Fast and Cheap 4×5 Film Photography

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In college I was required to shoot black and white 4×5 film as part of a photography class for my Cinema and Video Production degree. Back then I wanted nothing to do with photography–I was a movie maker gosh darn it!–and I did as little as I possibly could to scrape by. I was so uninterested in film photography that I threw away my negatives and prints after I graduated! Fast forward almost a decade and I’m now a film photography junkie. I collect and shoot with every retro camera I can get my hands on and I’ve shot almost every format, from 110, instant and medium format to Super8 and 16mm motion picture film. The one format I haven’t shot on since college though is large format 4×5 film. I could kick myself now, remembering the amazing large format cameras and darkroom gear I had access to back then. These days I don’t have space for a darkroom or the cash to buy an expensive large format camera, but I did finally find a way to shoot 4×5.

A couple years ago I kickstarted a 4×5 camera called the Travelwide 4×5. The company that designed it had a lot of issues with production and the camera was delayed for years. By the time I finally received it in the mail I had given up on trying to collect all the extra parts I needed to make it work, and so the camera gathered dust in a corner of my room. That is, until a month, when I found a large format lens at the bottom of a drawer at work–an Ilex-Calumet Field Caltar 90mm f/8 to be precise. After a little research online I came to find out that the lens was compatible with the Travelwide. My work lets me borrow gear, so I was suddenly closer than ever to having a functioning 4×5 camera. I ordered a couple used 4×5 film holders and New55’s Atomic-X ISO 100 4×5 Panchromatic Sheet Film online and I was ready to start shooting.

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The Travelwide 4×5 comes with a ground glass that’s so dim its really only useful for getting the focus right with the help of a loupe magnifier. My friend let me borrow a finder from one of his old film cameras that luckily happens to be just about as wide as the 90mm len’s field of view and gives a general approximation of the composition. Setting up the shot without a true ground glass is a little like flying blind, but I found that it works okay.

After setting up the shot and focusing I use a light meter app on my phone to get a reading and set the lens’s aperture and shutter speed. I then slide in the film holder, pull out the dark slide, cock the shutter and use a shutter release cable borrowed from one of my other vintage cameras to take the shot.

Developing is a bit tricky because I don’t have a darkroom. I do however have a film changing bag and after a bit of experimenting I found that I could warm up the R5 Monobath to 75 degrees, slide the developing tray directly into the changing bag, put the 4×5 film holder in it too, and then remove the film and develop it in the tray directly in the changing bag. It’s a bit messy but it works, and after rinsing off the negative in the sink, here’s the finished negative hanging up to dry in my bathroom.

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After scanning and some dust and negative aberration removal in post–the R5 Monobath is a bit primitive–here’s my final image.

Kenosha Harbor 4x5

Shooting 4×5 is a dream come true for me and I’m glad how easy and cheap it is. My next move is to invest in some more professional development chemicals as well as a 4×5 developing tank. Look for more of my 4×5 work soon!