After jumping into analog photography about a year and a half ago I’ve slowly acquired cameras with larger and larger resolution (negative size). Over the summer I took the ultimate step into large format photography when I purchased a ShenHao 4×5 camera in Shanghai. This is a modern camera that is manufactured near Shanghai. My new YouTube friend Matt decided to turn my shopping trip into an episode on his channel. Below is the video of the shopping trip along with some of the first few images from this camera.

The black & white photos were developed and scanned in my Ningbo apartment because the local photo lab takes too long to process large format film. I turned my kitchen into a film processing lab since I rarely (never) cook in it. I’ve duplicated most of the film processing gear I have in the US plus I’ve added some new gadgets I found on TaoBao (China’s Amazon).

I have a roll film adapter for the 4×5 camera that allows me to take wide 6cm x 12cm photos on 120 film. This is a more economical way to shoot color film on a 4×5 camera because the photo lab can use their machine to process the film. I can get 6 shots on a normal 120 roll of film. The panoramic photos below use the film adapter.

A few observations about a large format 4×5 camera:

• – Using it in an urban area ALWAYS draws a crowd. Most people have never seen anyone using one of these beasts. Shooting a photo with an audience is not fun.
• – Everything is manual on this camera and it requires lots of other gear to operate. Packing and unpacking to take a photo is time-consuming and prone to screw-ups. It has a steep learning curve.
• – I now understand why most photographers that use these types of cameras utilize them for landscape photography. You need to concentrate and focus (pun intended) on all of the steps required to take a good photo. Being alone in nature is the best way to accomplish that.
• – Color 4×5 film costs about US$10 per photo for the film & processing! You don’t want to screw up too many of those. That’s why I’m using roll film during my learning period.
• – I’ve traveled with the 4×5 camera twice now (Chongqing & Zhanjiang) and next time I’ll think long & hard about packing up all of the large format gear for a trip. Too much stuff…