Let’s play a quick game of word association. I’ll write a word, and you say whatever pops into your head (feel free to put on a Bluetooth headset and yell out your answers if you are in a public place — everyone will be totally impressed):
iPhone.
Curtain.
Wood.
Tripod.
iPad.
If your response to the last word — iPad — was “large-format camera,” then what we have ourselves here, ladies and gentlemen, is a segue. An awkward, forced segue that leads us right to this video showing just how a large format camera is made.
You see, back before the iPad had a 5MP camera inside, the only way to look like a dork shooting photos with an encyclopedia, tea-tray or treasure chest was to use a large-format camera. These take single sheets of film, usually the size of an actual photo print, and make even the mightiest of multi-megapixel digicams seem like the original iPad.
This camera is a Walker Titan 4×5, and is pretty much a light-tight box with extras. And those extras read like a cross between an iPad photo app and a DIY project. The bellows-focus mechanism lets you apply real tilt-shift effects, and those same bellows are stuck to the camera with double-sided sticky tape.
And keep watching until the end, where you see this old-school camera paired with a modern digital back. Now all we need is for somebody to make one of these that will actually fit an iPad inside.
[Via PetaPixel]
