Medium format - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format

Film format

A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film, for either stills or movies. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary characteristic of a film format is its size and shape.In the case of...

in still photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

and the related cameras and equipment that use that film. Generally, the term applies to film and digital cameras that record images on media larger than 24 by 36 mm (used in 35 mm

135 film

The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...

photography), but smaller than 4 by 5 inches (which is considered to be large-format photography).

In digital photography, medium format refers either to cameras adapted from medium format film photography uses, or to cameras making use of sensors larger than that of a 35 mm film frame. Often, medium format film cameras can be fitted with digital camera back

Digital camera back

A digital camera back is a device that attaches to the back of a camera in place of a film holder and contains an electronic image sensor. This lets cameras that were designed to use film take digital photographs...

s, converting them to digital cameras, but some of these digital backs, especially early models, use sensors smaller than a 35 mm film frame. As of 2006, medium format digital photography sensors were available in sizes of up to 36 by 48 mm, with 39 million pixels for use with commonly available professional medium format cameras. Sensors used in special applications such as spy satellite

Spy satellite

A spy satellite is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications....

s can be even larger, but are not necessarily described as medium format equipment.

In the film world, medium format has moved from being the most widely used film size (1890s through 1950s) to a niche used by professionals and some amateur enthusiasts, but one which is still substantially more popular than large format. In digital, medium format is a very expensive option, with typical brand new all-digital medium format cameras retailing for $10,000 (Mamiya ZD) to $32,000 (Hasselblad H3D) in 2008, though, older and used equipment can be substantially cheaper.

While at one time or another a variety of medium format film sizes were produced, today the vast majority of medium format film is produced in the 6 cm 120 and 220

120 film

120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film...

sizes. Other sizes are mainly produced for use in antique cameras, and many people assume 120/220 film when the term medium format is used.

The general rule with consumer cameras — as opposed to specialized industrial, scientific, and military equipment — is the more cameras sold, the more sophisticated the automation features available. Medium format cameras made since the 1950s are generally less automated than smaller cameras made at the same time, having high image quality as their primary advantage. For example, autofocus

Autofocus

An autofocus optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus fully automatic or on a manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system has to be done manually until indication...

became available in consumer 35 mm cameras in 1977, but did not reach medium format until the late 1990s, and has never been available in a consumer large format camera.

Characteristics

The main benefit of medium format photography is that, because of the larger size of the film or digital sensor (two to six times larger than 35 mm), images of much higher resolution can be produced. This allows for bigger enlargements and smooth gradation without the grain or blur that would characterize similarly enlarged images produced from smaller film formats. The larger size of the film also allows for better control of the depth of field and therefore more photographic creativity.

Cameras with a bellows

Bellows (photography)

In photography, a bellows is the pleated expandable part of a camera, usually a large or medium format camera, to allow the lens to be moved with respect to the focal plane for focusing....

typically support 'tilt and shift' of the lens. Together with 1:1 focusing (via a ground glass screen mounted at the rear in the film plane position), this permits landscape photography with an extremely large depth of field — from closest foreground to the far horizon — to be achieved.

Compared to 35 mm, the main drawbacks are accessibility and price. While 35-mm cameras, film, and photo finishing services are generally widely available and cheap, medium format is usually limited to professional photography shops and can be prohibitively expensive. Also, medium format cameras tend to be bulkier than their 35mm counterpart.

Film handling

Medium format film is usually roll film

Roll film

Rollfilm or roll film is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from white light exposure by a paper backing, as opposed to film which is protected from exposure and wound forward in a cartridge. Confusingly, roll film was originally often referred to as "cartridge" film because of its...

, typically allowing 8 to 32 exposures on one roll of film before reloading is needed. This is less convenient than 35 mm cartridges, which typically take 12 to 36 pictures on one roll. This is somewhat offset by the fact that most medium format systems used interchangeable film magazines, thereby allowing users to switch rolls quickly, allowing them larger numbers of exposures before needing to load new film, or to change film type. Some companies had bulk film backs that used 70mm double-perforated that allowed up to 75 feet of film to be loaded at one time. While rolls of large format film were produced at one time, their use was specialized, typically for aerial cameras installed in military aircraft or printing industry equipment.

Most large format film is sheet film

Sheet film

Sheet film is large format and medium format photographic film supplied on individual sheets of acetate or polyester film base rather than rolls. Sheet film was initially supplied as an alternative to glass plates...

, that is, film where each picture is on a separate piece of film, requiring that the camera be frequently reloaded, usually after every picture, sometimes using magazines of up to five pictures or reduction backs that allow multiple pictures on a single sheet of film. Medium format sheet film was produced for some cameras, but these cameras tend to be smaller, lighter, and easier to use than large format gear. Sheet film was never commonly used in cameras smaller than medium format.

Film cost per exposure is directly related to the amount of film used, thus, the larger the film size, the more expensive each picture will be. An 8"×10" large format negative is far more expensive than a 6×6 cm medium format picture, which is substantially more expensive than a frame of 35 mm film.

35 mm cartridges are generally easier to load and unload from a camera than medium format rolls. A 35 mm cartridge is placed inside a camera, and in most motorized cameras this is all that is needed; the camera loads the film, and rewinds it into the cartridge for removal. Far fewer medium format cameras are motorized, and medium format roll film does not have sprocket holes, so loading often requires that marking on the backing paper of the film be lined up with markings on the camera, and on unloading, the backing paper must be carefully secured to protect the film from light.

120 and 220

All medium-format cameras mass produced today (as of 2008) use the 120 film

120 film

120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film...

format. Additionally, many are capable of using the 220 film format, effectively doubling the number of frames available with 120 film. Medium format roll film is still available from specialty shops and photo labs, yet nowhere near as ubiquitous as 135 (35mm) film.

This film is shot in a variety of aspect ratio

Aspect ratio (image)

The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...

s, which differ depending on the camera or frame insert used. The most common aspect ratios are 6×6 cm (square/1:1) and 6×4.5 cm (rectangular/4:3). Other frequently used aspect ratios are 6×7 cm, 6×9 cm, and 6×17 cm panoramic. The 6×4.5 cm format is usually referred to as "645", with many cameras that use this ratio bearing "645" in their product name. Cameras that can switch to different aspect ratios do so by either switching camera backs, by using a frame insert, or by use of special multi-format backs. All of these dimensions are nominal; actual dimensions are a bit different. For example, 6×7 cm might give an image on film that is actually 56×70 mm; this enlarges exactly to fill an 8×10 sheet of paper. Another feature of many medium format models is the ability to use Polaroid

Polaroid Corporation

Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...

instant film in an interchangeable back. Studio, commercial and architectural photographers value this system for its ability to verify the focus and exposure.

70 mm film

For some professional medium format cameras, those used in school portraiture for example, long-roll film magazines were available. Most of these accommodated rolls of film that were 100 ft (30.5 m) long and 70 mm wide, sometimes with perforations, sometimes without. Some cameras, such as the Hasselblad

Hasselblad

Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....

, could be equipped with film magazines holding 15 foot rolls of double perforated 70mm film passed between two cassettes. 70 mm was a standard roll film width for many decades, last used as late as the 1960s for 116 and 616 size roll films. It was also used for aerial photomapping, and it is still used by large format cinema systems such as IMAX

IMAX

IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...

System cameras

Many professional medium format cameras are system camera

System camera

A system camera is a camera with interchangeable components that constitutes the core of a system. Early representatives include Leica I Schraubgewinde , Exakta and the Nikon F...

s, which means that they have various interchangeable parts. Like most 35 mm SLRs

Single-lens reflex camera

A single-lens reflex camera is a camera that typically uses a semi-automatic moving mirror system that permits the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or digital imaging system, as opposed to pre-SLR cameras where the view through the viewfinder could be significantly...

, these cameras usually support different lenses

Photographic lens

A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice, in...

, but in addition it is also standard for medium-format system cameras to support different winding mechanisms, viewfinder

Viewfinder

In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and in many cases to focus, the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main optical system. Viewfinders are used in many cameras of...

s, and camera backs. This flexibility is one of the primary advantages of medium format photography.

Digital medium format

Digital photography

Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...

came to the medium format world with the development of digital camera backs, which can be fitted to many system cameras. Digital backs are a type of camera back that have electronic sensors

Charge-coupled device

A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...

in them, effectively converting a camera into a digital camera

Digital camera

A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...

. These backs are used predominantly by professional photographers. As with film, due to the increased size of the imaging chip (up to twice that of a 35 mm film frame, and thus as much as 40 times the size of the chip in a typical pocket point-and-shoot camera) they deliver more pixel

Pixel

In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....

s than consumer-grade cameras, and have lower noise. Features like fan cooling also improve the image quality of studio models.

This market began in 1992 when Leaf Systems Inc. released their first digital camera back, named, fittingly enough, the "DCB" (often described as 'a brick'). Initially mounted on Sinar Studio cameras, the camera backs were later moved to medium format units. By the late 1990s, a number of companies produced digital camera backs of various types.

In the 2000s, the number of vendors of both high-end medium format camera systems and digital backs began to decrease. The performance of digital SLRs cut into the sale of film-based medium format systems, while the tremendous development expenses for medium format digital systems meant that not all vendors could profitably compete. Contax

Contax

Contax was a camera brand noted for its unique technical innovation and a wide range of Zeiss lenses, noted for their high optical quality. Its final incarnation was a line of 35 mm, medium format and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics...

and Bronica

Bronica

was a Japanese brand of professional medium format roll-film cameras, including rangefinder and single-lens reflex models.Bronica cameras first appeared in 1958, when the company's founder, Zenzaburo Yoshino, introduced a camera of his own design, the Bronica Z rollfilm camera, at the Philadelphia...

ceased production of cameras, Kodak stopped making their DCS series of backs, and camera and back manufacturers began to integrate.

Camera maker Hasselblad

Hasselblad

merged with digital imaging firm Imacon and partnered with Fuji

Fujifilm

is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

to design and produce a new line of digital-friendly medium format cameras, the H-Series. Since the manufacturer plans to sell digital backs integrated with the camera, other makers of digital backs are far less likely to be able to sell backs for this camera.

Camera maker Mamiya

Mamiya

is a Japanese company that today manufactures high-end cameras and other related photographic and optical equipment. With headquarters in Tokyo, it has two manufacturing plants and a workforce of over 200 people...

has developed the Mamiya ZD back, but also announced a partnership with back maker Phase One. Camera maker Sinar

Sinar

Sinar AG is a Swiss company producing medium format and large format cameras.The name SINAR is explained as an acronym for "Studio, Industrie, Natur, Architektur, Reproduktion", though in , the acronym is explained as "Sach-, Industrie-, Natur-, undArchitekturfotografie sowie Reproduktion"...

was taken over in stages by the digital camera back manufacturer and developer Jenoptik

Jenoptik

Jenoptik is an optoelectronics group located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany and a descendant of the pre-war Zeiss company. The business is divided into five divisions: Optical Systems, Lasers & Material Processing, Industrial Metrology, Traffic Solutions and Defense & Civil Systems.- Company profile...

, and partnered with Rollei

Rollei

Rollei is a German manufacturer of optical goods founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Reinhold Heidecke in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras...

for the development of the Hy6 medium format camera systems.

The Leaf Aptus 75S digital back offers 33MP resolution, with a shooting speed of 50 frames a minute. In early 2006 Hasselblad

Hasselblad

(H2D and H3D) and Phase One (P45) released a 39 megapixel back. In 2008, Phase One announced the P65+, a 60 megapixel back, the highest resolution single-shot digital back to date. Phase One continues to dominate high end non-interpolated imaging with the largest market share. Sinar

Sinar

continues to provide its primary Digital View Camera system while still supporting the HY6 medium format with a new platform independent eSprit 65 LV digital camera back. On , Leaf released a 80MP digital back, the Aptus-II 12.

Available since December 2010, Pentax 645D is 40 megapixel medium format DSLR. The camera has 44x33mm image sensor and the raw file is in DNG format. It is the first digital version of the company's 645 medium format camera system and it is compatible with the existing 645 system lenses.

"Lomography" and other low-budget medium format cameras

While most professional medium format cameras are very expensive, some inexpensive plastic imports, such as the Chinese Diana

Diana camera

The Diana camera is a plastic-bodied box camera utilizing 120 rollfilm. Most versions take 16 photographs per roll in a non-standard format of 4.2cm square using a simple plastic meniscus lens, although some are capable of 12 6 x 6cm exposures...

and Holga

Holga

The Holga is a medium format 120 film toy camera, made in China, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic.The Holga's low-cost construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions...

, are gaining in popularity, particularly with toy camera

Toy camera

Toy cameras are simple, inexpensive film box cameras made almost entirely out of plastic, often including the lens. The term is misleading, since they are not merely 'toys' but are in fact capable of taking photographs. Many were made to be given away as novelties or prizes...

enthusiasts. Many of these cameras are sold through the Austrian Lomographische AG

Lomography

Lomography is the commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, Austria for products and services catering to the Global Modern art community of Lomographic photography. The name is inspired by the former state-run optics manufacturer LOMO PLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia...

. Due to the poor quality of the cameras, the exact image captured on the negative is somewhat random in nature. These cameras often have plastic lenses that offer poor or uneven focus, light leaks that oddly colorize an image, extreme vignetting

Vignetting

In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center. The word vignette, from the same root as vine, originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a photographic...

, and a multitude of other "flaws" that are generally undesirable to photographers. While these elements certainly are "flaws" in camera design, they can produce interesting, artistic, or enjoyable results. Because of the popularity of lomography

Lomography

and toy camera culture, medium-format photography has seen a resurgence with amateur photographers. Lomography detractors point out that twin-lens reflex camera

Twin-lens reflex camera

A twin-lens reflex camera is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" , while the other is used for the viewfinder system, which is usually viewed from above at waist level...

s (TLRs) and folders without the distortion and light leaks can be purchased on the used market in the same price range.

The Chinese Seagull TLR

Twin-lens reflex camera

and medium-format cameras from the former Soviet Union such as the Russian Lubitel

Lubitel

Lubitel refers to any of the several medium format twin-lens reflex cameras manufactured in Russia by LOMO.The design is based on the early 1930's Voigtländer Brillant camera with various improvements....

and somewhat better made Ukrainian Kiev-Arsenal

Kiev-Arsenal (photo camera)

Kiev is a Soviet brand of photographic equipment including cameras manufactured by the Arsenal Factory in Kiev, Ukraine. The camera nameplates show the name "KIEV", with older cameras using "КИЕВ" or "КИЇВ" in the cyrillic alphabet.At the end of November 2009 Gevorg Vartanyan of Arax, a Ukrainian...

60 and 88 are also available at moderate prices. These cameras can deliver quality images, although the lenses and camera bodies are not at the level of those from Swedish, German, and Japanese manufacturers.

Used folding camera

Folding camera

A folding camera is a camera that can be folded to a compact and rugged package when not in use. The camera objective is sometimes attached to a pantograph-like mechanism, in which the lid usually is a component. The objective extends to give correct focus when unfolded. A cloth or leather bellows...

s, TLRs, and box camera

Box camera

The box camera is, with the exception of the pin hole camera, a camera in its simplest form. The form of the classic box camera is no more than a cardboard or plastic box with a lens in one end and film at the other. A simple box camera has only a single element meniscus fixed focus lens and...

s are also a cheap option to shoot medium format. Many U.S.-made folders, including most of the mass produced Kodak folders use the discontinued 620 film

120 film

120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film...

requiring the user to respool 120 film or modify the film spool to fit.

External links

Medium format camera and film Film Photography Guide
"Camera Review" on medium format cameras (dead link)
David Silver on medium format
Medium Format MegaSite (dead link)
Configurations of various cameras - Camerabacks - Lens

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.