• Expense. Just about anything that has to do with large format is going to cost more than smaller formats. The lenses are more. The cameras are more. The film is more. The enlargers are much more. Used equipment can lower the costs, but point is that someone moving into large format will probably find the price of aquiring or upgrading equipment to be high.

• Time. Large format cameras and techniques are not honed for speed. While there are various options that can make film changes faster and cameras lighter and easier, they cannot compete with smaller cameras for speed. Large format cameras tend to require tripods, careful focusing, and adjustment of the camera movements to obtain a desired effect. Coupled with the expense of the film and processing, large format lends itself more toward exposures taken in singles or pairs that have been carefully composed and worked out, rather than by burning rolls bracketing exposures or getting numerous frames of the same subject-hoping to get the perfect one in there somewhere. Large format is a rifleshot to 35mm's shotgun blast.

Q4. What are the different kinds of view cameras? What's a technical camera, a press camera, etc?

• Field cameras are the typical and classical view camera. A field camera is generally intended to be used outdoors. They are often designed to be rugged, lightweight, and compact. They usually have flat beds on the bottom that are hinged to the back (rear standard), which gives a very sturdy platform. They usually have limited or moderate movements and the flat bed folds up to protect the front. Typical field cameras include offerings by Zone VI, Wisner, Canham, Gandolfi, Toyo-field 45AII, and the Horseman 45FA.

• Studio cameras, often also known as monorail or technical cameras, tend to be designed to look like an optical bench. They usually have one rail (hence monorail that runs horizontally with the front and rear standards attached to it so that they can slide along the rail's length. The rail is mounted on a tripod or equivalent support. The front standard, rear standard, and the bellows tend to be detachable and modular, allowing interchangeability with other standards or accessories (such as extra-long bellows, bags, larger or smaller backs, etc). They also often have their movements marked and graduated so that the camera's position can be recorded and duplicated. Popular studio cameras include offerings by Sinar, Calumet, Toyo and Horseman.

• Press cameras are fairly rare today--the name derives from large format cameras used by press (newspaper) photographers. They tend to have limited or no movements. They tend to be compact, lightweight, and rugged. The big differences between press cameras and traditional field cameras are that press cameras are meant be handholdable, are meant to be focussed with a viewfinder instead of a ground glass back, and have limited or no movements.

  Press cameras tended to be replaced by 35mm and medium format cameras. Famous press cameras include those made by Linhof and Graflex.

Q5. What are the various sizes of film?

Q7. What do the different movements do?

Tilts and swings are used for two purposes--to change perspective or to manipulate the depth of field. Have you ever looked at a photograph of a skyscraper (or any tall building) and it looked like it was collapsing because the walls were converging? This is called keystoneing. It usually comes from tilting a camera upward--parallel lines converge and the perspective is loused up. Large format cameras can correct this--if the camera is pointed upward, the standards can be tilted so that the parallels no longer converge. This is invaluable in architectural photography.

Focus control is more difficult to explain. With a fixed lens camera, depth of field is simply the area in focus from a certain minimum distance to a certain maximum distance. This area of focus is actually a three-dimensional space--and this space's position can be altered by the movement of the camera standards. A classic example is a photograph of a wall that runs diagonally from your camera position. Suppose that it is impossible, with a fixed lens camera, to get the whole wall in focus because the depth of field just does not get large enough to cover. A view camera can shift the depth of field to run parallel to the wall, so that all of the wall is in focus. The same thing can be done with landscapes, where a nearby chair in the bottom of the frame can be in focus along with the distant hills in the top of the frame. Lens and film plane movements offer controls that are unheard of with fixed lens cameras.

• Camera. This is obvious. Prices run the gamut, depending on what you want. They vary by how many features they offer and how pretty they are. New cameras start around $500 and average around $1,200-1,500. Used camera prices depend on how good the camera was to start with and how pretty it was. Expect the prices to start around $50 for an ugly clunk and go up from there.

• Lens. Large format lenses are lens/shutter combinations that are mounted onto a lensboard and placed on the front standard. The lenses are longer than those used on 35mm--a normal lens for 35mm film is 50mm--but a lens for a 4x5 is around 150mm. (Note: Older large format lenses are often measured in inches rather than metric. For a close approximation, consider 1 inch to equal 25mm. Thus a 5 1/2-inch lens is about 135mm.) Also, they have to be able to create a image that's wider than the negative to allow for the movements. Prices for new lenses start around $250 and average around $800-1,200. Used lenses (unless they were ground from Coke bottles) start around $150 or and go up rapidly from there. See Question 8 for more about used lenses.

• Film holders. Sheet film has to be held in place by a film holder. Typically these are little light-tight boxes with removable dark slides. You load the film into the holders in the dark and put the dark slide in place. This makes them light-tight. You then put the holder into the camera back, remove the darkslide, and expose the film. New film holders are around $12 to $15 each for (4x5 holders. More for the bigger formats). Used depends on their condition (check them before you buy) and how desperate the seller is to offload them.

• Heavy-duy Tripod. View cameras tend to be large and heavy, and they require large and sturdy tripods. Typical 35mm camera tripods won't be good enough-- the center of gravity will be so high that it will be easy to tip the camera over. New is a couple hundred dollars. Used depends on the condition and the seller's interest in getting rid of it.

• Exposure meter. Since almost all small cameras come with meters, more and more photographers manage to get through life without a hand meter. Large format cameras usually don't come with meters, so you'll either have to get a hand-held meter or use another camera's onboard meter. Meter prices very widely depending on what you want--like anything from $25 to $1000.

• Focusing Cloth. Most view cameras are focused by looking at the image on a ground glass on the film plane. It's too difficult to view the image with a lot of ambient light, so you'll need a dark cloth to drape over the back of the camera in order to focus the image. Some cameras allow for an optional viewing hood. They tend to start around $15.

• Carrying Case. You'll probably need a box to store and carry all this stuff. Cases are like tool boxes. Prices vary too widely for even a ballpark figure. But here's a tip--resourcefulness may save you some substantial money.

Q9. What is a good starter camera for a large format novice?

The numeral after it refers to the size of the shutter--specificially the size of the hole you have to bore in the lensboard to fit it. The lower the numeral, the smaller the shutter. A size 00 is the smallest. A size 3 is the largest modern shutter, though older shutters can be found in size 4 and 5.

As the distance between the lens apeture and the film grows, light falloff becomes more of a concern, and after a point it has to be compensated. This is called either bellows extention factor or exposure factor.

The point where the lens distance becomes important is when the focus point is less than ten times the focal length of the lens. For example, a 6-inch lens requires the bellows extention factor added in when focusing on a subject less than 60 inches (5 feet) away.

There are a variety of calculators and rulers that can be used, and there are various mathematical formulae. Here is one of the simple ones:

Exposure factor = (v/f) squared
where v = the distance from the lens to the film plane (the bellows draw)
f = focal length of the lens

Here it is in action. You meter the subject and you the meter reads 1/125th at f22. You're using a 6-inch lens and your bellows are racked out 8 1/2 inches.

(v/f) squared = (8.5/6) squared, which is 1.417 squared, which is around 2. In which case you would either drop the shutter speed to 1/60th or open the aperture to f16.

Ansel Adams, in his book THE CAMERA, gives a slightly different version of this formula that will yeild the same result. His formula is F = v squared / f squared (where v and f are the same as described above). Using the same data, F = 8.5^2/6^2, which is 72.25/36, which is approximately 2.

• My favorite is Leslie Strobel's View Camera Techniques.It's expensive and it's dry, but it's an excellent reference book. One of the things I like best about is that it charts the specifications of many modern view cameras and lenses.
• Steve Simmons, who edits and publishes View Camera Magazine, wrote Using the View Camera: A Creative Guide to Large Format Photography. I'll write more about it if I get a chance to read the book.
• Ansel Adams's classic The Camera has a chapter about large format cameras.
• K O D A K book View Camera ....Large Format Photography Inquire at Kodak
• The View Camera by Harvey Shaman...New Edition Completely revised and updated
• A user's Guide to the View Camera by Jim Stone New Edition completely revised..
  Very nice written, some history also...