5×4
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Wednesday, October 4th, 2023
A few portraits made by the river to test a lens I’ve had for a while. Aperture used for these was f8-f8.5.
[Tech info:] Chamonix 45F2, 10 inch f6.3 Kodak Commercial Ektar lens, yellow filter, Fomapan 200 film @ ISO 100, developed in Adox XT-3 stock for 6 mins.

Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, Chamonix, ektar lens, film, fomapan 200, oxford, people, portraits, xt-3
Tuesday, September 19th, 2023
Some misty morning shots from April this year. I have photographed this location with various different cameras but this was the first time with a wider format. I feel 6×12 worked perfectly for these shots.
[Tech info]: Wista 5×4, 90mm Schneider lens, Ilford FP4+ developed in Adox XT-3 stock.




Posted in film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, adox, black&white, film, fp4, ilford, mist, oxford, wista, xt-3
Wednesday, December 7th, 2022
Here are a couple of pictures made with my Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4 camera and Kodak Aero Ektar lens. It’s been a very long time since I last used this set-up so I decided to test it out in Jericho, Oxford. I always envisioned this camera/lens combo for making portraits and was very fortunate to have a friendly couple that were willing to stand very still for me. The camera movements are very limited but I used some front swing to try to bring both faces into focus without stopping the lens down too much (I think I was at f4). The maximum aperture is f2.5 which gives a razor thin depth of field on 5×4 film.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Kodak Aero Ektar lens, Fomapan 100 film (expired), developed in HC110 1+63 for 10 mins.

Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait | 2 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aero ektar, film, fomapan, hc110, jericho, oxford, speed graphic
Wednesday, August 24th, 2022
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 165mm, 5x4, black&white, film, graflex, hc110, HP5, oxford, people, portraits, speed graphic
Monday, August 22nd, 2022
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, graflex, hc110, HP5, ilford, oxford, portrait, super d
Sunday, August 21st, 2022
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, b&w, film, gowlandflex, hc110, HP5, ilford, oxford, portraits
Thursday, January 14th, 2021
During December 2020 the UK saw a lot of rainfall and some parts of the country were flooded. I don’t remember Oxford receiving enough rain to cause flooding but as the massive volume of water from other parts comes rushing through Oxford the rivers swell which in turn causes some areas to flood, especially a local meadow. I made the most of the flooding and did some photography with a large format camera I’ve been wanting to try out for a while. It’s custom made with a 75mm Schneider lens which is fitted to a helicoid for focussing and the back rotates – something I found out by accident which was a nice bonus. There is no branding on it but it’s extremely well designed and made.
I wanted to fill the frame with sky and the reflection in the water so I had to stand in the water because a 75mm on 5×4 film gives an extremely wide angle of view. The Benbo Mk 2 tripod is perfect for this because the legs extend upwards from inside the bottom part of the legs and is designed to stand in water. What a didn’t realise was how easily one of the feet would end up coming off in the mud because it had a split in it, something I only noticed once I got back home. Fortunately Paterson in the UK still sell spares and supply them in a pack of 3. I’ve included some behind the scenes pictures below.
[Tech info:] Custom red dot 5×4 camera, 75mm Schneider lens, FP4 film (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31 (-1 minute to prevent the highlights blowing out).

Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford | 2 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, 75mm, black&white, film, flood, fp4, hc110, ilford, meadow, oxford
Wednesday, June 12th, 2019
These shots are from a lunch break session of testing paper negatives. In previous tests I had found using ID11 film developer diluted to 1+2 tamed the contrast nicely compared to using Ilford Multigrade paper developer but having run out of ID11 I wanted to test D76 film developer which I had just mixed up (apparently they are both based on the same recipe). The sky was very overcast which kept the contrast down and I was in-between rain showers.
[Tech info:] Graflex Crown Graphic 5×4, 135/4.7 lens, Ilford Multigrade RC paper (ISO 6), D76 1+2 dilution, 2 mins.



Posted in Architecture, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 135mm, 5x4, crown graphic, d76, lunch break, oup, paper negative
Friday, March 30th, 2018
Last month I visited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley for the second time and on this trip I decided to take along a large format camera for a change. The most portable 5×4 camera I have is a modified Polaroid 110B which folds up nicely to make it very portable and easy to travel with. I’ve got some sheets that I haven’t developed yet and those will follow in a future blog post.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Yashinon 127mm lens, Ilford FP4 film (expired), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Last shot was made on Fomapan 100 (expired), developed in Rodinal 1+25.







Posted in Architecture, film | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black country, black&white, film, fp4, hc110, polaroid 110B
Friday, May 5th, 2017
I’ve recently been testing some very old brass camera lenses that I’ve had for a while and by old I mean over one hundred years old. Some have the manufacturer engraved on them, some don’t. Some of them have aperture blades inside, some don’t and none of them have built in shutters which is why I was testing them on a Sinar monorail camera (below) with a Sinar behind the lens shutter. The downside is the maximum shutter speed is 1/60th which makes it difficult on a sunny day. More testing to come with more detailed results.
[Tech info:] Sinar P 5×4 camera, Watson & Sons No. 3 portrait lens, Ilford Delta 100 film developed in Kodak HC110 1+31.


Posted in Equipment, film | 2 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, brass, delta, film, hc110, ilford, sinar
Saturday, March 18th, 2017
I recently bought a batch of expired large format 5×4 sheet film that I’m unfamiliar with so I made some test shots during my lunch break to see what they would look like. The film expired in 2005 and as I have no idea of how it’s been stored since then I decided to rate the film at ISO64 instead of 100. The camera I used is my smallest and most portable 5×4 camera which is a Polaroid 110B that I had converted by Randy at holgamods.com. It’s a thing of beauty and a joy to use.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Mac 100 UP b&w film (expired 2005), rated at ISO64 and developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 8mins in a Jobo.






Posted in Architecture, Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, film, maco, oxford, polaroid 110B, rodinal
Wednesday, June 1st, 2016
A while ago I picked up a Phillips K 165mm/f2.8 projector lens to experiment with on my Speed Graphic and last week I finally managed to make a few test shots. It’s always nice to have patient work colleagues when testing lenses. On this particular day it was very overcast and gloomy so I used a small LED video light for a bit of fill but it’s not very noticeable. There is no aperture inside this lens so it’s f2.8 all the time which could be tricky on a bright day so I must remember to keep some ND gels in my camera bag.
[Tech info]: Speed Graphic 5×4, Phillips K 165/2.8 projector lens, Kodak Tri-X 320 (expired 2003), developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Colour shot is a bleached Fuji FP-100C neg.



Camera and lens used. I have since mounted the lens in a proper lens board. My cardboard effort was just to see if it was worth doing properly for this lens
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, fujiroid, graflex, hc110, oxford, people, phillips, portraits, Tri-X