I just bought a Pentax 67. It’s an old medium format film camera. Format wise, 35mm film is thirty-five millimeters wide by twenty-four millimeters tall, and that’s the same as a full frame DSLR. This camera shoots 120 film and makes a picture that is seventy millimeters wide by 56 millimeters tall. That’s nearly four times larger!

Why would I buy an old camera? Two reasons:

  1. It think it’ll be fun to explore. This will be my hobby, and since it’s related to my profession I don’t have to learn all new skills and it’ll help me in my profession, as well.
  2. It’s a bigger window. Film size or sensor size is all about perspective. I like to think of it this way: go stand in front of a small window in your house and take in the view for a few minutes. Now go stand in front of the sliding glass door–the one that starts at the floor and goes taller than you and is very wideand enjoy the view. It’s obvious that the bigger wind lets you see more of the world. I think that a larger format camera offers a similar experience, and I’m really looking forward to it.

If you don’t mind, I’ll share some of the adventure with you here and we’ll see what we learn. I’ll do some comparisons with my digital cameras. It’ll be fun!

Just don’t tell my wife I bought another camera

Note: I’m not a film guy. I haven’t shot film since high school. I didn’t buy this camera so that could I use film. One reason I bought this model is that the lenses work on Pentax’s newest digital medium format cameras. If I could, I’d buy one of those (again, don’t tell my wife). Digital capture has changed my life, and I wouldn’t give it up for all the film in the world. Having said that, I am excited to see what the film holds…

______________________