Overview of the Different Types of Film Cameras

If you have decided to get into analog photography, there is good news to start with: Cameras can be purchased cheaply and in large numbers on the second-hand market. But which analog camera type is the most suitable for me? This overview is intended to provide at least a rough guide.

There are many different designs of film cameras.

Even more so than with digital cameras, the range of different film cameras can be divided into a wide variety of shapes and types: Depending on the intended use or subject, a different type of camera or film format is suitable.

The classic single-lens reflex camera is by no means the only type that analog photography enthusiasts can use.

If you take a look at the film cameras category on eBay, you will quickly discover that the range of cameras on offer is very high. However, it should also be noted that buying private sellers or eBay is associated with risks – not every seller can assess defects. If you want to be on the safe side when buying an old film camera, you should buy it from a dealer.

Not necessarily because you can then expect that everything will still work – because many specialist sellers today unfortunately lack the necessary know-how in the film camera field. No, because you then have a right of return. Furthermore, some analog cameras are still being produced (again) today! A few specialist stores also offer tested and refurbished used cameras – sometimes as a set with a good lens.

However, this page is intended to provide an overview of the most important camera types for film photography. We will start with the smallest film format in order to “work our way up” to the larger ones later.

Several different designs of film cameras of the various systems.

Different Film Formats – different Cameras

There are also special formats. But the three “basic formats” in analog photography are these:

35mm	Medium Format	Large Format

Each type of camera uses a different type of photographic film (based on the format). However, large format cameras can also be equipped with medium format roll film (via a special roll film back).

Analog cameras are divided into groups according to the size or type of film used / suitable. The larger the film format, the better the image quality or resolution – the larger, heavier and more cumbersome such camera systems are in practice (medium format, large format).

Dimensions of the most popular analog image formats as an approximate overview.

What is missing from the above diagram is the very small APS film format, the tiny Minox and pocket film format and the large format. In the so-called medium format, the same film is exposed differently in its width by different cameras. This is why there are different formats (6×4.5 to 6×9). With some medium format cameras, you can even set the film format beforehand: by using interchangeable masks or film backs, you can photograph in different formats with such cameras (and may have more shots per film).

And here is a comparative overview of different film formats and film types. You can clearly see the different sizes here.

The Smallest Formats: Minox Cameras and 110 Film

These mini cameras are of little importance today.

This overview will start with the “Minox camera” and in this context the so-called ‘type 110’ film should also be mentioned. These are analog miniature formats and the corresponding cameras are very small in size.

Minox films are no longer manufactured. So it hardly makes sense to invest in such a camera if you want to take serious photographs with it.

Film type 110 – also known as “pocket film” – is a photographic, very narrow film that is contained in a cassette. This is then inserted into suitable “110 cameras”. However, very few of these were produced and one of the best-known representatives is certainly the Pentax Auto 110.

The company ‘Lomography’ still sells some films in 110 format, but it is questionable how much longer. Minox and 110 film made their appearance in agent films and within a ‘Ritschratsch camera’.

This old Soviet spy camera was also available to private individuals on the market.

More interesting in this overview, however, should be the following type of analog camera:

The 35mm Camera

This is, so to speak, the film “standard camera”.

Every beginner should start with a classic, single-lens reflex camera for analog photography and every advanced friend of film-based photography will keep at least one of these very safe. Because the 35mm camera is the classic par excellence and the all-rounder within analog photography and: It is the tool of street photography.

This type of camera is known as a “35mm” camera , as the width of the film is 35mm (the image itself is approx. 24×36 mm). 35mm cameras are generally quite cheap and a used ‘Miranda’ SLR camera from 30 EUR on Ebay will take pictures just like the famous ‘Nikon F3’, which will cost considerably more. The “digital equivalent” of the 35mm camera is the “full format”, as the size of the image sensor is exactly the same size as the film window of the analog 35mm camera.

This is a 35mm film. The actual film material is contained in a cartridge and is noticeably perforated (holes on the sides). Furthermore, these 35mm films are usually sold in practical film canisters.

Originally, 35mm film was not used for photography at all: it was the 35mm film format that was used for movies (and is still preferred by some directors because of the film look ). At the beginning of the 20th century, a designer named Oskar Barnack thought that this narrow film could be used just as well for photography.

The result was the famous “Leica”. And because film material could be produced with ever finer grain, these 35mm cameras became established in both the professional (reportage) and amateur sectors.

One of the early 35mm cameras: a Leica – “screw-mount Leica”, as it already had a (screw-on) interchangeable lens – from around 1930. This type has aged well and is tiny even by today’s standards and feels great in the hand.

In this overview, however, 35 mm cameras will be divided into three groups:

The simple Point & Shoot Camera

This type of film camera is not really that simple – it is a fully automatic camera that actually controls everything electronically:

The film speed is automatically transferred to the internal light meter via an integrated scanner (you no longer have to enter the ISO value manually). The focus is set automatically, as is the exposure (some mixture of aperture and exposure time). The image is transported immediately by a motor. A flash – very close to the lens – provides the notorious red eyes. Unfortunately, only very few of these analog point & shoot cameras have a high-quality lens. Furthermore, only the very high-quality ones (e.g. ‘Contax G2’) allow manual adjustment.

However, these technically better models are considerably more expensive on the second-hand market than the many inexpensive compact cameras.

Advantages and Disadvantages of these Compact Cameras

• very cheap on the second-hand market (formerly mass-produced; exception: some “luxury compacts”)
• very compact
• No photographic knowledge necessary: Everything works automatically.
• (Provide the “look of the 90s”.)

• Noise: The motor cannot be switched off.
• often a rather poor lens is installed (vignetting, softness)
• Flash right next to the lens = often red eyes with color film.
• No manual settings (the many tips on this website can therefore not be used). Correct exposure in particular is always a matter of luck and cannot be controlled.

A rather simple and rather expensive point & shoot camera.

In practice, these point & shoot cameras were roughly what the cell phone is for many today: a compact photographic autopilot. Most of the pictures in your family album taken in the 1990s and early 2000s were certainly taken with such a film camera.

There are a lot of these point and shoot film cameras on the second hand market.

For a higher technical standard and for a variety of photographic purposes, the type presented below is much better suited:

The 35mm SLR Camera

Also a lot of film cameras of this type were produced. Its design (the single-lens reflex camera) is the best-known face of cameras and is often used for pictograms, for example.

Even their typical shutter sound is imitated by some digital cameras – sometimes paradoxically even with motor noise ^x.

^xThis motor noise is also frequently used (artificially dubbed) in films set before the year 2000: The analog cameras used there by the actors often have no (attachable) motor at all. A classic movie mistake. Just look for it.

Characteristic of the single-lens reflex camera (“SLR” = Single Lens Reflex Camera) is its interchangeable lens and a variety of accessories: almost every manufacturer had, for example, the aforementioned attachable motors, so-called ‘winders’ in their range of accessories. There are also macro bellows devices, angle finders, shift lenses, etc.

With some 35mm SLR cameras, the focusing screen and viewfinder can even be replaced. They are genuine system reflex cameras for a wide range of applications.

It should also be mentioned that good film scanners for digitizing 35mm negatives are much cheaper than those that can also scan the larger formats. If you develop your own film, you will only need more compact and cheaper darkroom equipment.

If you use a flash and go into rather dark subjects with it and use a rather grainy B/W film, this results in a wonderful combination for the classic “analog reportage look”. You are very flexible with this type of camera.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of the 35mm SLR Camera

• cheap to buy second-hand as a very large number of SLRs were built.
• relatively small and robust
• versatile due to the system principle

• The resolution of a 35 mm negative is somewhat low by today’s standards.

  However, a print or print in your own darkroom up to approx. A3 size is no problem as long as you do not use a more sensitive film (more visible film grain; less resolution). However, if you love the typical film grain, you can of course also expose or print higher-sensitivity films at a correspondingly large size.

In the old days the purchase of such a film camera often swallowed up a good portion of the entire monthly salary. These devices were produced by many manufacturers and many are still in good health today (the cameras). Today most of them can be bought relatively cheaply on the second-hand market.

Note: Most manufacturers used their own lens bayonet (as is the case today). This means that the lenses of cameras from different manufacturers are rarely compatible with each other.

The 35mm can do both: a grainy as well as a smooth image quality – it all depends on the film you use (and possibly the developer). First picture: Fomapan 400; second picture: Ilford Pan F.

Incidentally, I have written an article on my site with suggestions for certain cameras – especially for beginners who are still inexperienced in this field:

Film Camera Suggestions for Beginners

In this overview of the most important analog cameras, the third type of 35mm camera should not be missing:

The 35mm Viewfinder Camera / Rangefinder Camera

If an analog SLR camera in a “full metal housing” and with a lens that is not exactly light is too heavy or too large for you, there are viewfinder cameras and their extension – the rangefinder camera:

These cameras have no internal mirror and a fixed, but usually high-quality lens. To focus, two images are aligned in the viewfinder. Due to the lack of a (movable) mirror, most of these cameras are noticeably more compact and lighter than their “big sisters” – the SLRs.

A rangefinder camera uses a so-called mixed image rangefinder to focus.

Note: Only the area within the green circle actually shifts.

Focusing is based on the rangefinder principle: a conspicuously bright dot is displayed in the viewfinder, which shows the current image twice. If you now focus or turn the lens, these two identical images will eventually coincide: Voilà! It is in focus.

The best-known 35mm camera – the Leica – is such a rangefinder camera (and not an SLR camera). With the rangefinder principle – but with a little practice – particularly fast and reliable focusing is possible.

High-quality models of this type also have interchangeable lenses and allow fully manual operation. They are then again larger.

Note the second “window” on the left of the camera pictured above: The focusing point is reflected through this window, which also indicates the rangefinder functionality.

There are also cameras without such a focusing aid:

The famous (and extremely compact) “Rollei 35“, for example, does not have a rangefinder. It only has a single viewfinder and with this analog camera you have to estimate the distance to the subject or set it accordingly on the lens.

Another very well-known simple viewfinder camera is the “Lomo LC-A”. And there are many other very simple viewfinder cameras where you have to estimate the distance to the subject or set the distance on the lens.

Only the quality of the lens and the film is relevant for good analog photography. The camera itself is basically just a light-tight “box” that holds both together and has a viewfinder.

I took the above summer photo of the wheat field with such a fairly simple rangefinder camera (Agfa Selectronic). With a technically good lens, the corners are also sharp and there is no vignetting.

Advantages / Disadvantages of Viewfinder and Rangefinder Cameras

• very compact and lightweight design
• inconspicuous and quick to operate

• no system cameras; i.e. almost always fixed lenses, hardly any accessories
• Only applies to viewfinder cameras (no focus system): Focusing by sight is not possible: you have to estimate the distance or use Zone Focusing.

If you value a particularly high resolution, a different viewfinder system or the square image format, then you need an analog medium format camera. Of course, this type of camera should not be missing from this overview:

The Medium Format Camera

Medium format cameras are mainly used if you want more detail (resolution), finer film grain and a better range of tonal values on the (now larger) film surface. Another advantage is the waist-level finder, which allows you to look at a large focusing screen from above as if it were a “live display”.

Rolleiflex medium format camera with opened waist-level finder

Especially for portraits, this type of photography is less “intrusive” than holding the camera to your eye all the time. However, the viewfinder systems can be exchanged on many models: The classic pentaprism is then also available on such cameras.

A typical picture taken with a 6×6 medium format camera: on models with a waist-level finder, you hold the camera at stomach height and look comfortably at the large focusing screen from above.

Until the 1990s, many photo enthusiasts were not able to afford a medium format camera: these analog cameras were many times more expensive than the standard 35mm cameras – with the exception of the old 6×6 or 6×9 folding cameras from the 1960s (and older). Furthermore, the first cameras for the masses – the so-called box cameras – are of course also medium format cameras, as they use the corresponding film (but are otherwise extremely sparsely equipped and have a poor lens).

A special feature of the medium format is the view of the large focusing screen and the use of a waist-level finder.

Almost all analog medium format cameras use the film type ‘120‘:

A type 120 roll film is about the height of a disposable lighter – so it is noticeably larger than 35mm film. The corresponding cameras are correspondingly larger. And of course 120 medium format film is still being produced!

Medium format cameras sometimes take pictures in different formats, although they all use the same film. The decisive factor here is always the width of the film window or the width of the exposed part of the film.

The photo above also clearly shows a special feature that many medium-format cameras offer: a large focusing screen and the option of easily exchanging the viewfinder systems (waist-level finder, pentaprism (sometimes with integrated light meter), magnifying glass attachment).

Strictly speaking, this is also a medium format camera: the Holga Lomo camera. However, in contrast to the devices presented here, it should be seen more as a toy.

Cameras such as the Holga or the Diana also use roll film type 120, but these medium format cameras have such a poor lens (often made of plastic) that the resolution or (detail) accuracy possible here can never be achieved. Nevertheless, pictures taken with these cameras can have their justification – if you appreciate this look.

The common format types of the medium format are here:

• 6×4.5 (16 shots per roll)
• 6×6 (12 shots per film)
• 6×7 (10 shots)
• 6×8 (9 shots) and
• 6×9 (8 shots per roll)

This is a special form of medium format camera: a panoramic camera with a rotating lens (hidden behind a flap in the photo). It exposes the roll film on a width of approx. 12cm and therefore there are only a few shots per film.

The long “thing” at the bottom is a screw-on motor.

So you can see that the height is the same for all medium format cameras (approx. 6 cm). Only the width can vary – usually up to the usual size of 9cm. But wait: in fact, the entire 6cm or 9cm is never exposed. It is always a little less. However, these values can be used as a rough guide.

6×6 medium format photo on slide film

Thanks to the larger format, such slide films can be admired very well without a magnifying glass on a light plate.

Medium format slides simply look beautiful on the light table. Unfortunately, slide film has become very expensive.

Medium format cameras are also available in different designs. Within this overview of film cameras, a concrete distinction will therefore be made (as with 35mm).

The compact Medium Format Viewfinder Camera

Many medium format film cameras were manufactured according to the “folding principle”: The lens does not consist of a “tube”, as is usually the case, but of a leather or plastic bellows, which can be folded up:

The great advantage of such cameras is that you can put them in your jacket pocket or carry them very easily, just like a 35mm camera. In combination with a travel tripod, this results in an ideal combination for taking high-quality landscape photographs on longer hikes, for example.

A photograph I took with such a simple 6×6 folding camera from the 1950s.

In contrast to many 35mm rangefinder cameras, very few folding medium format cameras have a rangefinder. I then use a depth-of-field table and set my focus, so to speak, based on a rough estimate of the distance and a specific aperture on the lens.

Tip: You can make your own (rudimentary) rangefinder using a simple piece of paper.

When buying second-hand, make sure that you buy one of the higher quality models. This means in particular the (fixed) lens: this should be a four-element lens. The famous “Carl Zeiss Tessar”, for example, was very often used here (also under other brand names).

For a more “soft” look, however, some photographers deliberately prefer uncoated three-element lenses or simpler lens designs.

Common image formats for this type are 6×6 and 6×9. Some of these analog cameras have masks for inserting so that you can also expose the 6×4.5 format (and then get a few additional images on roll film).

A very old folding film camera with an integrated flip out rangefinder (“Zeiss Ikon Superikonta”) for the negative format 6 x 4.5.

Advantages / Disadvantages of Medium Format Bellows Cameras

• very compact as they can be folded
• often available in the “large medium format” 6×9 (but then often with a poorer or non-coated lens)
• usually very cheap on the second-hand market

• no interchangeable lenses
• rarely a rangefinder system for pinpoint focusing and often only with ‘puny’ viewfinders

So if you want to focus selectively with an open aperture and use interchangeable lenses and a nice focusing screen, you need one of the SLR cameras for medium format:

SLR Cameras / System Cameras

If a compact body and low weight are not very important to you, then you should opt for a medium format system camera based on the SLR principle.

High-quality medium format SLR camera “Mamiya RB67”. Depending on the film cassette used, it can expose formats from 6×4.5 to 6×8.

These are cameras that were once produced for professional photographers and in the 1990s sometimes cost as much as a small car. Thanks to the “digital camera boom”, however, their monetary value has decreased many times over, so that today even students can afford such a technical marvel as the Mamiya RB 67 Pro SD shown here.

Most SLR cameras for the medium format are – much more than their small 35mm sisters – expandable: you can choose between a waist-level finder, a pentaprism finder or a magnifying finder. Naturally, there is a wide range of high-quality (and now affordable) lenses to choose from.

Some of these analog medium format cameras have the special feature that the roll film is not located directly in the camera but in a removable back (a film cassette). You can see this very clearly in the photo of the Mamiya camera. This has the great advantage that you can change the film in the middle of taking pictures – by simply attaching another back (loaded with a different type of film).

It is often the large focusing screen that attracts many photographers to the medium format.

It is true that there are also (a few) 35mm cameras that allow a direct view of the focusing screen. But that of the medium format cameras is much larger. As with the display of a digital camera, you can compose the image with both eyes. The world simply looks beautiful on such a ground glass screen.

This ‘Kiev 60’ is no filigree beauty, but it is a solid and inexpensive tool and is compatible with the high-quality Carl Zeiss lenses with “Pentacon Six bayonet”.

Some system medium format cameras (such as the Hasselblad or the Kiev 88) can be taken apart completely: The film is in cassettes (‘backs’), which can be changed. As already mentioned, this allows you to shoot with the same camera with different films (e.g. color & b/w) at the same time. Of course, the lenses on such a model can be exchanged and: The type of viewfinder (waist-level finder, pentaprism, magnifying viewfinder) can be changed.

With such a 6×6 camera you can then take photos like this:

This type of analog camera is mainly suitable for still subjects. But you can get a fantastic quality, which is better suited for large exposures or prints than shots with 35mm film.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Medium Format SLR Cameras

• System functionality: viewfinder system, focusing screen, lenses, backs (film cassettes) are interchangeable on some cameras (e.g. the Hasselblad or the Mamiya RB67)
• very high resolution: the larger the format, the higher the resolution

• heavy and bulky
• more error-prone
• often more expensive than technically similar 35mm cameras

I mainly use my 6×6 medium format camera for square portraits like this one.

The SLR medium format camera is the ideal tool for portrait photographers or for photographing landscapes with a very high level of detail (resolution).

The TLR Medium Format Camera with two Lenses

A very special and for many people strange to look at medium format film camera is the so-called TLR camera (Twin Lens Reflex). This analog camera has two lenses:

However, there are many models of this design from a wide variety of manufacturers. The most famous TLR medium format camera is certainly the “Rolleiflex”.

The upper lens only serves as a viewfinder (in conjunction with the focusing screen). The lower lens is used for taking pictures. These twin lens cameras are relatively compact and very robust and many have high-quality lenses. However, most analog cameras of this design do not have interchangeable lenses. TLR cameras are particularly suitable for infrared photography or long exposures, as the focusing screen always shows a bright image (due to the separate lens) – even during the entire exposure!

The advantage of these twin-lens medium-format film cameras is that they are usually very compact and you don’t have to do without the SLR or ground glass principle.

They are ideal for taking portraits of people on the move, for example: They fit in any shoulder bag and you can use them on your lap, as you can look at the focusing screen from above. People are usually less tense in such a shooting situation.

In addition, TLR cameras – thanks to their fixed mirror and smooth (Leaf) shutter – have the ability to trigger with very little vibration and, above all, quietly. Many photo artists, such as Vivian Maier, have therefore worked with such rather inconspicuous medium format cameras and continue to appreciate this type of camera. The disadvantage: With almost all of these cameras, you cannot change the two lenses (they are permanently installed). Close-ups are also difficult, as there is an offset between the camera lens and the viewfinder lens.

However, a TLR camera like the one shown here should not be confused with a so-called “stereo camera”, which also has two lenses. With a stereo camera, two (slightly offset) images are taken at the same time in order to later combine them into a three-dimensional view. In the TLR camera, the upper lens is responsible for the viewfinder (the focusing screen) and the lower lens for the actual photographic image, as mentioned.

Advantages and Disadvantages of TLR Cameras

• very compact for a medium format camera
• closed / robust construction
• large focusing screen with light well
• very quiet and low vibration
• charming: people like to be photographed with it

• no interchangeable lenses

  Exception: some Mamiya models

• no interchangeable viewfinders

  No pentaprism possible / available (with a few exceptions)

A well-known model of these cameras is the “Yashica Mat 124G”.

Medium Format Rangefinder Camera

Some photographers certainly wanted a medium format camera to be as easy to use as a 35mm camera, while at the same time meeting high quality standards. The result was a film camera like this one:

The rangefinder principle already familiar from the 35mm camera was used here – except that a larger roll film is loaded. The best-known medium format rangefinder camera is certainly the “Fuji GW690” shown here – also jokingly referred to as the Texas Leica ^x. This type of camera was produced less frequently. It is available in several medium format sizes and these devices are now unfortunately usually in relatively high demand on the second-hand market. They are also good cameras.

^xBecause this camera is reminiscent of a “blown-up” Leica and everything must be presumably bigger in the USA.

The 6 x 4.5 Format

Most analog medium format cameras expose in the square 6×6 format. Some others already use the 6×7 format, the 6×8 format is rare, but the large medium format 6×9 is more common. A special feature here is the small 6×4.5 medium format:

Film cameras for the 6×4.5 image format are somewhat more compact medium format cameras.

Manufacturers such as ‘Pentax’, ‘Mamiya’ or ‘Zenza Bronica’ produced SLR cameras for this purpose, which combine both: a compact body with simultaneous use of the wide roll film of type 120. The photographer thus receives the advantages of a medium format system camera with handy dimensions at the same time.

Of course, not only SLR cameras were produced for this image format: There are also many folding bellows cameras for the small medium format. Of course, a higher number of images fit on the film – namely 15 to 16 (depending on the camera type).

Without an external Light Meter, an Image is rarely successful

Most medium format cameras do not have an internal light meter.

Another special feature of many medium format cameras should also be mentioned in this overview: Many medium format cameras are often completely mechanical. This means that they rarely require a battery and therefore these camera types rarely have a built-in light meter (in contrast to most 35mm film cameras).

This is an external light meter. In medium format, and even more so in large format (see below), such a meter is often required for exposure metering.

It is therefore necessary to purchase a good hand-held light meter in addition. It is not advisable to buy old light meters second-hand: These often require battery types that are no longer available today and may be inaccurate.

You would therefore have to bite the bullet and buy a “cheap” light meter from around €100, such as the “Sekonic Twinmate” or the “Gossen Digisix”. But you only buy something like this (like a good tripod) once for many, many years.

Note: To get started, you can also use a smartphone (app) as a light meter.

When you take pictures in medium format, you usually have to carry around heavy equipment. But this will enable you to achieve high photographic quality.

This overview will now continue with the largest film cameras:

The Large Format Camera

Large format cameras are particularly popular in the field of architecture and landscapes.

35mm format → Medium format → Large format – This is a rough guide to differentiating between the different, most important camera types in film photography.

a ‘Linhof Technika’

Such large format cameras have always been the tool of the “professionals”: these types of cameras are predestined for architectural and interior shots as well as for tricky product shots.

In the past, there were very few manufacturers producing such cameras. Today, there are small manufacturers who specialize in large format cameras (but do not offer lenses themselves). Their customers are now less commercial photographers and more artists and interested amateurs who can now afford these cameras, which they could only dream of in the past.

Large format cameras use the so-called sheet film. This film must be exposed for each motif.

This can really add up – especially with the larger formats and color film. So you have to be economical here and photography is anything but fast. The reward is a very high resolution. The picture above also shows the typical (light-proof) box in which these sheet films are delivered.

These sheet films are available in different sizes. The most popular size is 4×5 inch. The larger the films, the more expensive they are, of course. With 4×5 inch, there is still a good compromise between image quality and price.

With most large format cameras, you look directly at a large focusing screen from behind and compose the image on it. To ensure that the focusing screen is clearly visible, you use the obligatory cloth over your head.

The image on the focusing screen is upside down. Using a magnifying glass, the focus can be precisely determined or, in the case of many large format cameras, even partially adjusted (tilting, swinging, shifting the lens).

Such a camera (here a monorail model from the company “Cambo”) has a very simple design and consists mainly of a bellows with a lens at the front and a sheet film cassette at the back.

Two outstanding features characterize the large format cameras:

• Due to their large film format, they offer extremely high resolution or a very high level of detail.
• Most large format cameras are designed in such a way that they can be adjusted: By adjusting the lens and film level, precise focus and perspective corrections can be made (keyword tilt & shift).

Both points were the reason why many professional photographers at the time reached for a suitcase (not a bag) with a large-format camera. Perhaps this is still the case today, as not everything can be replaced by digital image processing (e.g. focus stacking or stitching).

With a little skill, however, you can also use antique (simple) lenses on such bellows cameras. The photographic results will look accordingly.

Another image of the focusing screen. Technically, all that happens here is that the light is bundled by the front lens to a focal point on the focusing screen – very simple physics.

Instead of the focusing screen, a light-tight cassette containing a sheet of flat film is used for the actual exposure.

After framing and focus have been set, the focusing screen is removed (or folded away) and the film cassette with the flat film is placed in its place. Now the photograph can finally be taken. Photographing in large format today has a lot to do with taking it slow and enjoying the process..

Studio photography with the large-format camera: I could have photographed this motif just as well with my medium-format or even 35mm film camera. However, I used a fairly old lens from the 1930s. Such lenses can be adapted or used very well on these cameras.

One more thing about the films: As mentioned, these sheet films are available in different sizes: Starting from the “small” large format 9×12 cm (in Europe) up to special formats of 20×24 inches (the so-called ULF = Ultra Large Format). However, the most common format in large format photography is 4×5 inch. The cameras are designed accordingly for a specific size. However, smaller formats can always be used. Roll film backs can also be attached and there is even a back for Instax instant film.

As you can see, it takes a lot of time to take pictures with a large format camera. But it is precisely this slowness that many photographers apparently appreciate – especially when taking landscape or architectural photos. Hans Christian Schink, for example, is one of the many German photo artists who use the large format to create man-sized prints for galleries and museums.

A large negative is ideal as a base for such large photo prints. Every skin pore is visible when you get closer to the picture. The resolution achieved by the large format is very high.

Pictured is a huge hand-printed darkroom print, which is hung up to dry.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Large Format Camera

• very high resolution and very accurate detail reproduction
• wide range of options for correcting converging lines and blurring
• Due to the modular and simple system (without electronics), these cameras are well suited to working with alternative lenses or even hand-coated glass plates as a film substitute (keyword “Wet Plate Collodion“). This makes the large format camera particularly interesting for portrait photographers and artists.

• usually very large and heavy
• Very high price per image (one sheet of film per shot)
• a (stable) tripod is almost always necessary
• Fast, spontaneous photography is almost impossible with a large format camera.
• You have to develop the film yourself or send it to special laboratories.

Of course, you also need an external light meter in addition to the large format camera. It is also highly recommended to get a good, stable tripod.

Some friends of film photography use the simple system of a large format camera: they turn the possibility of high possible image quality into the opposite and make their own film plates.

Such coated glass plates or metal plates (e.g. “collodion wet plates”) can then simply be slid into a suitable back and images exposed on them (and developed in trays in the darkroom). This is a photographic technique that was already in use 160 years ago – and the photographs look correspondingly similar if you use antique (simple) lenses today.

A compact and lighter version of the large format camera is the “folding field camera”. The bellows (with the lens) is folded up for transportation. When taking pictures, the front standard to which the lens is attached runs on small rails on the inside of the base.

A folding field camera (“Linhof Technika”): When folded up, it is still reasonably compact and fits in a bag.

Instant Photos: The Polaroid Camera

The Polaroid camera was a very special type of camera for decades:

You press the shutter button, pull out an exposed piece of paper, wave it dramatically through the air, then peel off the protective paper and enjoy the instant picture.

The classic Polaroid instant photo is no longer produced. However, new instant films and matching cameras are now available again under this brand.

Another alternative to traditional Polaroid film is the Fuji Instax format, which is still being manufactured and sold in many places.

After the shutter is released, the camera ejects a sheet of paper on which the subject just photographed is immediately outlined. A little wait, another moment – and you are holding the finished picture in your hands.

Conclusion

This guide to film cameras certainly covers the different types of analog cameras. This field is quite diverse, so that not everything could be listed and not all details could be covered. Please feel free to share your own experiences and preferences via the comments function.