BACKGROUND
I’ve owned an early 20th century Speed Graphic since 2017…however, it’s only been until May of 2020 that I’ve finally exposed some Portra 160 with it. My results weren’t bad per se—if anything, at least I know the camera works and I am able to sell it in order to upgrade to a better 4x5 later. I’ll explain why further down.
Speed Graphic + Zeiss Tessar 13,5cm 1:4,5
Kodak Portra 160
THE EXPERIENCE
This camera smells old. Like that dusty thrift store kind of old. The box it sits in is rusting around the edges. But thankfully, everything seems to still be intact. The focus rails are smooth to glide the lens down, the lens isn’t sticky at any aperture, the bellows don’t seem to be leaking any light. I think it’s pretty solid for the $250 that I paid for it. The only issue I have with it is it’s lens. Apparently none of the optics are coated so flare control, micro-contrast, and color rendition suffer. And it’s pretty obvious. The image, while somewhat sharp, has a bit of a glow, softness, and harsh vignette to it (which I’m not totally particular to). I much prefer a clean image with micro-contrast and pop all across the glass. It’s an early 20th century press camera with a Zeiss lens that I can’t find much info on anywhere…so, that tells me that it’s nothing that was ever sought after—even with the Zeiss name.
I AM NOT PERFECT
I can’t get ahead of myself when discussing older gear because I am sure I’ve only scratched 5% of what my issues with this first-time-shooting-4x5 are. Maybe I have issues with some of my film holders and light leakage, maybe I have poor quality ground glass for the focus screen, maybe the Zeiss lens is in fact a great lens (however, I feel pretty confident it’s just subpar). At the end of the day, however, this camera was intended for speed and efficiency for journalists and news outlets.
The film I was using was an older box of Portra 160 that I had purchased in 2017 and it has endured a few moves across states, spending time in and out of multiple refrigerators, etc. The first time I opened the box, I actually dropped the naked film onto a dusty basement floor (of course it was in the darkest corner I could find). So, there may be a lot of factors at play here.
RAW scan with the Fuji SP2500 + PS Stitching
Speed Graphic + Zeiss Tessar 13,5cm 1:4,5
Kodak Portra 160
Color and contrast balanced in PS.
Speed Graphic + Zeiss Tessar 13,5cm 1:4,5
Kodak Portra 160
IMAGE QUALITY
As you can see, I’ve had to do quite a bit of doctoring to the images in post. I’ve enhanced the vibrancy, contrast, and sharpness and gotten results that are passable…but still, there isn’t much point to shooting large format if your glass can’t render the cleanest, brightest, and most pleasing colors to the image as possible.
Speed Graphic + Zeiss Tessar 13,5cm 1:4,5
Kodak Portra 160
COST TO SHOOT, DEVELOP, AND SCAN 4X5
Images like the one above hurt the wallet and ego a bit. Between my dad’s confused expression and my blinking eyes, this moment is forever this way. Moments like this aren’t always bad tho. I’ll always prefer mid-reaction shots as I feel that the truest in humanity is revealed in them…but still, shots like this typically don’t end up anywhere other than a post like this.
In total, this shot cost me around $15. Yikes. But solid education and experience is forever priceless.
Speed Graphic + Zeiss Tessar 13,5cm 1:4,5
Heat-exhausted Kodak Portra 160
SCANNING THE NEG
Fortunately, I have invested into a Fuji Frontier SP3000 scanner and I am able to take total control of the scanning process and achieve fantastic color and sharpness with my negatives. The image of my dad above is my first attempt at scanning a 4x5 negative with the 645 mask. This was stitched together with 8 images but as you can see I missed scanning a few slivers of the negative.
Speed Graphic + Zeiss Tessar 13,5cm 1:4,5
IN CONCLUSION
It’s been a fun experience so far but I know I have a much longer way to go until I start to find results that I am able to showcase. The challenge with 4x5 is that researching large format systems feels like an entirely new language to me. I haven’t found as broad of a community offering as much info as the 35mm and 120 communities do—at least one who all can simultaneously agree on a select few lenses and bodies as the main go-to choice for shooting large format photography. Large format bodies and lenses along with their specs don’t make much sense to me at this point. This will probably be a multi-year quest to find the perfect match for me.
Thank you for sticking around through this post. I’d love to hear any recommendations or comments that you have regarding large format photography, or maybe some criticism on what I could have done better with the images above.
Until next time!
Trent