Large format, for me, has always been the dream. Not for its ridiculously high resolutions—the 12 megapixels of my Sony a7S are more than than plenty for me—but for its unique depth rendering. There is an enchanting quality to the depth of field produced by a huge chunk of vintage 8x10 glass that is near incommunicable to replicate on a smaller format, more often than not thanks to the ridiculous equivalent aperture that would be required.

My longing for large format without the expense and and hassle of chemicals led me to build a pretty unique camera rig with very promising results.

The photographic camera works by projecting an image from a big format lens (an Industar-37) onto a large matte white screen. The projected image is and then captured with an off-axis camera (a Sony a7S) and wide-angle lens (an Irix 15mm F2.4). The 15mm is shifted upwards (using a Kipon shift adapter), which allows it to record a centered epitome of the screen with none of the perspective distortions that would come from simply pointing the camera up, and still be well out of the manner of the light path.

I am non really certain if it should exist called a 'large format photographic camera' or a 'large format adapter'—is format determined by the size of the imaging plane, or that of the sensor? Usually those are one and the same but not with a rig similar this—just either way it records existent large format images and but from my first results, I recall they look fantastic.

Beyond simply digitizing large format photography, the rig opens up the actually heady possibility of big format video. It is absolutely incredible to come across the large format image come to life, and information technology is something the earth hasn't actually seen earlier. Dynamic range and resolution are only limited by the photographic camera you lot put inside, and I am just using a consumer camera. I tin't expect to see how the rig performs with cinema gear.

The chief downside of of the the design is sensitivity. The process of re-imaging loses nearly 6 stops of lite, so an ISO 100 shot exterior the photographic camera becomes an ISO 6400 one in the rig. Thankfully, many modern cameras have excess sensitivity for bright environments and then the photographic camera works great in well-lit scenes, although it definitely struggles without proper lighting similar the indoor scenes in the video above.

Big format 'reimaging' rigs have been made earlier (quite successfully past Gonzalo Ezcurra), but with one key deviation: they projection onto basis drinking glass and record the paradigm from backside, instead of reflecting the paradigm off a lengthened surface. This method works, but ground drinking glass is never a truly perfect diffusing filter, so at that place volition always be a hotspot at the heart of the paradigm and some grain blueprint introduced equally well. The hotspot tin be reduced—actually, simply enlarged so it looks more than like a vignette and less like a spotlight—by moving the camera farther back with a longer lens, but then the already huge setup just gets longer and less practical.

My version has the reward of a folded optical path: since the image is bounced off a screen instead of going through a ground glass, the rig is about half the size of these other experimental reprojection cameras. It is withal rather unwieldy, but this size difference is enough to allow shoulder mounting and really improve usability to the point being a genuinely useful tool instead of just a novelty.

I am currently working on an updated v2 version with a host of improvements, just I have really just skimmed the surface of the new possibilities with a photographic camera like this.

Zev Hoover is an 18 year old photographer/videographer based in Natick, MA. His work has been widely featured, ranging from the Boston Globe to a BBC mini-documentary, and he has received awards including the Flickr 20-under-20 Honour and 500px 'innovation' competition winner. You tin can find more of his work on his website: zev.television set