What makes 8x10 Different from 35mm?
Since photography fits in your pocket and is accessible to everyone, I am often asked, Why do you use such a big, old camera? A very valid question. Taking photographs is easy, but making fine art photography sure is a challenge. Like a life-long game of chess, learning to make great photographs means learning how to utilize your equipment to best express your vision. Here, in this 2 part blog, I am here to explain why 8x10 is the sweet spot for making fine art photographs.
The Camera:
Large format photography and especially 8x10 has been the choice for photographers and artists throughout the 20th century. Ever since I read Sally Mann’s memoir, Hold Still, I have dreamed of owning an 8x10 camera. Her photographic style just seem to resonate with me, combining sharpness of a subject with a dream-like wonderland… It didn’t matter what kind, I just wanted to get into 8x10 photography as quickly as possible. In mid-2020 I really dove into 4x5 thanks to a friend who lent me a Busch Pressman Model D. It is a very good camera that was compact and not too heavy. Just months out of brain surgery I was learning how to walk again and rebuilding my strength. Carrying around this camera to further and farther places gave me the motivation to grow and get stronger. Now I can finally introduce you to my new (old) camera.
Technical Briefing:
I purchased the Eastman View Camera No. 2-D, manufactured between around 1926. It is also referred as the Kodak 2D. This camera is a big, beautiful beast with a weight just over 11 pounds. It is a simple camera with very little movements (5 degrees of rear tilt and swing in each direction, 4 inches of front rise, half inch front fall). Maximum extension of the focusing bed (with added rail) is 750mm. It is extremely sturdy and finely crafted. I chose it because it is affordable and is well equipped for very heavy, large lenses.
Which this camera came bundled with the Ilex Calumet Caltar 375mm f/6.3. This lens is mounted in an Ilex #5 shutter. And is mounted on a 6 inch square board. The lens is very heavy at 2 lbs, 14 oz. I had no idea what a heavy lens was until I picked this one up.
You might be thinking… 6.3 aperture! HA That’s SO SLOW! If you had that thought, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Consider this, however: On 8x10 this 375mm lens’ field of view is equivalent to that of a 50mm lens on 35mm. If this “telephoto” length lens feels like a normal lens on large format, then the depth of feild in the aperture gets the equivelent reduction as well. If this 375mm lens is shot wide open at f/6.3 on 8x10 film— it is roughly equivalent to 50mm shot at f/0.87! So while “slow,” the image rendering wide open is simply stunning to behold.
Film and Beyond:
With a large camera, obviously, comes large film. The film is just shy of 8x10 inches (201.7mm x 253.0mm) and must be placed into “film holders.” These are not too heavy as a single unit, but the weight adds up quick because each holder is more or less one pound depending on make/brand. So a sheet of film goes into a holder (2 photos per holder) This holder is about one inch longer in each dimension for 8x10 so about 9 x 11 x .5 inches. The film holder itself has more surface area that the laptop I’m typing on. It is pretty clear by just the apparatus that holds the film that 8x10 is not going to be action packed.
Even development of the film must be carefully considered. Developing a sheet of 8x10 has its own challenges from standard roll film. It’s not impossible, it just takes more out-of-the-box thinking to make it happen.
With great size comes great responsibility… Just how the heck you are going to carry all this crap around!? Every photograph must have intention behind it and is to be thoughtfully planned for. In total the weight of this kit is getting close to 20 pounds. That’s a far cry from the light weight camera you can sling around your neck or even carry in your pocket and make phone calls with. Technology today has allowed for some mind blowing things over the years, but it really begs the question— Why all the trouble with 8x10 from the last century?
Formats Comapared:
When I first set up the camera I was stunned when I pulled my subject into focus. Right away, I saw that my focal point on the ground glass were much more “important” and the image seemed to pop out at me with beautiful 3-D like effect. It was so breath-taking that I decided to make a fun little experiment; I photographed a simple still life on my kitchen table. Nothing here is fancy or meaningful. It is just what was there that day.
I photographed the same scene with these different cameras from the same tripod position (1 meter away), using the same film (Ilford fp4+), using the same aperture and exposure (f/8 @ 2 sec), developed the same method (Rodinal 1+100 semi-stand 60m). Here are the cameras:
35mm— Nikon F with 50mm Nikkor AI-S f/1.8 “pancake”
120 6x6cm— Minolta Autocord L with Chiyoko Rokkor 75mm f/3.5
4x5 inch— Wisner Technical Field with Fujinon-W 135mm f/5.6
8x10 inch— Eastman View Camera No. 2-D with Ilex Paragon Anastigmat 12 inch f/6.3
A simple scene of my kitchen table from my smart phone camera.
Contact Prints laid on top of one another to show size difference.
Scans of contact prints above to show difference of image rendering, note that these are exposed at the same aperture and have all similar framing, but as we move from 35mm up to 8x10 the depth of field is much shallower. Even though the lens and format have gotten significantly larger, the field of view has not changed. Even at f/8 the foreground and background are very much out of focus, while the film spool remains deadly sharp. (click to enlarge):
100% crop on the focus point of each print, note the image quality, fidelity, and sharpness of each format:
Confession: These are modest scans of contact prints. Quality scans of the actual negatives would yield better results from all formats. To keep this as consistent as I could I opted to scan the print and not the negative. It is also visibly clear how the size in format varies from small to large with prints side-by-side.
What is the verdict here? From small to large you’re trading speed and convenience for precision and image quality. The lens dictates a lot of what the image rendering will feel like and the crop of that lens will be the format we select for the photograph. You can put a 300mm lens on a small camera and get the same look as a big camera, but it will be “zoomed in.” The same works in reverse, but there are different issues. In the end not one is better or worse they are just different. So which one is more to your liking?
This article has lots of technical details and might be very boring to a many of you, so if you got this far I have to say, thank you! This is only part 1 of my blog about my 8x10 camera. In the next part I will be talking more on why 8x10 is the camera of choice for me. Hopefully, that one will be a little more interesting to read.
I am excited to finally make the leap and look forward to some seriously stunning photographs with my Kodak Camera. Here are some examples I am proud to display made with my 8x10 camera:
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