I finally got off my butt to harass my boss about pulling out all his old shooting gear from the dark days of film. I told him I wanted to start shooting some large format again, in my own time ofc. I feel after shooting so much digital I've lost discipline and composure. Too much machine gunning of the shutter haha

After a while, we came across this beauty







Looks like a bunch of junk? I think not! This is the back glass (the viewfinder). Definitely need a black cloth over your head to see the image. It is also upside down because there is no mirror to correct the image like on a 35mm camera.




It's his old Linhof Master Technika 4x5 Camera. This is with the belows extended out ^^^

This post was edited by lithfkn on Jan 6 2010 05:30pm

This is the Polaroid back I had to go out and buy because he couldn't find his :/ Notice the price tag, ouch. The Polaroids (4x5 inch in size) cost around $150 just for 20! In the day, the only way to accurately test an exposure was to shoot a Polaroid first.



An array of lenses for the beast:

Schneider 90mm 5.6 (f5.6 on 4x5 is very wide open, probably around 1.8 on 35mm)

Technika 150mm 5.6

Komura 210mm 6.3

Technika 270mm 5.6

Most of these lenses go right down to f64! Super sharp. (maybe some people here have heard of the f64 group of photographers?)

The front of the case opened up, ready for the bellows to wind out and attach a lens.



The bellows extended, which runs along a rail.



A pic of the front with the 90mm lens attached.



Another pic of the 90mm lens

The whole purpose of using a 4x5?

Numerous: The film area is 4x5 inches in area, which will scan at around 100mp.

The front of the camera (where the lens is, which is called a "standard") can be tilted left, right, sideways diagonal (swivel) and moved up and down. The benefit of this is to correct verticle and horizontal lines, very useful for architecture and interior photography. The back also has a bit of movement, similar to the front.

The downside is the film and Polaroid cost.

Roughly $150 for a pack of 20 Polaroids and 80-90 bucks for a 10 pack of transparency sheet film.

Disregard the cost, write it off as a hobby and the results you can achieve from a camera like this is mind blowingly beautiful


Just thought I'd share some awesome stuff from the past

This post was edited by lithfkn on Jan 6 2010 05:39pm

Here's a shot I took at uni a few years back on a similar 4x5:




Without the use of movable front and rear standards, the building's verticle lines would of converged when pointing a normal camera at it, looking up.

Very nice, I had thought about delving into medium or large format film for something different. At an antique store near where I live there is a huge pile of old cameras that I would love to all have, but I don't have that much money to spare. I think I saw a few large formats, but I honestly have no clue about anything other than 35mm and digital, so I didn't purchase it the last time I was there.

Yeah, they are getting quite expensive now :/

I estimate this kit to be worth 10k + (which makes me nervous because it isn't my stuff lol)

If you think digital is the bees knees, you have to try one of these. It's like a mechanical Photoshop!

Closest thing I can relate it to is having a 35mm camera with 2 ts-e lenses attached to it (one at the front and one at the back)

This post was edited by lithfkn on Jan 6 2010 05:56pm

Wow really? Are large format film cameras really that expensive?

Well, you can get second hand basic location kits for around 1k here if you shop around (usually includes a pretty mediocre lens though) + you need a pretty strong and sturdy tripod to hold the heavy bastard down haha

The kits don't include shutter release cables, film back slides, Polaroid backs, lens hoods etc etc so it gets expensive after the final purchase. May as well get the new 17mm TS-E lol But you can get lucky if someone is selling a package. Try eebay?

This Technika was pretty much the cream of the crop back in its day because it is compact and portable. Any camera under a cubic foot was portable back then lol

A little test Polaroid shot I did in my back yard just then:



Can't wait to put some colour transparency film through it