Large format  

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Large format refers to any imaging format of 4×5 inches (102×127 mm) or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6×6 cm (2¼×2¼ inch) or 6×9 cm (2¼×3½ inch) size of Hasselblad, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the 24×36 mm (~ 1.0x1.5 inch) frame of 35 mm format.

The main advantage of large format, film or digital, is higher resolution. A 4×5 inch image has about 16 times the area, and thus 16× the total resolution, of a 35 mm frame.

In early photography, large format was all there was, and before enlargers were common, it was normal to just make 1:1 contact prints from a 4×5, 5×7, or 8×10 inch negative.

The most common large format is 4×5 inches, which was the size of common cameras used in the 1930s-1950s, like the Speed Graphic, Crown Graphic, Graphlex, and many others. Less common formats include quarter-plate, 5×7 inches, 8×10 inches (20×25 cm); the size of many old 1920s Kodak cameras (various versions of Kodak 1, 2, 3, and Master View cameras, to much later Sinar etc. monorail studio cameras), 11×14 inches, 16×20 inches, 20×24 inches, various panoramic or "banquet" formats (such as 4×10 and 8×20 inches), as well as metric formats, including 9×12 cm, 10×13 cm, and 13×18 cm, and assorted old and current aerial image formats of 9×9 inches, 9×18 inches (K17, K18, K19, K22 etc.)), using roll film of 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10 inches width or digital sensors, view cameras (including pinhole cameras), reproduction / process cameras, and x-ray film and digital cameras.

Above 8×10 inches, the formats are often referred to as Ultra Large Format (ULF) and may be 11×14, 16×20, 20×24 inches, or as large as film, plates, sensors, or cameras are available. Many large formats (e.g., 24×24, 36x36, 48x48 inches) are horizontal cameras designed to make big negatives for contact printing onto press-printing plates.

The Polaroid 20×24 camera is one of the largest format instant cameras currently in common usage, and can be hired from Polaroid agents in various countries.


Photographers who have used large format

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Large format" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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