Swiss camera manufacturer Alpa says to not change the shutter speed after cocking the shutter on Copal 0 and 1 size shutters. From their newsletter: Back in analog times everything was a little bit easier. Photographers were photographers and the number of actuations of the shutters low. Now in the digital times the number of [...]

The out this listing for a 4×5 sheet film motor drive on eBay. Really.

This article in Amateur Photographer says: Polaroid is in fresh talks over the survival of its professional instant sheet film following its failure to reach agreement with UK firm Ilford Photo. Polaroid bosses have confirmed that they are in discussions with a ‘third party’ over the continued production of 20x24in large format professional b&w sheet [...]

Kodak says: Due to significantly declining sales volume, Kodak is preannouncing the discontinuance of READYLOAD Single-Sheet Packets for four films. The items listed below will be discontinued by year-end 2008. However, inventories may run out before then, depending on demand. Please note: This preannounced discontinuance applies to Readyload format only. Other cut sheet sizes, such [...]

Gordon Coale has a great explanation of how Packard shutters work: the super old-school pneumatic shutters that you can use on large format lenses without shutters of their own. Used shutters are plentiful on eBay, and you can still buy them new (for a lot more money) from The Packard Shutter Company.

I like to load up several different types of film when I go out to shoot large format, at the very least a B&W and a colour negative. I usually try to stick to some sort of easy-to-remember loading scheme, like holders 1–5 are colour and 6–10 are B&W. Easy as that should be, I [...]

Brass lens madman enthusiast Jim Galli offered this incredibly useful piece of advice on the Large Format Photography Forum: Since I almost never use my antiques [lenses] at infinity, (they are usually approaching 1:1 for a portrait) I make my waterhouse stops to “known’s” like 1 inch or 30mm. Then I measure the distance from [...]

This is from month or two back, I somehow got it stuck as a draft and forgot about it. Anyway, the following large format lenses are now out of production, so whatever is left in the supply chain is it if you want to buy new: Fujinon-SW 90mm f/8 (shipment ended August 2006) Fujinon-T 300mm [...]

  Links mentioned in the video Redscale film technique: what happens when you load film backwards Film data index, includes notch codes

Katie Cooke talks to Haje Jan Kamps about shooting large format street portraits in the thick of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Read the article at PhotoCritic.org