12.11.2023

Soup. Just Soup. Medium Format Color Transparency Film

 

No edge notches so it must have been taken with a Rollei 6008i camera and appropriate lens. For some reason I couldn't find the exif information for this one....

My one Christmas wish? Besides world peace? Besides eliminating hunger and disease? Oh that's easy. It would be for either Hasselblad or Fujifilm or some other bold camera company to come out with a digital medium format system built around a 6 x 6 cm sensor. Full frame for medium format. The perfect aspect ratio. At this point I'm not sure I even care about the price. I guess I could always sell one of the cars and get a nice electric bike. But wouldn't it be great to

get back to all the wonderful choices we had when we were in the film age?

Hell, I'd even buy a Sony if they came out with a 6 x 6 camera. 

Get ready for a year (at least) of seeing medium format images I shot on film. I'm getting a new light source and film holder for medium format film and I've got a five foot stack of black and white negatives and color transparencies just waiting their turn on the scanning rig. 

I wonder if anyone else wants to be able to shoot in the "chosen" aspect ratio? Across a lot of sensor geography? And experience photographic Nirvana....

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad someone is still writing about photography!

R.A.

James Weekes said...

All I shoot, between micro 4/3 to full frame is square format. My salad days in a studio were with a Rolleiflex SL66 and an 80mm and 150mm and bricks of TX120. I’ll commit right now to a pair of 6x6 sensor cameras.

Mel said...

I'm shooting through my freezer of 120 B&W and color transparency film with a Mamiya 6. Trying to see how the 6x6 format can work for landscape compositions.

Anonymous said...

I could eat that soup right now, only thing - it looks as if it's a very small portion, but very colourful and well presented. Beautifully photographed too!

Matt Shaw said...

Has anyone ever tried this, assuming it is available? https://imback.eu/home/product/ibp-new-im-back-mf/

Anonymous said...

I started my photo life using an Argus Argoflex Model E TLR so I originally learned to “see” in the square. Once I “upgraded” to an SLR and later view camera, I always prefer the square. For a while I carried 4x5 dark slides that were cut down so I could crop my images square. I do use the 1:1 format in my M43 and FF occasionally, but need to use the rear screen for composition; the view in the EVF is a bit small for my eye.

So, Yes! I could be interested in a MF camera with a true 6x6 sensor.

PaulB

Timothy Gray said...

I had hoped after Leaf acquired Mamiya (and again, after Phase One acquired Mamiya/Leaf), that the resulting company would finally give the RB/RZ faithful a true 6x7 digital back, but it never happened. And especially after Leaf produced the Aptus-II 12 R with its ability to rotate from landscape to portrait orientation without having to remove the back, it seemed we might eventually see that 6x7 unicorn. But no such luck!

Yes, a full 6x6 back would be wonderful. But given the shrinking market for such things, I wonder how much longer Phase One will produce a full size 645 back?

Chuck Albertson said...

Nice photo. More, please. That one looks like the soups that BA serve in first class (they're quite good).

Anonymous said...

Agree on Hasselblad needing a 6x6 full size SQUARE digital system. Decades of "God ordained the Square" only to see them go smaller an a rectangle when they came out with Pixels. Ernst Wildi must be spinning in his grave still.

Anonymous said...

"I'm getting a new light source and film holder for medium format film"
Kirk, I would guess that implies scanning film with a digital camera? If so, a picture of your setup would be of interest!

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

Anonymous, It's just a copy stand, a small LED light panel and a film holder. Not sure how interesting that might be to look at but it's too boring to shoot.