the step from 35 to MF is a gigantic leap in image quality. the next step to 4x5 is not of the same magnitude.
I've completely lost interest in 35mm. Medium format enlarges better, has more tonality, can be contact printed as a final result, and doesn't have too many frames per roll. I love my Rolleiflex, and I also love my Lomo Belair, despite all its legion of quirks (or perhaps because of them).
Why not just go all the way to 4x5? Is MF really that much of an improvement over 135? Just meant to be a discussion thread to gather your personal perspectives.
I was a Contax guy. I still have my G2 and lenses for it, and an RTS III with 50mm. But they're gathering dust. They're great for what they are, but I just don't shoot 35mm anymore because the small size and the 36 per roll thing. I much prefer the 12 or 6 per roll I get on 120.Arent you a Contax guy (35mm)? Or do I have yo confused with someone else. From memory I recall you having a rather extensive amount of Contax gear. Lost interest in it all?
Personally, I love using MF. I like that it's no more complicated than 35mm (at least in the case of my camera, a Pentax 645 NII) but feels like I'm using a 'real' camera. Love the weight and the slow, methodical way it forces me to work.
I'd really like to give 4x5 a go but would need someone to teach me one on one to do so, what with the complicated process and having to use a handheld light meter. Anyone bringing out a 4x5 with metered prism, I'd be there like a shot.
Thank youWelcome to APUG
Thank you for your reply, very informative. With ref. spot metering; this is the mode I use virtually all the time, though obviously with my camera's built in meter rather than a hand held one.All the APUG 35mm camera owners who are interested in shooting medium format should read this. I completely agree. Loading film is a little different but after that medium format is really easy just like 35mm.
Shooting 4x5 is a different animal because of the sheet film. You have to be clean about loading your film holders and printing your negatives due to dust. Using an incident light meter for exposure is easy. You do have to know what you are doing with a spot meter but it isn't that hard either. A lot of people use an incident meter for large format. Most beginners shoot a 4x5 just like a smaller format camera and learn camera movements as they go. The Steve Simmons book Using the View Camera really helped me. It's very easy to understand and has plenty of photographs to help you. Also join Large Format Photography Forum. Ask about photographers in your area. I'm sure someone will take you out with their camera and show you how to use it before you drop down some of your own cash for a camera. Just buy them a pint after they show you.
http://arlib.press/adc-14860/1626540543
http://www.largeformatphotography.info
All the APUG 35mm camera owners who are interested in shooting medium format should read this. I completely agree. Loading film is a little different but after that medium format is really easy just like 35mm.
Shooting 4x5 is a different animal because of the sheet film. You have to be clean about loading your film holders and printing your negatives due to dust. Using an incident light meter for exposure is easy. You do have to know what you are doing with a spot meter but it isn't that hard either. A lot of people use an incident meter for large format. Most beginners shoot a 4x5 just like a smaller format camera and learn camera movements as they go. The Steve Simmons book Using the View Camera really helped me. It's very easy to understand and has plenty of photographs to help you. Also join Large Format Photography Forum. Ask about photographers in your area. I'm sure someone will take you out with their camera and show you how to use it before you drop down some of your own cash for a camera. Just buy them a pint after they show you.
http://arlib.press/adc-14860/1626540543
http://www.largeformatphotography.info
Personally, I love using MF. I like that it's no more complicated than 35mm (at least in the case of my camera, a Pentax 645 NII) but feels like I'm using a 'real' camera. Love the weight and the slow, methodical way it forces me to work.
I'd really like to give 4x5 a go but would need someone to teach me one on one to do so, what with the complicated process and having to use a handheld light meter. Anyone bringing out a 4x5 with metered prism, I'd be there like a shot.
I like the negatives from 120, the size, the number I get, the cost of the roll, the way I can process, store and enlarge it. Plus the many camera and lenses available that take it, their portability and the wide variety of film available at a manageable cost.
I looked into LF but I'd need a new camera, lenses, enlarger, developing equipment and even then I still wouldn't end up with a bigger photograph since my easel and trays and means to handle the paper would also need to increase.
For me 120 is absolutely the sweetest of sweet spots, I never looked at a 120 negative and wished it was bigger/had more detail.
I can see there is a huge appeal to LF but it's a /maybe I'd try it if they still have such a thing as retirement when I'm 70/ thing for me.
The only real gotcha with MF is the relative and really quite surprising lack of options for movements, that'd be nice, I live with cropping in their absence.
Try shooting a wedding on a 4x5. Or getting some snapshots of the family.
A 4x5 is great but it's like using a semi truck to move a single fridge. If I needed a fridge moved I can with a stretch do it in my 4 door car (135). Would be very hard and a pain but it can be done. A semi would be over kill. A minnie van (645) would work without too much trouble but a pickup truck (6x6 and larger) would be perfect.
Is probably the right answera Crown Graphic with a 16 exp film pack (no longer made) You can shoot almost as fast as a medium format camera.
Modern 6x6,6x7,6x9 are awesome. And with T grain film a 645 is an amazing camera.
Put a 35 mm camera on a tripod, lock up the mirror, use a cable release with T-max 100, Delta 100 etc. You would be amazed what can be done.
You need them ALL
Actually, it all just easily {warning -- an exaggeration!} becomes part of the process...not much different than any camera format. The spontaneity (IMO) comes at the moment of the decision to make the photograph -- not from the quickness at which the photograph was made....The danger I see with LF is all the necessary additional equipment and process/practice that becomes a huge diversion from the plain just taking and making of a photograph.
I think for me personally, it would take a very specific project that just absolutely needed LF to drag me over to the 'large side'.
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