| Photography Forum: Medium Format Photography Forum: |
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Q. What exactly is Medium Format.
Asked by Sanyukta Sharma
(K=269) on 4/29/2003
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I have absolutely no clue. so please do bare with me and explain the details/history... whatever will give a clear description of it.
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Chris Lauritzen
(K=14949) - Comment Date 4/29/2003
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Medium format is larger film size, 35mm film is 24x36mm actually and medium format starts at 6x4.5cm. Then there is 6x6cm, 6x7cm..etc.. It?s the same type film and speed but it?s larger. Medium format also allows you to make larger prints with out losing quality.
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Charles Morris
(K=5969) - Comment Date 4/29/2003
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"Medium format" is a conventionalism applied to roll films and cameras made to use roll films. so now what does roll film mean? from the turn of the century, (1900) and by 1930 most film formats we use today had been created and in some way standardized. there were plate cameras which led to sheet film cameras and what we call large format now, and there were cameras that used paper-backed film rolled on spools. there were also some cameras that used film in cartridges unique to the format or sometimes unique to the camera. most of these cartridge-fed cameras used some form of motion picture filmstock rolled into a daylight safe cartridge and were considered "miniature cameras."
At present time "roll film" really only applies to 120 or 220 film and to cameras using 120 or 220 or 620 films (because cameras made for 620 can be loaded with 120 film on an adapted spool) In the past there were other roll films that were smaller. 127 format was a rollfilm just a bit wider than 35mm but it was still considered a "miniature film" since 127 is considered extinct by most accounts these days it is basically written off as another page in a history book and a section in an antique camera book. there were also larger roll films like 116 film that were almost 4 inches wide. these too are considered extinct.
since the common roll film sizes are based on 70mm movie film, or 120/220 spool fed cameras we have a lot of cameras with 2 1/2 inch, or 6 centimeter as part of the format designation. 6x6, 2 1/4x 2 1/4, 6x4.5, 6x9, 2 1/4x 3 3/4, 6x7, 2 1/4x 2 3/4, 6x8, 6x12, 6x17 pretty much cover the common sizes from compact MF cameras up to MF panorama cameras. the "normal" focal length for these formats seems to range from 75mm to about 110mm.
The attraction of this family of films has already been explained. the larger film requires less magnification to make any common print size. so a scratch on a medium format negative will be less obvious than a scratch the same size on a 35mm negative. in modern usage this has some other implicaioins that make medium format desirable. you can use a much faster film and not have any more apparent grain in the finished image. since information in the image is on a larger negative tones often seem smoother in the finished print. wedding photographers and portraitists love medium format for these reasons. some of the downsides include the cost of materials. and in particular the cost of the equipment needed to accommodate these cameras. where a 300mm F4 lens is not uncommon for a 35mm shooter, the same lens is an absurdly expensive rarity for medium format. few medium format cameras offer a lot of automation that 35mm shooters take for granted. most of the few cameras that have similar levels of automation are 6x4.5 cameras. for larger formats, like 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9 the automation comes at a price premium that is quite high.
one tangible advantage to medium format and large format cameras is the ability to make contact prints that are large enough to still be useful. not everyone has ready access to a full darkroom and an enlarger.
there is a certain "warm and fuzzy" feeling that comes from using these cameras because it is sold as an elite fraternity. my grandmother was born in 1901 and when she died in 1987 she can say she didn't know what an f-stop was, or how to change a shutter speed and never used anything but medium format cameras. photographers and snapshooters have been lied to and sold on the idea that medium format is the next thing and the better thing when we can trace the evolution of 35mm cameras to less than 100 years ago and those too were sold as the next thing and the better thing.
the better thing is to decide why you are taking pictures and what those pictures will be used for. let that determine the equipment you need to invest in.
2cents@large.
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Sanyukta Sharma
(K=269) - Comment Date 4/30/2003
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thank you :) that was also very interesting.
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Raymond Bliss
(K=3182) - Comment Date 7/22/2003
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A few other points to consider. Charles pretty much gave you all the technical details. Medium format today is just about any camera that uses the 120/220 format of film. Now, there are a few advantages that medium format cameras have over 35mm. The biggest advantage I can think of is that most MF cameras use "leaf shutter lenses". What this means is that the actual shutter is located in the lens, whereas in a 35mm, the shutter is of the focal plane type, located right in front of the film. Leaf shutter lenses are composed of a series of blades that open in a circular pattern, that is why they can sync with off camera flash at any film speed. 35mm cameras with focal plane shutters can only sync at speeds slow enough when the shutter is full open when fired.
The second advantage is the glass. because of the larger image area of MF, the lenses have a correspondingly larger surface area. And it is very high grade glass. Enlargements of up to 40 to 50 inches are capable using MF negatives, though not common.
Also, MF cameras that use detachable film magazines allow you to switch film in the middle of a roll, without having to rewind the film. Just change the magazine.
The big attraction of MF to the professional community was the ability to have a larger, better quality negative, but with the convenience of shooting roll film. Large format cameras using individual sheets of film, give you even better image quality, but are just too slow to use in a commercial setting. "Time is money" as the saying goes.
The downside to most medium format systems, is price, as Charles explained. A body, 2 film backs, and 3 lenses will set you back approximately $3000.00 or more with most popular MF cameras today (Hasselblad, Bronica, Rollei, Mamiya, Etc). And only in the past decade have we seen any type of automation such as multiple zone expusure metering, autofocus, zooms, and such which are considered standard with 35mm systems. Though this is changing rapidly. The introduction of high quality digital SLR's capable of shooting at the same quality level of MF has had a major impact on the prices of used systems. And if you watch carefully, you can find good deals available. Film costs are another issue. A roll of 120 film in 645 (6 x 4.5cm) gives you 15 frames, a 6x6cm format only gives you 12 exposures, 6 x 7cm 10 frames, and so on. (220 film is twice as long resulting in double the amount of frames) and the average price of 120 film is between 5 and 10 dollars per roll, plus developing costs averaging 15 dollars per roll. This is the major reason I sold my Bronica and switched to digital SLR. I could no longer afford the film costs associated with MF.
But if you develope your own film, working with those big negs is a dream. You can see details without having to resort to a loupe, and the final prints are amazing in 8x10 or 11 x 14.
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