Your favorite analog format? Why?

[FoidPoosening]

Hey everyone!

Excuse me if this is the wrong subsection as I'm new. I couldn't help but notice many users here have multi-format listed on their profile.

More specifically, what is your absolute favorite analog photography format and why?

GO!

Thanks everyone,

Dan

 

[ME Super]

35mm because slide projectors for this format are readily available and inexpensive. 6x6 because the format reminds me of 126 which I shot as a very young boy.

 

[borek]

Hi Dan,
for me is medium format #1,but 35mm I us every day ,everyone prefer other format ,it is individual

borek

 

[Regular Rod]

Favourites are restrictive but if forced to choose then it would be whole plate for me. Big enough to cope and in a nicer ratio than 8x10. It works as well in landscape as it does in portrait.

RR

 

[brian steinberger]

Medium format for me. 6x6 and 6x4.5.

 

[Ektagraphic]

I enjoy 6x6 very much because I enjoy the option of keeping the image as a square (which has been refreshing after using 6x4.5 and 35mm for a while) and being able to crop it into a rectangular format when printing. I just enjoy the way that things look inside of a square...along the same lines, I think I enjoy 120 the best because the negative is bigger, yet the cameras are still very portable for street shooting. 35mm is nice for something to be done quickly, or with an automatic camera..Just my 2 cents

 

[DannL.]

I must list them together, as I love all my children equally. 8x10 plate/paper, 4x5 plate/paper/film, Half-Plate plate/paper, 5x7 film/paper/plate. For me the construction and age of the camera being used is also important. Not just the size of a plate, film, or paper. For the camera side of the equation I would prefer a wooden view camera over 100 years old, a normal brass lens, and no shutter. I see this as "having your pie, and eating it too". And why not? If you're going to make the investment, why not invest in equipment that you really enjoy using. But I suppose I can say that, as I don't make a living from photography. Another variable that folks might want to consider when buying apparatus is . . . "what format (size) or material do you want to work with when it comes time to print?". I enjoy contact printing as much as enlarging. I prefer working with paper-negatives and plates, followed by modern sheet-film.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

35MM. It's the multitude of cameras,accessories and films. If I really want that giant size blow up (which is never) I have a Yashica 124G. Think I've shot 2 rolls in a decade or so.

 

[Trail Images]

Although I've shot 4x5 for many years now, I find myself using my 6x7 MF unit more and more these days. It works great and it's cheaper to run too. I still enjoy 4x5, but just having a reunion with my original gear as of late.

 

[Ian Grant]

5x4 has been my favorite format of choice for nearly 30 years although I've been shooting it for close to 40 years. It's the controls using LF and it's practicality, I can shoot hand-held when needed.

Second is 6x6 with a TLR, I always work to the format.

Ian

 

[snapguy]

do the job

I pick the camera, lens and format to do the job at hand. I will admit to being fond of 120 film. I have a Rolleiflex and two Yashicamats at the present time and at one time had a Praktixis 120 SLR with a "normal" lens, a 400mm lens and a 180mm f2.8 Sonnar. This was a knockout camera, built like an oversized 35mm camera and q

 

[snapguy]

OOOPs.. I goofed. Sorry. I was saying the Praktisix was quick and easy to use.

 

[pentaxuser]

Dan, just curious as to what prompted this question and what you hope to learn from it? You'll get as wide a range of answers as there are formats and not everyone may have a "most liked format" Not many newcomers ask this kind of thing after as little as 17 posts

pentaxuser

 

[ROL]

I'm still saying it's 120 (6x7) even though I've used LF (5x7) almost exclusively for the last decade or so. Digital has forced me to re-evaluate useful film format selection, and it is my opinion that 35mm has been entirely obviated. Larger films still, for most part, are capable of producing different, if not better, results than digital. If I'm going to spend time with what clearly may now defined as an alternate process, I want the best, most clearly defined process and result possible. And that is LF.

But I do love the relative portability and working with large roll film, and 6x7 (120) gives me the biggest bang for my buck in terms of resolvable image area, fully capable of cropping to desired image area and enlargements – in some cases to 30"x40".

I guess I should be listed as "Multi Format – 35", but I'm not throwing out my Nikon FM and 135 developing reels just yet!

 

[baachitraka]

6x6 for smooth tones and 35mm for grainy prints.

 

[Slixtiesix]

6x6 because I like the square. I also like 4x5 and 8x10. I think these formats allow better concentration. Wide formats like XPAN, 6x12 or 6x17 are not for me.

 

[tony lockerbie]

I'm one of those "multi formatters" and use all three on a regular basis....just can't commit to one! LF for when I'm serious, and I use a TLR or Hasselblad when I travel light. The most used format is 35mm though because I always carry one around, light and immediate.

 

[MattKing]

My answer varies with what I am shooting, and what I am doing with it.

When I am printing in the darkroom, my answer is 6x7.

 

[FoidPoosening]

Dan, just curious as to what prompted this question and what you hope to learn from it? You'll get as wide a range of answers as there are formats and not everyone may have a "most liked format" Not many newcomers ask this kind of thing after as little as 17 posts

pentaxuser

Hey Pentaxuser,

My reason for asking was actually to find more reading material for myself. I have been reading a lot about film but mostly about 35mm and 120 film as they're the most predominant right now from what I've seen. However, I know that as I learn more about film both in reading and in practice I'll want to try more formats. It's really interesting to see why people like the formats they do, especially when they're ones I've not heard of nor have any experience with.

Dan

 

[bdial]

Not sure what my favorite would be, I guess 6x6 is my most used format, but I like working with large format cameras too.
That said, I've been having a recent affair with 35mm, and it's been great fun.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

My clear favourite is 6x7, which allows me the greatest number of print sizes. But I do regularly use 35mm (which I started out with in 1978) for the production of parallel 'postcards' and 5x7" gicléeprints (always conservation matted) around the same time as I am shooting a scene on 6x7 — my long-preferred format for exhibition/gallery RA-4 prints. One or the other (but never both) cameras would be running B&W, the other (chiefly 6x7) running an E6 emulsion. My much loved ZeroImage pinhole camera, currently set to the 6x6 format (it also sets up to 6x4.5, 6x7 and 6x9) and running Portra 150 at EI250, is utilised for unusual, offbeat jobs where the enduring quality of this old type of photography lends itself well (in 2010 I completed a 6-day remote area bushwalk with nothing more than a Sekonic light meter and that pinhole camera).

 

[Maris]

The 8x10 contact photograph is it! Reasons:

The 8x10 contact is a canonical form with a deep history in photography.
Grievous error aside all 8x10 contacts are technically equivalent; mine, yours, Ed Weston's, Ansel Adams'.
No upgrade is possible or necessary.
No grain ever. Infinite sharpness and gradation are available with no particular effort.
Cheap materials. From go to whoa for less than $5.
Enough possibilities for a lifetime of work.
Thousands of 8x10s can be stored, they can be mailed, displayed conveniently, and they won't become a nightmare like a huge pile of big pictures.
No elaborate darkroom is required, no enlarger; just a safelighted work space, a lightbulb, and a few trays.
I can do everything from film exposure to mounting, matting, and framing. No need to buy expensive services from back-room people.
No competition. Why would I strive against 50 million talented digital shooters climbing over each other's backs trying to get noticed?
Anything well photographed on 8x10 seems to acquire a nobility that invites attention.
The 8x10 photographer is pretty well guaranteed to be taken more seriously than someone plinking away with a cell-phone.
Ultimate conceptual integrity. The 8x10 is seen, exposed, processed, finished, mounted, and displayed without changing its original size or its original vision.
There is no cropping. The photographer takes full responsibility for the content right to the edges and corners. The viewer knows they are not short-changed.
No digital technology is used or required. No files need reformating into new media. Everything is eye readable. The medium guarantees it.

What do you think? Did I miss something?

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Medium format first, 35mm sacond.

Jeff

 

[removed account4]

my favorite format... ?
its hard to say ..
i should say something like
35mm or 4x5 or 8x1o because they are portable and easy/ fun
but iwill say 11/14 because it is NOT portable and it is a huge chore to use
but there is nothing like a 11x14 or split 11/14 (7x11) image on ground glass
or to hold / look at a sheet of paper ( paper negative ) that big.

 

[rince]

6x6 for convenient every day carry in my Rollei, but 4x5 for anything planned for it's great compromise in portability, ease of use, but still amazing image quality.