Backpacking with a Large Format Camera

Written By Jonathan Sims

note: this post was written originally on an older website of mine years prior, and more recently copied to this blog. The date shown here is the date it was copied.

My photographic journey has, in the past year, taken a turn in a direction my younger self would not understand. I – after acquiring professional digital camera gear that provided bewildering image quality and versatility – became very interested in and, as anyone who switches to a new camera can tell you, invested in a different realm of machines: film cameras.

Younger-me did not see value in the analog experience and had no desire to even trial it beyond the use of the occasional wind-up disposable camera. Film was an anachronistic party favor that had lost any label of being worthwhile, trampled by the march of technological advancement. But, as is similar for many people who gravitate towards the use of film, over the years, 15+ in fact, I became aware of a dissatisfaction lurking in the periphery of the digital experience. Something about it failed to close its own loop and deliver the meaning I looked for. Last year I bought a Nikon F3 – a 35mm film camera – and a set of lenses off Etsy for a screamin' deal, and immediately found a lot of enjoyment with having to learn photography again from a different approach. Part of it was purely the interest that comes with interacting with something "new", but the majority of it had to do with the differences in the workflow and its emphasis on being present with real light conditions.

Despite not yet mastering the use of a 35mm film camera, I, since the beginning of 2020, have been acquiring the pieces of gear necessary for large format photography. My reasons for doing so are a topic for another time, but my paragraphs of introduction up to this point are meant to give the context that, while I am no stranger to photography, I am definitely a film photographer of the initiate rank. So, when I decided to buy-in to the large format workflow and haul that gear up a mountain to test my abilities for three days, I had a lot to prepare for. This post is as much a retrospective for me to continue learning as it is a small offering of experience for anyone looking to undertake this journey themselves. I'll begin.

The Camera and Gear

The large format camera I ended up choosing was the Intrepid 4x5 Black Edition. Intrepid is a company known for their fairly-priced, lightweight view cameras and the Black Edition is a spinoff from their standard mk. IV model that features many 3D-printed parts out of a hard-wearing plastic. This change in material means that the camera is even lighter than their other models, weighing in at a single kilogram (2.2 Lb). This was a huge draw for me as I wanted to be able to take a large format camera backpacking without destroying myself physically in the process over longer distances. The camera also folds down to a very packable size, making it less of a problem when trying to fit essential hiking gear into a pack with this "luxury" item.

Keeping with my interest for sparing weight and space, I limited myself to only having one lens. This was also out of interest of only purchasing one lens. Since I primarily focus on landscape photography, and I lean towards wider-angle scenes, I chose to go with the Nikon Nikkor 90mm f/4.5 SW. For anyone that's familiar with the focal lengths for full-frame digital cameras or 35mm film cameras, this roughly corresponds to a 28mm lens in that format. This is wide enough that I would be able to shoot foreground-oriented compositions, but not so wide that I couldn't ever do anything else with it, at least within the kinds of scenes I typically enjoy shooting.

Beyond those main pieces, I acquired the other typical key accessories: a dark cloth, film holders, slide filters and mount, and a focusing loupe. The only other special items I got, which I received via a well-timed birthday, were two protective cases that were made by Stone Photo Gear. One was a 4x5 camera wrap that swaddled the Intrepid perfectly, and the other was a double-pouch 4x5 film holder case. Both of these – I can attest now after cramming them in a backpack and tossing them all over the rocks and muck of an alpine wilderness – are well-crafted protective solutions.

Overall, I'd say the weight and space taken up by this loadout were comparable to that of a typical digital one, that of a camera body and 2-3 lenses.

My packed, large format loadout:

  • Intrepid 4x5 Black Edition

  • Nikon Nikkor 90mm f/4.5 SW

  • eTone 6x focusing loupe

  • Blue Moon Camera dark cloth (BMC is my local, Portland analog camera shop)

  • Lowe Pro filter case

  • Formatt Hitech resin soft-edge graduated neutral density filters (1-stop, 2-stop, 3-stop) and aluminum lens mount/adapter ring

  • Fidelity Elite (and clone brand) double-cut 4x5 film holders (x3, giving me 6 shots for the trip)

  • Stone Photo Gear Intrepid 4x5 camera wrap and double-pouch 4x5 film holder case

  • 12' cable release

  • Peak Design carbon fiber tripod

  • Small zip bag for some of these components and cleaning supplies

  • My phone (very important, this will be explained more)

  • And, of course, 6 sheets of Kodak Ektar 100 loaded into those film holders

Preparatory Education

Before going on the backpacking trip and attempting to expose my first sheet of film I spent a significant amount of time exploring the fine educational institution that is the internet and practicing in the backyard. Here are the resources that turned some light bulbs on for me...

Workflow Aids

Going into this trip I was aware of two problems with large format cameras that makes them difficult to use on their own. One is that they, obviously, have no built-in metering system to tell you how to expose your shots. Acolytes of Ansel Adams often use handheld spot meters, but I wanted to try out a more immediately available solution for backpacking before investing in anything else. Pocket Light Meter on iOS is an app that, while not offering pinpoint spot metering, does a good job at giving accurate exposure values and settings for different areas in a scene. It also has a feature that allows you to save a "log" page to your camera roll that has a thumbnail of the scene, the exposure data, and any notes you want to add.

The other problem is that a large format camera is not very mobile and is not the easiest to see through; this is quite a hindrance when trying to use it to hunt around for compositions. The solution I found, since I'm already using my phone to handle the light metering, is via another app, Viewfinder Mk II, which allows you to adjust your phone's camera to the format and focal length of just about any camera and lens combination. This turns your phone into an agile scouting tool for potential compositions. The app maintains its own internal camera roll that you can log your scouting shots into for review later. The photo locations can also be seen on a map.

Fleeting Light vs A Slow Camera

One of the big challenges I've always faced with landscape photography is the race to find good compositions in locations that are new to me. More often than not, it always seemed like no matter how prepared I thought I was for sunrise or sunset, when the moment came I ended up running around like my head was cut off. With digital I knew that I could move around and reconfigure fairly easily, grabbing shots here and there while trying out different compositions. Going into large format I knew that I'd have no such safety net and that it would be much more about committing to a single shot or two. For the backpacking trip I adopted a workflow of...

  1. Scouting for compositions during midday with the Viewfinder Mk II app with it calibrated to provide the view of the 90mm lens I'd be using

  2. Reviewing the options in the afternoon and culling them down to the most promising for sunset or sunrise

  3. Heading out to the compositions I had committed to for the time and using the Viewfinder Mk II app to get lined up in the exact spot I had been in before, then using the Pocket Light Meter app to log the actual light conditions for the shot without having to manually write out the notes somewhere

This workflow ended up being highly effective. When the light got to the critical point I was ready with no need to run around trying to find other spots to shoot from; I had made my decisions and all that was left was to work the camera and fire the shutter in those short windows of good light. I gave myself many hours to be in a place and prepare for the moment rather than what I had done many times in the past with digital cameras, which was to show up to the spot an hour early and cram the prep in. I've never experienced time slip by faster than when trying to find a good spot to shoot from, and an hour tends to rarely be enough for me. Giving myself a ton of time, different stages of "quality assurance" on the process, and having apps on my phone to take the guess work out of it made the overall experience very enjoyable.

Overall, Using A View Camera in The Mountains

Unparalleled. If I had any questions before about why I had the urge to using a large format camera, they have been answered. The hands-on, meticulous workflow is one that promotes and rewards critical thinking. It offers a lot of finesse and unique control through the use of front and rear standard movements, which on the trip made me feel like I was directly crafting the image. It was a neat feeling.

The downside was the I had a very finite amount of shots and couldn't just resupply whenever I wanted. Six shots proved to be a lot to go through in roughly 4 photo ops, but if I had any doubt that I had messed up a shot in someway then I could have been SOL fairly easily. This would be an even greater concern for longer backpacking trips, as either I would have to be incredibly scrupulous with the shots I choose to take or fight a cramped backpack to stuff more film holders in there.

Overall, large format seems to be harmonious with the way I approach landscape photography and using this new [for me] style of camera is teaching me a lot about being more thoughtful and calm. So, one backpacking trip down, and we'll see how it goes from here!

Jonathan Sims
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Workout to Improve Your Landscape Photography