explained, could be used in the USA if the film was loaded sideways .
 

lxdude

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I live in Virginia and Norfolk is paying 100 million dollars for light rail track that goes from Norfolk to a 7/11 in Virginia Beach.

I've wondered why so many people pronounce "Norfolk" as "Norfuck".
I think I know now.
 

AgX

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The reason why it is 4X5 and not 5X4 is because that is the way it is written on the yellow Kodak box
And we all know that Kodak has never made a mistake or let the LF world down

Don't forget, one of Kodak's greatest successes was with circular images...
 

Steve Smith

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Don't forget, one of Kodak's greatest successes was with circular images...

A real problem trying to get the horizon straight with those!


Steve.
 

rpsawin

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This is why I find 6x6 the least confusing format....

Bob
 

Sirius Glass

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As a Brit living in America I seem to use 4x5 and 5x4 to suit my audience. That's true of many terms - 'lift' vs. 'elevator', 'street' vs. 'road', but not when I'm driving

A street is paved. Example: In the City of London there are streets.

A road is not paved. Hence country roads.

Now the uneducated English/American speakers incorrectly use them interchangeably for paved thoroughfares.

Steve
 

Sirius Glass

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I live in Virginia and Norfolk is paying 100 million dollars for light rail track that goes from Norfolk to a 7/11 in Virginia Beach.

Actually, once the tracks are laid, they do not go anywhere. They are in place in the evening and the next morning they are still there.

So, exactly what is your problem?

Steve
 

lxdude

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A railly interesting train of thought, Steve.
 

lxdude

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once the tracks are laid, they do not go anywhere. They are in place in the evening and the next morning they are still there.

Same thing with me.
 

grahamp

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A street is paved. Example: In the City of London there are streets.

A road is not paved. Hence country roads.

Now the uneducated English/American speakers incorrectly use them interchangeably for paved thoroughfares.

Steve

Hmmm. Streets are normally edged with buildings, roads not necessarily - urban sprawl has lined a lot of named roads A British road would be paved in most cases.

Colloquial usage causes almost as much confusion as terminology. In another few years I doubt I will understand anyone under twenty no matter where they learned English!
 

lxdude

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Yeah, we have a lot of roads which are now urban. I don't hold with the paved thing. Less than 10 years ago I lived in a town in which some streets were unpaved. And roads, including several roads which are called a trail or truck trail, are paved. Pictures from the 1880's of the downtown in the city where I now live, show the streets being dirt (and sometimes mud). I've seen old photos of the streets in LA being dirt- western Wilshire Boulevard, too.
 

jacarape

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Actually, once the tracks are laid, they do not go anywhere. They are in place in the evening and the next morning they are still there.

So, exactly what is your problem?

Steve

Amazing, it was in front of me the whole time and I just never saw it. And when I awoke the next day it was still there. Unlike my last two wives...

Thanks!
 

grahamp

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It would be difficult to find an unpaved road in the UK, at least at the old class C level. I remember one about a mile from where I used to live in Reading. Now, I can find a couple of unincorporated streets that are almost four wheel drive only not far from me, but that is the exception. The difference in infrastructure between California and NW Europe is about on a par with the difference in scale between NW Europe and the Pacific coast States.
 
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