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Medium Format Film Photography for the Digital Photographer: An Introduction

Chris Gampat
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03/23/2017
2 Mins read
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Last Updated on 03/23/2017 by Chris Gampat

When I first got started in medium format film photography, I found it pretty confusing. But I, like many of you, was basing it off of the digital photography formats available. This can get even more confusing for digital photographers getting into film. So we’ve got a tutorial video that should sort it out.

And don’t worry, it’s actually all fairly simple.

Basically, consider the fact that in some ways, medium format is still sorting itself out and digital sensors are still sorting themselves out. The technology has come a far way but digital photography is also having its own evolution. With film photography, it started big and then got small. With digital photography, it started small format and is getting bigger. There are no commercially effective and fully working digital large format camera sensors for example; though they do exist.

So what you really should learn is that digital medium format and film medium format are two different animals. Digital medium format is quite good, but it’s possible to get significantly better photos from film medium format. Part of this has to do with something that everyone talks about: a bigger size. In the same way that so many people want to go full frame digital, lots of folks want to go full frame medium format. In digital, that’s 645. But in the film world, 645 is the smallest of the medium format standards. After 645, there is square format with 6×6, 6×7 and 6×9 formats. Sometimes you can even go bigger.

Our video goes over this, and a whole lot more. It can all get confusing and considering that medium format and film photography are undergoing a sort of renaissance it made sense for us to create this video tutorial. We hope you find it useful.

Please be sure to also subscribe to the Phoblographer on YouTube.

camera digital photography film film photography formats medium format
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.