Re: good 4x5 prints; hand made books; backpacking larger format cameras

[Joe Portale <jportale@gci-net.com>]

I vote for the handmade books.

> Joe and someone else (sorry, I lost the message) mentioned handmade
> books--do y'all mean books that someone else made by hand, and you buy
them
> and mount pictures in them, or do you  make your own hand bound books?  I
> would like to learn to do that.  Also the presentation box with mounted
> prints in it is a good idea for small prints I think.
>
> I wonder if there is a big difference between the "presence" that a 5x7
> print has and that of a 4x5 print. I would like to get a larger camera and
> I'm trying to decide between 8x 10 and 5x7 format for my larger camera.  I
> carry my camera around my neighborhood in a backpack; how much heavier is
an
> 8x10 camera than a 5x7 or 4x5?  The 4x5 and all its gear is not heavy at
all
> to me, at least for my relatively short outings of an hour or two.

I don't see much of a presence difference between a contact printed 4x5 and
5x7.  There will be no doubt that the 5x7 will be visually bigger, even from
a distance, but the intemacy is still there. The 8x10 seems to be the point
of departure for the get back viewing.

I usually lug around an old Ansco 8x10 camera that weighs 20 pounds, couple
of lenses, other doo dads and a heavy tripod in a backpack. With the peanut
butter sandwiches, it comes in around 50 pounds. But, I'm 6' and weigh in at
240 pounds of rippling middle ageness. (Or would that be rippling
flabbi-nesss?)

There are plenty of 5x7 and 8x10 that weigh much less. Usually what you give
up for in weight of the camera must be made up for in the weight of the
tripod. I do not think that with an 8x10 you can get away vey light.  If you
are really interested in moving to 5x7 watch Ebay. Every now and then a 5x7
press type box camera shows up. These were made by Kodak, Seneca, Burk and
James(?) and a couple of other manufaturers. These are great! They are like
a Speed Graphic on steroids. Some even come with a little wire frame "action
finder". I have one, it is simply one of the coolest cameras in my
collection. I have seen them go on Ebay for around $300 with a lens. Oh yes,
these cameras are very light.

Joe


>
> --shannon