Picking a Large Format Camera

Video Transcript

"A large format camera offers a very different shooting experience than a 35mm camera or even a medium format camera. The major difference of the large format camera is that it uses a negative that is 4x5 inches. As you can see here in the pre-loading, the negative is much, much larger than a typical 35mm which most people are probably used to. This camera looks pretty old, but because 4x5 cameras, large format cameras, were used a long, long time ago, this camera was remade to kind of look like an older camera. And as you'll see as I spin it around, you would load your film into the back, and you actually view your image through the back here. There's not the typical viewfinder of a normal camera. You look at the larger image. A lot of times, these large format cameras are used for architectural photography. That's where I first encountered them. And what I noticed right away was that these 4x5 cameras not only allow you to capture a much larger image, but they capture an incredible amount of detail. One photograph I remember seeing shot from a 4x5 camera, you could make out the individual screws that were in the deck of this house that had been photographed. So again, they're popular with architects, anyone who photographs buildings, but there's no limit to what they can be used for. That's just some of the more typical things. Again, not what I recommend for a beginning photographer, but if you really want to take your photography to the next level, you might want to look into some shooting on 4x5's and taking some large format pictures because you could be really impressed with what you get."