5x7 The perfect move up from 35mm

by Dan Smith

Many 35mm photographers have thought of moving up to large format. The general thinking is to move up to 4x5 and possibly 8x10 for those who are really brave. I think 5x7 makes more sense for a lot of those who have grown up & learned on 35mm. More sense than either 4x5 or 8x10.

First, when you learn to compose images in the viewfinder of a 35mm camera you are very, very close to the 5x7 aspect. Enlarge a full frame of 35mm film to 5x7 with no cropping and you are very close. Contact print a 5x7 sheet of film & you find you are working with the same vision.

4x5 is nice. If you use it you have to plan on getting an enlarger, lens and accessories. The 4x5 negative size is just a bit too small for most to live with as a contact print. 8x10 is better. A nice size to work with. Trouble is, for most of us, it is 'too big' for a lot of our work. Heavy, big and bulky. 5x7 is a nice compromise. Contact prints big enough to see and the camera is often no bigger than a 4x5(as a lot of 4x5 cameras are built on a 5x7 platform to start with), and even when bigger than 4x5 the 5x7 camera is a lot smaller than most 8x10 units.

The contact prints from 4x5 negatives are nice. Clean & beautiful, just as most other view camera film sizes are. No enlarger is needed to get good, usable images from the 5x7. Though some films aren't available in 5x7, there is a way around this by buying 8x10 and cutting it down if you absolutely have to have a specific film that isn't available. Since most of my LF work is in B&W & I shoot TMax 100, this isn't a problem. If you look around there are many major films available in 5x7, more than enough for most of us.

If you can live with contact printing, your vision on the paper, exactly as you saw it and the size you viewed through the ground glass, then 5x7 is easy. You can do it with no enlarger, no enlarging lens and a minimum of darkroom equipment. The negatives are easily processed in pie plates. Time & Temp developing, or inspection-it is up to you. No extra tanks, hangars or processors are needed. Would a Jobo be nice? Yes, and I use one now that I have it. But you can easily process the film by hand without it.

Contact printing is easy to do. You can go with Michael A. Smiths Amidol recipe & use Kodak Azo paper & live in the legacy of Edward Weston. Or you can use newer papers and Dektol or other developers. The Amidol & Azo will give you a greater tonal range than you might believe, but for creative reasons you have to make the decision yourself. If you do start contact printing from large negatives, BUY THE AMIDOL and try this for awhile. A few excellent prints are a lot better than a lot of 'good' prints any day, and the Amidol/Azo combination will give you this if your vision allows you to get images that justify materials of the highest quality.

Your entire darkroom for contact printing can easily be a printing frame, a floodlight about 3 feet above the table used for exposing the contact prints and some trays for chemistry. It really is that simple. If you do get a 5x7 enlarger you are in for a treat as the negatives are so big that you will have a tough time using a grain focuser-you can't even see grain from negs this big in most enlargements.

If you have grown up on 35mm the translation of your photographic vision will most likely work very smoothly as you go to 5x7. The proportions are so close as to make it easier to get started than with the 4x5 or 8x10. The ground glass is big, big enough to see easily. Many of the lenses you use for 4x5 work just fine on 5x7, though on the wide angle end the 72 Schneider Super Angulon XL is pretty much the limit. One big advantage to 5x7, which holds true for most very large format cameras, is that if you are making contact prints you can easily live with lenses that aren't the latest & greatest. Don't buy older and lower quality glass if you can afford newer & nicer, but with a contact print even lenses some refer to as dogs will look good.

View Camera magazine is coming out with an issue featuring the 5x7 format. This most likely means some of the cameras will be going up in value. Even with that the format is generally a slow seller. Buying one isn't expensive, often costing less with a lens than a mid range 35mm. The camera, one lens, 4-6 film holders, a dark cloth, cable release, tripod and a bit of an adventuresome spirit & you are on your way. Some want a light meter, others will try & use their 35mm body & still others will go with 'sunny 16' exposures & experience. This is your choice. If you are lucky and hit a good deal you can put it all together for $400-$1200 or so. A decent deal & a lifetime of challenge.

When you look through the ground glass the framing may be familiar due to the 35mm experience you have. But, it is also very different. The image isn't just upside down and backwards...it is BIG! Very big when you compare it to the 35mm. You might be intimidated by just how much the ground glass shows. Or you might be disappointed because the view seems dim compared to what you are used to. This is when a small magnifier helps a lot. It helps with focus. But even if you use one, you will need to have a good dark cloth big enough to wrap around the camera & shut out the world as you concentrate on everything you see on the glass. It is BIG and this makes it easy to miss something if you don't train yourself to look at the whole thing. Corner to corner, side to side, top to bottom and edge to edge. Look at it all & prevent the unsettling surprises that crop up in the darkroom when you process the film. If it is on the film, it was on the ground glass, you just didn't notice it. An easy mistake to make.

If I were buying new I would look seriously at what Keith Canham makes. Ron Wisner has some nice models as well. So do other makers. I just know the Canham cameras & like them, especially the ability to get a 4x5 back and an interchangeable back & bellows to turn the camera into a 4x10 model easily. That & the quality are what I like with the Canham. One of these days I will buy one. On the used market though, the models available are many. Deardorff. Burke & James. Kodak. Sinar. Linhof. As long as it works for you, it is worth owning. You can always sell one & get another.

I find the 5x7 format works for me, in many ways better than 4x5. I can more easily shoot an image composed specifically for a panoramic crop, planned as I set it up on the ground glass. 2x7 inches or 2 1/2 or so by 7 inches makes a nice panoramic format. With lenses that don't 'quite' allow full coverage you can crop from the center & shoot panoramics easily. I find I shoot these on occasion but more often than not plan on the whole negative as my image. I just feel comfortable with the format, part of which I attribute to learning with 35mm & using it for so long. It may work for you and it may not. If not, find what format works & use it no matter what others use. Your images & vision are what matter, not mine or anyone else. I just find 5x7 works well and friends who have tried it, especially those with a strong 35mm background, tell me it works for them.

If you are wondering about contact printing & paper size, get 8x10 paper so you are protected from the various damage than happens to the edges of the paper. Make contact prints to exact size & you are assured to ding them. 8x10 allows the extra space for handling, protection and the inevitable slop factor that comes into play when you get in a hurry in placing the negative on the paper. 8x10 will make it easy to work with & allow you to handle your images without touching the image itself. RC or fibre, the size works well, is easy to find in all brands & will allow you to contact print with a black or white border around the image as you prefer.

If you are at the point where you are seriously thinking of moving up to a "large format" camera, give the 5x7 size a try. You might find you like it. If you want to try it & are uncertain as to what lenses to get, remember this little rule of thumb. Take whatever lenses you see strongly with in 35m m and multiply by 4 time or up to 4.2 times. Then a 50mm lens becomes approximately a 200-220mm lens, normal for 5x7. It is approximate but works pretty well.

You might find you like this stuff, working in the tradition of Edward Weston and the old masters. It is fun & if you push it, it can be a real challenge with its own rewards. Your vision coupled with proven techniques & materials straight out of the history of photography can make for some excellent images. Keep it simple and concentrate on honing your vision & you might find the large format pushes you to be better and to constantly improve. It isn't about new lenses or the latest camera advances-there really aren't many in this size. It is about the image & how it looks. Your vision on film, on paper. Clean & uncluttered for the world to see. Large Format really is just that simple.