Vertical Cameras

Speaking of the iPhone and the Exakta 66, I thought I might mention that I've always liked vertical-format cameras. There have been very few of them over the years; two I know of are the rare Linhof 220 (right) and the Fujifilm GS645s, a naturally vertically-formatted 645.

I suppose the iPhone isn't naturally vertical format, but that's how I find it easiest to hold and how I often use it.

Almost unconsciously, when I began using the Exakta 66 in the '80s, I began cropping everything—I mean everything—to vertical format, in approximately a 645 proportion. I even marked off the viewfinder that way. I took more horizontally-oriented pictures with the GS645s than I did with the Exakta 66. It's one reason I liked the camera so much. (It also meant I didn't have to guess where the side boundaries would be with the Exakta 66—there would be quite a bit more on the film that was shown in the viewfinder.)

With TTL eyepiece cameras it's not that big a deal to turn the camera vertically, and some cameras have battery packs with vertical releases which is almost as good as a natively vertically-oriented camera.

I don't know why I like vertical cameras, but I do. I guess I see that way pretty readily. Anyway it's why I didn't necessarily prefer 6x7 cameras to square cameras. Otherwise, the Pentax 67II (to name one) is a far, far better film camera than the Exakta 66.

Mike

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Featured Comments from:

Trey: "Ever try the Bronica RF645? I nearly got one years ago but opted for the Mamiya 6 instead. Turns out I dislike the square format and did not really bond with it. Maybe the vertical 645 would have stuck."

Mike replies: Of course, I should have mentioned that one. It was produced after Tamron bought Bronica. I reviewed that camera on The Luminous-Landscape—and later owned it, but had already largely switched to digital by then so I never used it much.

Trey replies to Mike: "Ha! That was you. I lingered long over that article as I was making my purchasing decision back then. Thanks, Mike!"

kirk tuck: "One of the most comprehensive systems conceived of as vertical cameras was the wonderful Olympus Pen F and FT half-frame camera system. The camera used a rotary titanium shutter that sync'd with flash at all speeds (up to 1/500th of a second). The design was the spiritual ancestor of the early Olympus Micro 4/3 cameras such as the EP–EP3 and also the current Pen F. The system included about a dozen lenses, some of them extraordinarily good for their time and some of which are still competitive today on cropped-sensor cameras. If they were good enough for Eugene Smith...."

Eric Rose: "When I was just starting out at the age of six or seven I used my dad's 35mm camera. Almost all my photos were vertical. My dad didn't think this was normal and asked me why so many verticals. So I explained to him that most things you encounter in life, especially when you're a kid, you have to look up at. Hence most things I found interesting lent themselves to a vertical orientation. He thought I would grow out of of this 'fad.' I didn't."

Philippe Debeerst: "Good morning Mike. In 1987 Hasselblad introduced the hard-to-find A12V film back for their 6x6 cameras (1987/88 catalogue #30106). With this, one could shoot 12 frames of 4.5x6 vertically on a 120 roll. This film holder was intended to be used by magazine photographers because the magazine format was mostly vertical.

"This brings me to Linhof: the Linhof 220 was indeed intended for the press and the film frame had the exact dimensions of 56x72 mm that corresponded with the traditional (shorter than the A4) magazine dimensions. The Linhof Press 70 was the Linhof 220's big brother, with exchangeable lenses and exchangeable film holders, of which the Press-Cine-Rolex intended for 53(!) exposures on 70 mm filmstock was very notorious. By the way, all the Linhof Rolex film holders are always a few millimetres 'longer' than the competition's models, don't ask me why. Linhof called the 56x72 mm 'Das Idalformat.' The Japanese '6x7' was actually 56x68 mm. I think that generally speaking, the vertical film frame (medium format) cameras were intended for press/magazine photographers (and portraitists). Salut, Philippe.

"P.S.: As an avid Hasselblad film shooter, I am still looking for a A12V film holder....

"P.P.S.: I sometimes happen to use my Linhof Technorama 6x17 vertically, which is very interesting indeed!"

Mike replies: I suppose the A12V was matched with a focusing screen that marked off the vertical side boundaries? As I recall, my original Exakta 66 had a finder with ~645 rectangles marked off, both horizontal and vertical. The I've been trying to remember, but I don't think I ever shot a horizontal rectangle with that camera. Almost all verticals and a few squares. The current Mod. 2 has a grid screen, but the grid lines are very fine and hard for me to see.

Comments

[Niels]

I imagine most of the half frame 35mm cameras were vertical? I have a small Olympus I quite enjoy, possibly because of the vertical format.

[Barry Reid]

I always liked portrait format too, something I put down to getting the secondary release button for my T90 all those years ago. There are some nice half-frame 35mm cameras out there which work vertically too.

[Glenn Allenspach]

It's a funny thing how the hardware can influence the aesthetic. I see so many vertical videos these days, shot on smartphones. That's the natural way to hold a smartphone, yet virtually every display monitor out there is horizontal. Watching such a mismatch makes for a dissonant experience, for me.

On the flip side, I shot exclusively square format for a couple years with a Bronica SQ-A. To this day, I find myself occasionally using the square for my final presentation out of my rectangular format cameras.

[Allan Ostling]

Another vertical format film camera is the Fujifilm GA645i. I got one recently, and am very happy with the lens, and the autofocus.

[Tom Fangel]

I remember using the Linhof on a light airplane
learning the hard way never to use s rubber lens hood shooting onto the slipstream.

[Wayne]

I am not certain if you are speaking only of LF and MF cameras, but, in 35mm the Olympus Pen F/FT come to mind.

[Bruce Polin]

You aren't alone in your appreciation for the vertical format. If I'm not mistaken most of those popular small plate bellows cameras in the 6x9 format (Bergheil, Avus, Vag, Welta etc.) were predominantly vertical orientation. Then there was the Olympus Pen half-frame (72 frames per roll!). And doesn't Fuji have a vertical Instax camera?
It's funny though. I "see" and shoot almost exclusively horizontally and, if I do crop, square is the most I can do. I guess that's why I'm partial to the Pentax 67, which I use with the waist-level finder. That finder is great for horizontal, but try to use it in vertical mode without using expletives. You'd hate it, Mike.

[Stan B.]

And lets not forget that beauty of a handled 'camera' featured in the movie 2001 where the photographer was taking shots at the meeting in the space station. Couldn't see it close up, but it looked a beauty from a distance! But then, the future, I mean the past, always looks better...

[Bill Mitchell]

Most half-frame cameras, such as Olympus Pen F, were vertical format.

[Geoff Wittig]

Every digital SLR I own (currently 6...I think...) has a battery grip/vertical shutter release welded to it, along with an 'L-bracket' quick release plate to facilitate tripod use. I find 'naked' SLR bodies without a battery grip much more difficult to use, partly because my hands are large, but mostly because taking a vertical/portrait format photo is so clumsy without one, particularly in low light. Even using a tripod, I probably mount the camera vertically more often than the usual landscape format, because it maximizes data capture for stitched pano's. And I just prefer the portrait format for a lot of subjects.
So if Canon ever perversely decided to produce a D-SLR with the sensor oriented vertically, I'd be first in line.

[Richard Parkin]

There were also all those 35mm half frame cameras like the Olympus Pen series ;-)

[tex andrews]

I saw a guy shoot a wedding with one of these!

[Moose]

Olympus Pen film cameras. Half frame, vertical format.

[David Cope]

Can I put a mention in for the Olympus Pen F half frames?

[Yonatan K]

Before getting the GX8, my only quibble I had with it was the fact that the screen was fully articulating instead of tilting (like on the GX7). When I got it, I discovered to my delight that the screen tilts in vertical mode. So no quibbles at all. (As it turns out, I rarely use the back screen at all, so the ability to turn it inwards is a big plus too.)

[Andy Umbo]

Love the Linhof, these were fairly common in commercial studios in the 70's, and for a "one trick pony" of a camera, they were perfect. I print some negs taken with these back in the day, and they were quite nice!

[Tim Bradshaw]

If you are strongly left-eyed (which I am) then almost all hand-held cameras are natively-vertical, as that's how you need to hold them if you don't want the winding-lever stuck into your right eye. Or, in the case of Leica-layout cameras (viewfinder on the far left), if you want to use them at all.

[hugh crawford]

Oh those Linhof 220s have been on my camera bucket list forever. A childhood friend's family owned the small town three day a week newspaper, and they had a couple of those. I seem to remember something about having to drill out 120 film spools to fit in the 220 only camera. It was the perfect headshot with fill flash camera. You knew someone was deemed important when they showed up with that camera because that was the camera they used when they wanted to do a file photo. They called it the "Obituary Camera"

I have been doing a lot of vertical large prints recently I discovered that most people who don't build their house around their art collection can hang a 24x72 print that is vertical but have a harder time finding space for a six foot wide horizontal, much less a 30 foot wide print.

Brian Eno did a series of videos of weather in Scotland in the 80s that were vertical, and there were some video portraits in the 80's that were vertical but I can't remember who did them.

[Andrew Lamb]

Cracking lens of the Linhof 220. However, I found it awkward to use and the rangefinder wasn't the best.

[Benjamin Marks]

Just a ping from the digital age on "verticals." ;)

I often use my digital cameras in their panoramic stitching mode held vertically. While the camera stitches shots as you pan into a single panoramic view, holding the camera vertically (and arranging for the camera to understand that you are "sweeping" in that direction), which gives you an aspect ratio more like MF film. Using a Fuji XPro-1, for example, the "bottom" of the APS-C chip becomes your left edge as you pan from left to right, holding the camera vertically. Nice files result, and don't hold you to the APS-C aspect ratio. Works too with Olympus's Pen line of cameras (although with a smaller "left edge" if that makes any sense). Here's an example from the right side of Lake Champlain (almost Mike's neighborhood).

[IMG]https://photos.smugmug.com/Recent/Recent-Photographs/i-R4Lv67r/0/f84dd814/O/6852993897_4e7a046d7b_b.jpg/[IMG]

[Rick in CO]

The most famous vertically-oriented camera has to be the Linhof Technika 70. Made from 1962 to 1979 it was advertised to be a universal camera that could do it all. Heavy, exquisitely engineered and crafted, and without any automatic anything, it was a combination press and technical camera that had the reputation that if Leica made a medium format camera it would be the Linhof Technika 70. Big bright rangefinder/viewfinder whose focus could be coupled to three different lenses - WA, normal & tele. Used mine for many years for everything from wedding groups to portraits to landscape & travel shots. Eminently usable today with the digital back adapter! (and, of course, film).

[Steve Jacob]

I reckon about 70% of all my shot are vertical. Only landscapes really lend themselves to horizontal views IMO. Portraits and streets have far stronger vertical elements than horizontal.

[John Krill]

I used an Oly Pen FT as a backup when I was in Vietnam. Could only use it for personal photos since the Marines had a really hard time accepting 35mm film cameras. They still in 68/69 wanted us photographers to use 4x5 cameras. I actually told one officer that I would drop it out of a copter if ordered to use it. He dropped (pun intended) the idea when the rest of the photographers in the lab agreed. Go figure.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

My first SLR, the Miranda Sensorex, was not natively vertical, but the front-mounted shutter release meant you could hold it vertically a lot more stably than you could the others with the top shutter release. You had to remember the bottom-weighted metering system when shooting vertically!

I did have a Fuji GS645 for a while, so I had that experience with native vertical.

Like Tim above, I'm strongly left-eyed, but I didn't have trouble using my M3 horizontally. I did get the power winder with my Nikon FM so that I didn't have to have the wind lever sticking out into my right eye all the time, though.

[Henning Wulff]

Then there was the first Konica Autoreflex, an interchangeable lens camera that shot both vertically and horizontally natively, without rotation. Some medium format cameras, like the Mamiya RB67 could do that, as well as many sheet film cameras, but I don't know of any other 35's.

It was of course due to it's ability to shoot both full frame and half frame, on the same roll or alternating or whatever. A slide film processor's nightmare.

[Phil Aynsley]

Canon Dial!

http://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/film48.html

[Michael Mejia]

When I put a nikkor 105 mm f2.5 on my FM it went vertical immediately.

[s.wolters]

Do what you like, but please hold your smartphone horizontal when shooting a tsunamis, murders, spectacular car crashes or anything else that could later be used for TV-shows.

[Arnaud du Boistesselin]

And Hasselblad with a A24 back ...

[John McMillin]

My Fuji GS 645 handled so naturally, and captured images so beautifully! You just held it up to your eye, and what you saw was a magazine page. It gave me a love of the vertical format that's endured, but also a lasting frustration. I want verticals in a 3:4 format, not the usual 2:3, which I find too tall for any subject.

[Dave Karp]

I shoot a lot of vertical, especially with my view cameras. Most of the time my cameras are stored with the back in the position last used for a photo and most of the time the back is in the vertical position.

[Rob de Loe]

One nice feature of Lightroom is you can filter by orientation. It turns out that 59% of the images in my catalogue are portrait orientation (and none of those are portraits of people!)

[Ivan J. Eberle]

Every telephoto lens that has a rotating tripod mount instantly transforms whatever oblong-format body attached to it into a vertical body, on demand. Pro camera systems cater to the need for vertical compositions in ad copy, and, back in the day, magazine covers. Accessory/ battery grips for DSLR's today are mostly in tune with this, nearly all having vertical releases, AF joystick wheels and function buttons, but it wasn't that long ago that they mostly didn't get this right. Cameras with waist level finders and 45° prism options don't work well or at all in this configuration.

[Sam]

Canon's 1D bodies (I've owned a few ...) are intrinsically set up for vertical shooting, which matches what I need for shooting Australian Rules football. The vertical grip and all the necessary controls (and no others) fall within easy reach when using these bodies vertically. No wonder why there's so many white lenses on the sidelines of serious sports ...

See some examples of Aussie rules footy here: http://ryepixels.com/rye-football/

[Howard Sandler]

Don't forget all the Fuji Instax mini cameras shoot vertically.