Popularity of Large format in Europe

[Camerashy]

How popular is large format photography in Europe?

 

[HowLarge]

It’s quite popular , the number of camera and accessory makers is a reasonable guide - along with the specialist retailers and the reasonably healthy second hand market .
What is troubling for the future is the availability and cost of colour sheet film , this has a knock on effect on the availability of processing- which is a circular problem so few will contemplate colour work if they cannot get it processed.
There is really only one avenue left via 120 roll film and backs in various sizes.
So say in 5 years time if only black and white is left then the niche will be squeezed.

 

[Ian Grant]

How popular is large format photography in Europe?

If you are asking about "amateur" photographers, LF is steadily rising in popularity in Europe/UK.

When I started using LF for work in 1977 it was a specialist format used by Advertising and Commercial photographers, as well as for Applied uses. A few students on art photography courses, like Trent & Derby, began using LF in the early 1980s and specialist stores like Teamwork & Robert White were set up, they were importing field cameras, the majority of advertising & Commercial photographers used monorail cameras.

The take-up of LF by amateurs really began with the switch of professionals first to LF Digital backs, and fully Digital systems (often monorail). In the late 1990s amateurs began entering the LF market, and by around 2000 there was a glut of LF equipment in the secondhand market, particularly on eBay.

This was a time when analogue equipment prices/values reached an all-time low, the bottom had dropped out of the market for Leica & Rolleiflex, and other high-end MF as well as LF cameras, bargains could be found easily. This was I'd guess around 2002-2008.

I'd bought my first 10x8 from the US and was watching eBay for a decent priced 10x8 enlarger (2004), typically there would be 50 to 60 De Vere 504 enlargers listed and 1 or 2 De Vere 5108 enlargers (UK only). That's the time of a major shift to LF by some amateur photographers, by 2008 as availability dropped prices were rising. I know by 2010 the market had bounced back, I'd had my Leica and Rolleiflex cameras valued, and they matched actual completed sales.

Since then, there has been a steady growth in amateur LF use.

Ian

 

[Nas]

I'm glad there were so many enlargers listed for sale back then instead of them ending up in a skip like some horror stories I've heard about.

 

[Ian Grant]

I'm glad there were so many enlargers listed for sale back then instead of them ending up in a skip like some horror stories I've heard about.

I saw 3 Durst 184 enlargers in a skip at my local pro lab, in 2003 or early 2004, I did salvage one head, and Terry the owner gave me 3 turrets full of Schneider enlarger lenses from roll head printers.

While my example was De Vere enlargers, the amount of LF equipment, in terms of cameras & lenses, was even greater. I paid $60 for a Crown Graphic & lens, $60 for 2 5x4 Speed Graphics (parts cameras), £120 for a Super Graphic (needed some restoration).

So when I moved abroad in late 2006 I had a complete, new to me seconf LF kit to take with me, that was 5x4 and 10x8, at ridiculously low cost. Due to space restraints, I never took the 2nd 10x8 Agfa Ansco.

From memory the 2nd Agfa Asco 10x8 View camera was $400 plus shipping, and it came with a WA lens, a 165mm f8 Super Angulon, worth way more than the camera

These days there are still bargains to be found, but they are fewer and far between.

Ian

 

[jhotopf]

Mr Cad got me into LF. I used to spend many a Saturday morning there when they were in Croydon. My first LF camera was an MPP mark 7. Even got a Devere 5x4 enlarger there. I developed everything in a Combiplan tank.