The Best and Most Beautiful 8x10 Sensor

Here, according to a quick small-sample survey of my friends, is TOP's candidate for what is actually the best, most beautiful, and/or most practical 8x10 sensor:

click here

And here is the true digital equivalent of a film 8x10 or ULF* camera:

click here

And there you have it.

Spinning yarns
But before we leave the subject, may I just say that that 9x11" B&W digital view camera might rank as the "hardest sell" among all the cameras I've ever known of in life or in history. And that's quite a few cameras.

I know absolutely nothing—really—but allow me to indulge in a (humorous) speculative guess: a.) the sensor was fabbed for some other purpose entirely and already existed; b.) some rich dude got the idea of using it for a digital view camera; c.) he found somebody who could do the work and was quoted a price of $35k, had to think about it for a while, and said, "oh, what the hell, go ahead"; d.) it took far longer and was much more complicated than anticipated, and, by the time the dust settled, the cost had soared to $58k; but e.) whoever was doing the actual fabrication said they'd make extra units for only an additional $16k each; so f.) the guy ordered four, and g.) is hoping to sell one of them, so his costs are covered and he's left with a camera and one or two spares for himself, or h.) if he really gets lucky, he'll sell three of them and make a handsome profit—and still have his own camera besides.

I know nothing. Just talkin' off the tippy-top of my pointy little head.

But there's gotta be some story, wouldn't you think?

Mike
(Thanks to Oren Grad, Carl Weese, and Ben Marks)

*ULF stands for ultra-large format, and means any view camera with a film size larger than 8x10 inches.

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Ed Kirkpatrick: "Re 'And here is the true digital equivalent of a film 8x10 or ULF* camera:' Fun and true, but I do this every day by hand with nearly 100% success. I have become very good at knowing the natural horizontal and by using the guidelines in the viewfinder I allow a one-third and two-thirds overlap. The trick is knowing what focal length to select for a particular scene. Only experience or $479 for the gizmo will tell you that."

Ross Attix: "I usually really enjoy following your writing, but I have to disagree here with the 'true digital equivalent' part. That thing is just a landscape rig. Having spent many years working with 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras, your characterization misses the mark. The landscape rig doesn’t have any of the capabilities to work with focus and or perspective, and aren’t in the same league capability wise. There are many younger photographers who have never experienced what a true view camera can do. Let’s not muddy it up for them, OK? Thanks for usually great writing."

Mike replies: My position is actually that anyone who wants to use a view camera should use...a view camera. With Good Old HP5+.  :-)

Ken James: "Quite amazing, I could have written this myself, based on the subject not writing ability. I have been a user of rechargeables for quite a while too, and have worked up to better chargers. and...my absolute favorite flashlight is the Thrunite series. I have half a dozen of them, one in every camera bag, one on my desk, one by the bed. I like the Archers because they can be set to start up in low power mode, which for most cases is sufficient. Best flashlights I have ever encountered, and I am a flashlight junky (obviously)."

Don Craig: "Actually, in recent memory the Lytro Cinema Light Field Camera was probably a harder sell. Announced in April 2016 as a 'pivot' from their consumer Illum model, the mammoth million-dollar baby (but rental only) was pitched at movie and virtual reality production. By April 2018 it, and the company it rode in on, had vanished beneath the waves of commerce to a watery grave somewhere east of the Mariana Islands. Sic Transit Gloria Focus-In-Post."

Mike replies: The paradigm for these lost technologies for me (as a member of my generation) is the Walsh driver. [Note: At the link, see paragraph 2.] In photography it's the Foveon sensor. Both are technologies that should have ruled the world but got shunted off into little proprietary backwaters and became essentially irrelevant.

Someone with a better work ethic and more of an aptitude for organization than me ought to write a book about these ought-to-have-been technologies and products....

The Wills Sainte Claire Company also comes to mind. Childe Harold Wills (love that name) was Henry Ford's Chief Engineer, who quit Ford because Ford unreasonably capped his salary at $1 million a year (about $13 million today). He left (with $1.5 million in severance pay) to design his own car and start his own company. He designed a dazzling car that was five to 10 years ahead of its time—the Gray Goose, which, among other innovations such as the use of molybdenum steel, featured the first SOHC V-8 engine in production in America—but on the eve of its launch his investors, to reassure themselves that their money was safe, hired an outside consulting firm to review the business plan. The startling conclusion of those geniuses? Get this—that there were four million cars on the roads of America already and the market was saturated(!!!). (Today there are about 250 million.) The investors pulled the plug, Wills Sainte Clair struggled and failed, and history took a different turn than it might have.

Those kinds of stories fascinate me. There have been lots of them.

Comments

[Mark Sampson]

Your theory about the origin of that digital view camera sounds like stories you've told in the past about the audiophile industry.

[Stan B.]

Several years ago, Stephen Shore started using FF Nikon digital- he found it gave him quality close enough to approximate 4X5 film, with a lot more convenience...

https://www.americanphotomag.com/venerable-stephen-shore-shares-wisdom-through-lens-his-latest-project

[Ger Lawlor]

I'd love to try a portrait with the gigapan and a 12" lens!!! I wonder could I stay still enough.

[Jeff]

According to Northlight, LargeSense was founded in 2014 by Bill Charbonnet. The inspiration for the camera was Mitchell Feinberg’s 8x10 digital back, which had as its basis Polaroid...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2011/08/photographer-makes-huge-8-x-10-inch-digital-camera-back/amp

You failed to emphasize that the LS911 is a monochrome sensor! A color version is anticipated around 2020. And a 4x5 version of the LS 911, the LS45, is due by the end of this year. You can no longer pick on Leica for the priciest monochrome sensor cameras.

[David]

And then, having the camera, wonders “what about the lenses”.

[Dave Karp]

Mmmm. HP5+. My favorite flavor. I can only digest up to 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 though.

[Glenn Edens]

Mike, as I understand it the sensor is made by Canon - it is designed for astronomical imaging - and is supposedly in limited production. Your math is likely spot on :)

[John Camp]

Why would the body for a digital view camera cost more with a digital sensor than with a sheet of film? It's just a box with a lens.

[Michael Perini]

I always try to encourage small special purpose manufacturers, but hard as I try, it is difficult to think of a use case where this thing is the best option. (or even a good option)
As Mike says, there has got to be a story we don't know.
Early adopter(s) beware.

[Stephen Scharf]

I dunno, I think whomever made this 8 X 10" digital view camera into a product for commercialization is likely as delusional as Kodak is in ramping up Ektrachrome production again. C'mon, gimme a break.

Mike, you really should rent the GFX50S some time....if only for a weekend.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Your “yarn” certainly seems in the realm of plausibility. The camera’s sensor is clearly engineered for some other industrial purpose. The calibration and control tablet software doesn’t look like a hobby project at all.

But just watching that short video of that girl setting the camera up was enough to vanquish any remaining vestiges of big-rig lust I may have still harbored. Whew! It brought to mind the horror stories I recall Nicholas Nixon telling of shooting the Boston skyline from windy rooftops with a full-size view camera.

No. Thank. You.

[Maggie Osterberg]

A friend of my father had an 8x10" view camera and a seemingly unending supply of Kodak Panatomic-X. He would print big and it was like having a gorgeous wall of etched silver in front of you.

I asked dad if we could get one. He handed me my Canonette and said, "No. We don't have room for that big of print washer."

I miss my dad.

[Dave Stewart]

I was reckoning the "digital equivalent" to be in the form of a scanner, rather than a camera, for those big negatives.

[Andre]

Apparently you should have been a bit more specific when you requested a monochrome digital camera. Of the few companies to take you up on it, Leica is by far the most affordable.

[Bear.]

You got your paradigm wrong, Mike - you can still buy new speakers with Walsh drivers, and new cameras with Fovean sensors. I have the latter, and may well acquire the former.

[Another phil]

Heads up.
Your "the Walsh Driver" link goes to the Sony camera.

No need to publish this.

[It's a Sigma camera, and see paragraph 2. I should have said that. I'll go change it. Thanks Phil. --Mike]

[Jim]

The walsh driver was the answer to the question no one was asking. I heard ohm walsh 5s multiple times and they were nothing to write home about at all. Go listen to some German Physiks speakers and get it out of your system. In short, the concept sucks and is not worth pursuing.

The foveon sensor however is far superior to any bayer sensor, and second only to actual analog film. It is too bad sigma has dumbed it down with the quattro thing, they should go back to the Merrill design.