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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 20×24in large format professional b&w sheet film.

In a meeting with Amateur Photographer, Polaroid’s European vice-president Paul Telford also revealed that there is a ’strong possibility’ that production of 8×10in format sheet film will be taken up by an, as yet, unnamed manufacturer…

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 as 4×5 and 8×10, are not affected. [emphasis added so no-one freaks out]

READYLOAD Discontinuances:

• KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film
• KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 160VC Film
• KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film E100G
• KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film E100VS
• KODAK PROFESSIONAL READYLOAD Packet Film Holder

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 constantly got them mixed up in the field. Or I’d get it half-right, remembering that holder x held black and white, but forgetting that I’d loaded an ISO 100 film instead of the Tri-X I’d been using steadily for a few weeks, and shoot it 2–3 stops under.

A few weeks ago I was out shooting with my friend Jonathan and got the holders royally fucked up and ended up not getting several shots the way I wanted to. I didn’t get the results I was after, and I blew a good 20–30 minutes of waiting for light. No more!

I’ve always resisted carrying a pad, because documentation a) isn’t fun, b) is distracting, c) hurts (I have bad hands and writing is painful), and d) often seems to become a fetish, and I’m not interested in any of those things. But something had to give, so I ponied up the 89 cents or whatever it was for a little pocket notebook, in which I now keep a list of holder numbers and what film is in each, and other useful stuff, like bellows tables and the reciprocity corrections for the films I use.

Surprise! There is a middle ground between novel-length, Adams-style exposure records and not even knowing what film I’m shooting, and that works for me. In fact, I’m getting so enamored with not fucking that up that I think I’m going to invest in one of those Rite In The Rain waterproof notebooks.

One suggestion: get a notebook with a brightly-coloured cover so you can see it if it falls on the ground in the woods. Black, olive green, or camo seems like a bad way to go (YMMV).

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 stop to ground glass and divide a whole number. ie. a stop is a 1 inch hole. I measure the bellows at 22″, I’m at f22. The bellows is stretched out to 32 inches, same lens same stop, f32. No other calcs needed. Reciprocity still needed sometimes of course, but none of the bellows factor gymnastics.

Very smart!

You can see Galli’s work at his Web site, tonopahpictures.0catch.com.

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 f/8 (shipment ended in August 2006)
• Fujinon-CMW 300mm f/5.6 (shipment ended in December 2006)
• Fujinon-SWD 65mm f/5.6 (shipment ended in December 2006)

and all of the Hasselblad XPan/Fuji TX lenses stopped shipping in November 2006:

• 30mm f/5.6
• 45mm f/4
• 90mmm f/4

Via Kerry L. Thalmann on the Large Format Photography Forum

If you’re interested in Fujinon large format lenses, check out Thalmann’s Unofficial Fujinon Lenses page. No historical information seems to be available from the manufacturer, and this is far and away the best resource I’ve seen.

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

It seems not an online discussion thread about large format photography can go by without invoking Their Holinesses, Ansel Adams or Edward Weston. Great photographers, both, who made significant contributions and had significant influence. But they’re not saints or gods, and the inevitable, genuflecting references and predictable ensuing debates tend to make the conversations essentially the same. Different actors type out different parts of the same script on fora and recite them in darkrooms everywhere. Maybe it’s time to shut the fuck up about them for a little while and open our eyes to other work.

Thus, I propose that we declare September Annual Photographers Who Are Not Adams Or Weston Month, where neither of their names are spoken, typed, or their work or accomplishments even referenced. Where we just give it a rest already. Where we attempt to actually think for ourselves. Where we go out and hunt down some forgotten greats from the last 150 years, and some shining new potential stars who might help us see things in a different flavour of light.

Then on the first of October we can go back to our mindless droning, forgetting that colour large format photography actually exists, and thinking there’s little in LF to learn but what Ed and Ansel "bestowed" upon us, and that if we could just see as they saw and print as they printed, all would be well. But please. Let us have September.