At 04:19 PM 6/29/03, Mickey wrote:
Thomas,
I believe that the camera and paper manufacturers are in league with the hot
dog and hot dog roll makers. How many hot dogs come in a pack? 10. How many
rolls come in a pack? 8 or 12. Go figure. If we can't get something as
simple as that right, why bother thinking that print sizes will ever match
the frame ratio of a camera?
I agree. The 3:4 digi ratio appears to cater to computer screens. I know
645 has been around for a long time; it caters to a balance among 3.5x5,
5x7, 8x10 and 11x14 print sizes. It's closer to it than 35mm format and
even though 645 SLR systems have waist level finders, everyone I know that
uses a 645 SLR also has a prism on top of it.
Prior to 35mm small format being introduced in the 1920's, consumer prints
were contact prints. A good number of studios used large 8x10 view cameras
and contact printed 8x10's or enlarged 4x5's. Where did the 8x10 come
from? It was a common window pane size; one that early photographers that
coated their own glass plates with their own emulsion concoctions could
readily obtain at the local dry goods store. With the advent of the 6x6
TLR, it was presumed from the outset the image would be cropped to a
standard rectangular print size. The convenience of the square is part of
the camera design to avoid having to turn a TLR sideways . . . NOT fun
thing to do . . . and that carried through to the original medium format
SLR's with waist level finders.
The 35mm still camera aspect ratio of 2:3 is the odd one out. It dates to
Edison's creation of cinema film mad from 70mm film slit down the middle
with sprocket holes punched along each edge. 35mm cinema film is run
vertically and its full frame is what we would know as "half frame" in a
still camera. A 35mm still camera runs the film horizontally and is two
cinema frames side by side. To get wide screen cinema into the original
35mm cinema frame, anamorphic lenses are used to compress and make a wider
image narrower without compressing the vertical direction. The projection
system has a similar lens that expands the horizontal component back out
again into a wider image on the projection screen. Modern print machines
for 35mm and APS use 4 inch wide paper rolls. The running length is set to
6 inches for 35mm prints and adjusted to match the selected format for APS
(HDTV, Classic or Panoramic).
It's not the same manufacturer making film with one aspect ratio and
arbitrarily making paper with another. It's a convergence of various
histories of film, film formats, print formats, picture frame makers, etc.,
going back to glass plates, none of which track in lock-step with each
other, and some of which have much greater barriers to change than others.
-- John
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