The Term Format in photography

What is format?
A format is simply the size of recording medium.
Landscape Photography- Medium/Large Format


Large format describes large photographic films, large cameras, view cameras (including pinhole cameras) and processes that use a film or digital sensor, generally 4 x 5 inches or larger. The most common large formats are 4x5 and 8x10 inches. Less common formats include quarter-plate, 5x7 inches, 11x14 inches, 16x20 inches, 20x24 inches, various panoramic or "banquet" formats (such as 4x10 and 8x20 inches), as well as metric formats, including 9x12 cm, 10x13 cm, and 13x18 cm.

The Polaroid 20x24 inch instant camera is one of the largest format cameras currently in common usage, and can be hired from Polaroid agents in various countries. Many well-known photographers have used the 235 pound (106 kg), wheeled-chassis Polaroid.

The 4x5 inch sheet film format was very convenient for press photography since it allowed for direct contact printing on the printing plate. This was done well into 1940s and 1950s, even with the advent of more convenient and compact medium format or 35 mm roll-film cameras which started to appear in the 1930s. The 35mm and medium format SLR which appeared in the mid-1950s were soon adopted by press photographers.

Large-format photography is not limited to film; large digital camera backs are available to fit large-format cameras. These are either medium-format digital backs adapted to fit large-format cameras (sometimes resulting in cropped images), step and repeat Multishot systems, or scanning backs (which scan the image area in the manner of a flat-bed scanner). Scanning backs can take seconds or even minutes to capture an image. When using a Sinar Macroscan unit and 54H data files, over 1 GB of data can be captured.

Large format, both film-based and digital, is still used for many applications, for example: landscape photography, advertising photos, fine-art photography, scientific applications and generally for images that will be enlarged to a high magnification while requiring a high level of detail.

In the printing industry, very large fixed cameras were also used to make large films for the preparation of lithographic plates before computer to film and computer to plate techniques were introduced.
Image file formats are standardized means of organizing and storing images. This entry is about digital image formats used to store photographic and other images; (for disk-image file formats see Disk image). Image files are composed of either pixel or vector (geometric) data that are rasterized to pixels when displayed (with few exceptions) in a vector graphic display. The pixels that constitute an image are ordered as a grid (columns and rows); each pixel consists of numbers representing magnitudes of brightness and color.
A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no lens and a single very small aperture. Simply explained, it is a light proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. Cameras using small apertures and the human eye in bright light both act like a pinhole camera.

In photography, a sheet of ground glass is used for the manual focusing in some still and motion picture cameras. Some cameras have no separate viewfinder, but instead use a piece of ground glass at the focal plane to focus the scene. This type of focusing and viewing system is typically used on so-called large format cameras (cameras which use film 4×5 inches or larger). In such a camera, before the picture is taken, the ground-glass viewer is inserted in the back of the camera, and the lens opened to its widest aperture. This projects the scene on the ground glass upside down and backwards. The photographer focuses and composes using this projected image, sometimes with the aid of a magnifying glass (or loupe). In order to see the image better, a dark cloth is used to block out light, whence came the image of the old-time photographer with his head stuck under a large black cloth.
Large format, both film based and digital, is still used for many applications, for example: landscape photography, advertising photos, fine-art photography, scientific applications and generally for images that will be enlarged to a high magnification while requiring a high level of detail.

A medium format and large format camera can be heavy.
Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in still photography and the related cameras and equipment that use this film. Generally, the term applies to film and cameras used to produce images larger than the 24 by 36 mm of 135 film, but smaller than the 4”×5” size, which is considered to be large format.

Generally, the term applies to film and cameras used to produce images larger than the 24 by 36 mm of 135 film, but smaller than the 4”×5” size, which is considered to be large format.
So medium format applies to film that is larger than 24 X 36 but smaller than 4 x 5.

In digital, medium format is currently a very expensive option, with typical brand new all digital medium format cameras retailing for $10,000 (Mamiya ZD) to $32,000 (Hasselblad H3D) in 2008, though, older and used equipment can be substantially cheaper.
Toy cameras are simple, inexpensive film box cameras made almost entirely out of plastic, often including the lens. The term is misleading, since they are not merely 'toys' but are in fact capable of taking photographs. Many were made to be given away as novelties or prizes. The Diana, an inexpensive 1960s 4x4cm novelty box camera from Hong Kong, is typically the camera most associated with the term 'toy camera'. Other cameras, such as the LOMO LC-A, Lubitel, and Holga, while originally intended as consumer, mass-market cameras, have also become identified with the term.