All this complexity

[GonnaSnap]

In my childhood town the portrait studio photographer took the cap off the big camera, counted a beat and put it back on.

My new iPad is a computer with no controls and no manual. My new Canon has a 1236 page instruction manual, enough menu pages to fill a book, and more knobs and blinkenlights than my Christmas tree.

“Where is this going?” I ask my friend Art.

Your iPad has many controls. Have you opened Settings recently? Open Camera App on your iPad—lots of controls. I'm much more interested in why my Fuji GFX 100SII came with no manual while the 16-35mm GF lens came with a 100-pager.

Congratulations on snagging a copy of the rare and elusive 16-35 GF lens!

Where is the facepalm emoji? OMG! Thanks for catching that. I was doing some MF-to-FF equivalent calculations, and the 16 was FF equivalent. Of course I was referencing the 20-35mm. One day I'll get this right.

 

[paulraphael]

My camera of choice then was a portable view camera, someone I knew had bought out a new-old stock kof these totally obsolete 70 year old devices, and donated one to me, but I even owned a Lancaster Instantograph, so I'm well placed to compare the new and the old from personal experience.

In those days I used shallowflat pans to develop sheet Ilford HP3 for my portable view camera, and contact printed it. . If I wanted large prints, the portrait guy actually had an enlarger that could take my 6x9cm sheet film, and I did do some portraits that got enlarged.

I know this may come as a surprise to Americans, but photo chemistry was widely available in Europe when I was a child, to the extent that as an 11 year old I had no problem finding some developer and fixer, I seem to remember I used vinegar as a stop bath.

I still think our new computer-camera overlords are too complex.

Edmund

From my perspective, the camera is more complex now, in ways that can help or hinder. But the digital workflow is much, much easier.

I'm a longtime darkroom veteran. I agree that the basics of developing film or paper are simple. But getting them to look exactly the way you want? Alchemy. It took me years to get prints to look the way I wanted. My workflow had multiple toning and washing steps and points of failure. If I worked hard and slept little, I could produce two finished prints a week. Add to this that I was at the mercy of exotic materials that could (and would) be discontinued at any moment.

My nostalgia is mostly for the simple camera. The learning curve was a bit steep with a view camera, but once I nailed it, it was mostly unconscious. If I could get my old Toyo field camera to record a 100mpx file onto an SD card, I'd be in heaven.

I think it's possible to make peace with a modern camera's complexity. You have to work hard to simplify the workflow. It took me about 6 months of daily working and messing around with the Fuji—mostly adjusting my habits and customizing the interface. I now have it down to a 3 or 4 step flowchart that a monkey could follow. Most of the camera's advanced features are completely hidden when I work.

 

[emdundronald]

My camera of choice then was a portable view camera, someone I knew had bought out a new-old stock kof these totally obsolete 70 year old devices, and donated one to me, but I even owned a Lancaster Instantograph, so I'm well placed to compare the new and the old from personal experience.

In those days I used shallowflat pans to develop sheet Ilford HP3 for my portable view camera, and contact printed it. . If I wanted large prints, the portrait guy actually had an enlarger that could take my 6x9cm sheet film, and I did do some portraits that got enlarged.

I know this may come as a surprise to Americans, but photo chemistry was widely available in Europe when I was a child, to the extent that as an 11 year old I had no problem finding some developer and fixer, I seem to remember I used vinegar as a stop bath.

I still think our new computer-camera overlords are too complex.

Edmund

From my perspective, the camera is more complex now, in ways that can help or hinder. But the digital workflow is much, much easier.

I'm a longtime darkroom veteran. I agree that the basics of developing film or paper are simple. But getting them to look exactly the way you want? Alchemy. It took me years to get prints to look the way I wanted. My workflow had multiple toning and washing steps and points of failure. If I worked hard and slept little, I could produce two finished prints a week. Add to this that I was at the mercy of exotic materials that could (and would) be discontinued at any moment.

My nostalgia is mostly for the simple camera. The learning curve was a bit steep with a view camera, but once I nailed it, it was mostly unconscious. If I could get my old Toyo field camera to record a 100mpx file onto an SD card, I'd be in heaven.

I think it's possible to make peace with a modern camera's complexity. You have to work hard to simplify the workflow. It took me about 6 months of daily working and messing around with the Fuji—mostly adjusting my habits and customizing the interface. I now have it down to a 3 or 4 step flowchart that a monkey could follow. Most of the camera's advanced features are completely hidden when I work.

The fact that one needs 6 months to learn a camera is something I had forgotten.

6 months is a long time, these iPhone days we count in hours.

Regarding the view camera, I don't think there's any difficulty in making low-res large size sensors, it's an issue of finding a use for them. There was a portrait photographer who got Dalsa to make him a custom 4x5 sensor I believe for somewhere in the very low 6 numbers, and that was a long time ago.

Edmund

 

[Oren Grad]

Regarding the view camera, I don't think there's any difficulty in making low-res large size sensors, it's an issue of finding a use for them. There was a portrait photographer who got Dalsa to make him a custom 4x5 sensor I believe for somewhere in the very low 6 numbers, and that was a long time ago.

Here you go:

http://largesense.com/index.php/products/4x5-large-format-digital-back-ls45

Or maybe not - they haven't posted anything new to their social media since 2023, so not clear whether they're still alive.

 

[paulraphael]

From my perspective, the camera is more complex now, in ways that can help or hinder. But the digital workflow is much, much easier.

I'm a longtime darkroom veteran. I agree that the basics of developing film or paper are simple. But getting them to look exactly the way you want? Alchemy. It took me years to get prints to look the way I wanted. My workflow had multiple toning and washing steps and points of failure. If I worked hard and slept little, I could produce two finished prints a week. Add to this that I was at the mercy of exotic materials that could (and would) be discontinued at any moment.

My nostalgia is mostly for the simple camera. The learning curve was a bit steep with a view camera, but once I nailed it, it was mostly unconscious. If I could get my old Toyo field camera to record a 100mpx file onto an SD card, I'd be in heaven.

I think it's possible to make peace with a modern camera's complexity. You have to work hard to simplify the workflow. It took me about 6 months of daily working and messing around with the Fuji—mostly adjusting my habits and customizing the interface. I now have it down to a 3 or 4 step flowchart that a monkey could follow. Most of the camera's advanced features are completely hidden when I work.

The fact that one needs 6 months to learn a camera is something I had forgotten.

6 months is a long time, these iPhone days we count in hours.

Regarding the view camera, I don't think there's any difficulty in making low-res large size sensors, it's an issue of finding a use for them. There was a portrait photographer who got Dalsa to make him a custom 4x5 sensor I believe for somewhere in the very low 6 numbers, and that was a long time ago.

Edmund

I didn't expect getting used to the Fuji camera to take so long. I'm not sure why it did. I got a bit obsessive about customizing and simplifying it. On the other hand, I'm sure it took six months or so to get comfortable with a view camera. They're simple, but they offer so many ways to wreck your film.

For a 4x5 sensor I'd want a high-res one. I think it's a pipe dream ... the cost of a piece of silicon that size would be dizzying.