There are three formats of camera, and the one you use will depend on many factors. The larger the camera means a more cumbersome machine, but you also get better quality and detail.

If you’re looking to expand your camera collection, a large format camera is a great buy. Especially if you want to capture landscapes or architecture. But they aren’t for the faint hearted, and you certainly won’t be able to snap faster than a frame a minute.

Old studio camera Alter Studio Fotoapparat - Janez Novak

What Photographic Formats Are There?

All cameras come in a format, either small, medium or large format.

Small format, otherwise known as 35mm, uses a roll of film, measuring 165x3.5 cm. From this, the camera captures a scene of 35mm x 24mm, creating a negative of the same size. The rolls come in 24 or 36 exposures. The best benefit, compared to other formats is you can capture scenes with one hand. The scene you see through the viewfinder is true to life. The Canon AE-1 would be a good example.

Medium format cameras use a roll of film that measures. From this, the medium format camera captures a scene of 6x4.5 cm, 6x6 cm, 6x7 cm or 6x9 cm with negatives of the same size. With Medium format cameras, such as the Hasselblad 500C, you need both hands to operate them. They also show a flipped scene through the viewfinder.

Large format cameras use single sheets of film. These need loading into a film loader beforehand, where each gives you two shots. The film sizes are dependent on the size of the film holder; 4x5” (10.2x12.7 cm), 5x7” (12.7x17.8 cm) or 8x10“ (20.3x25.4 cm) are the most common. Some models need a tripod due to their size, weight, and are time heavy on setting up. With large formats, the viewfinder shows a scene flipped left to right and upside down.

There are large format film cameras of sizes 11×14, 16×20, or 20×24, and bigger still. Amano Takashi used cameras of up to 8×20” for his nature photography. Any film larger than 8x10” are known as Ultra Large format.

Small, medium and large format film sizes - Neuralnode

What are Large Format Cameras?

A Large format camera is a large camera that uses a film size equal to or larger than 9 cm × 12 cm. This type of camera, based on designs by the Frenchmen Joseph Niépce and brother Clyde, was accessible around 1839. It is the oldest format of camera. Most large format cameras are ‘view cameras’ (inverting an image on a glass viewscreen) that come in two versions; monorail or field.

A monorail large format camera is the bulkiest of its kind and required a tripod. The long setup process and weight forced these cameras to be static, used for portrait and landscape photography. Ansel Adams used a 4x5” in his landscape images.

Field large format cameras have smaller rails and are faster to set up, allowing the photographer to take them ‘out into the field’. Documentary/street photographers such as Weegee were able to shoot without the need of a tripod.

Viewing through a Sinar F camera - Eusebius (Guillaume Piolle)

Are all Large Format Cameras Film Based?

Since the 1830s until 1991, all cameras were analog, meaning they needed a medium to capture the lighting from any given scene. It’s worth noting that the first commercially available photographic film came in 1888. Before then, coated glass plates and other materials recorded the scenes.

We have seen small format 35mm cameras become digital, and even medium format cameras had a digital sensor since the Mamiya ZD in 2004. Yet for large format, they remained mainly film based. There are digital camera backs that can attach to the film plane of large format cameras, yet expect to pay tens of thousands.

Ansel Adams - The Tetons and the Snake River (1942)

What Makes Large Format Photography Special?

The main reason photographers use Large format cameras is down to their unparalleled resolution and focus. The smaller large format film size (4×5” / - 12954 mm²) has almost 15 times the surface area of small format film (35mm / 864 mm²). This creates a 15x total resolution better than small format. The same large format film is 4 times larger than medium format (6x6 cm - 3138 mm²). The size of the film makes it better for retaining quality and detail through enlarging the prints. This is one reason why product photographers still use this format.

Another reason that many still use this format, even through its cumbersome size and weight, are the possible tilt shifts. On a large format camera, the film and lens planes are not only separate, but are independent – each can be raised, lowered and tilted independently. This allows focusing on two axes, not only horizontal - which is the case for small and medium format film, but also vertical. This Scheimpflug principle results in spot focusing, which applies that tilt/shift feel. It also stops parallel lines from converging, making it perfect for architectural scenes.

Large format cameras are like TLR medium format cameras in the way that the film can interchange, without being compromised. But large format cameras must block the view when inserting the film cartridge.