Is anybody on here still using a view camera?

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
Is anybody on here still using a view camera?

If only I had the time ...

I've never owned a view camera but they certainly are still widely used by professionals. My friend Mustafa Bilal, Seattle-based photographer well known for his outstanding work in the firearms industry (if you've seen a recent Leupold catalog you've seen his work) routinely uses a view camera for his studio photos.

He has both film and digital backs for the camera and can provide clients with whichever they prefer. He told me he uses view cameras not so much as a matter of image sharpness/detail, but for the perspective and depth of field control available with view camera swings and tilts.

Every now and then I drag out a plate camera, or medium format film camera, but not too often any more.
Been doing a bit of B&W developing with my niece it's fun but I wonder how we ever really got on with it for serious work.
There's a big resurgence of B&W now, unfortunately most of it looks pretty poor, grainy, low contrast, lots of motion blur and poor focus. People seem to be going from diggi to film without actually learning much about it.

I learned how to take pictures and develop B&W with a Yashica Mat124G. But to be honest, I now have too much fun fiddling with digital at almost a fraction of the cost of film. And to think that only 3 years ago I was a staunch defender of film versus digital!

HP5 120 roll £4 ...
to develop it at a good lab £10, that's £2 a shot just for the negs.
Your going to have to get some pretty special images to justify that!

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
Is anybody on here still using a view camera?

There was a time when a big view created some amazing images!

Still have a 4x5" Crown Graphic and a 4x5" Cambo monorail that are used for fun. Have 2 1/4x 3 1/4" roll film backs as well as GrafLock hoods for them.

The 2 1/4 Hassies and the large format cameras produce a very different presence than modern digitals do ... but are such a hassle to print!


Have scanned 4x5" negatives and printed them digitally. Lessens the hassle factor. You really do need BIG disk drives for storage.

The side view picture of the Cobra on the cars thread is one of those.