Days of 4X5, And Again?

This was quite a departure for me. I decided to haul out my 4X5 after not using it for more than a year - God was I slow! Still, I had fun, and it certainly works.

I don't know that the images are any better than I am getting with stitching and my 1Ds2 and when you factor the $10 per shot, film and processing included (and a hell of a lot more if you want it drum scanned), and the time it takes to make a single image, well I guess there's a reason I shoot digital.

But it was fun, and I might well do it again in black and white, but probably not colour. This was using my Shen Hao teak 4X5 with black fitting - an absolutely gorgeous looking camera and quite nice to work with, quite precise, well made except for the back on axis tilt which is a bit stiff (you still have base tilt which I normally use anyway).

If someone were interested in getting into 4X5, this would be an excellent way. ON a really tight budget, you could do what I did at first which is use a 4X5 crown graphic with a 135 optar lens - a pretty good combination for landscape work and more than enough to get you going in large format. But that teak camera sure is pretty, and with a shen hao 6X12 roll film back, well....