Wilson Johnston and his colleague Mike Andic presented us with a view of their medium format or plane cameras last evening. I thought this old stuff was really neat but no longer useful. I was really wrong as at least one of Wilson’s camera was made within the last five years. It could use digital or several sizes of film (yes the stuff used in cameras in the old days). It definitely will not fit in your pocket. Wikipedia
Then Wilson showed us the capabilities of his camera. I was amazed with the capabilities of this old technology. His camera could take pictures but also perform all of the techniques of a modern tilt/shift lens that costs at least $2500.00. (I had to investigate what they do also.)
How is this possible to do all that fancy photography with this antique era equipment? Guess we aren’t the only smart ones. The only real difficulty was that the photographer had to thoroughly understand their camera and know what would happen when they took the shot. They only got one or two shots and the results would not be evident for some time. You had to get the film developed before you had any visual confirmation you were on the right track.
When a person can set up their equipment and take a photograph using only a light meter, manual adjustment of their camera and the view finder and get creditable results they might start to consider themselves a photographer. That is without taking one hundred shots to get that one.
That is only my personal opinion though. I take the hundred shots hoping for one good one. I still enjoy it and have fun so it’s not bad.
BoB