Having realised the long held dream of owning a Speed Graphic 4X5 camera and Kodak Aero Ektar lens I was understandably keen to get cracking - it came as no surprise that shooting 4X5 sheet film was going to be a different experience to my other camera formats and i really love it, however this particular set up has one more trick up it’s sleeve - I can also shoot instant film with it!
To make this possible you’ll need to get a Lomograflock film back and you’re good to go!
Primarily I wanted to share all the many things that I love about using this combination (and I really do love it) but I would be remiss if I didn’t report the issues too - my first Lomograflok failed after the first shoot (it just started ejecting the film all over the floor) apparently a common fault and it was replaced with no fuss but it has left me slightly doubtful over the build quality - if you’re listening lomography: I’d happily pay more to have something that will last!
Using the Lomograflok is fairly straight forward, it involves attaching the spacer which allows you to focus, then you cock the shutter, remove the spacer and the graflok back from your camera, attach the lomograflok, remove the darkslide and fire the shutter, then put the darkslide back in, remove the lomograflok and FINALLY eject your instax film…. then….. put is somewhere dark and let it develop for a few mins…. phew…. in practice once you get into the groove it’s possible to complete all of these steps in about a minute, but part of the joy of large format is to slow down a bit and take your time - ALSO - your subject has to hold their position once you’ve got focus so it’s very definitely not a fast process but I flipping love it!
Now, let’s turn to the good stuff - the results! I don’t know if it’s because my expectations weren’t that high or what but I am blown away - absolutely LOVE shooting instant film with my speed graphic! The images have a dreamlike quality to them thanks in part to the aero Ektar but also the instax film.
I have done my best to scan these on the Epson V600 - they still don’t quite show the detail and ‘magic’ of the real instant image but even still! I love the results!
In practice there are a few steps in the procedure, the kit comes with a spacer that allows you to get focus on the ground glass, you then remove both spacer and ground glass and attach the the Lomograflock to the camera, remove the dark slide and hit fire - it takes longer to explain than it does in practice and once you get into the swing of it you can knock out - ooh, one shot per minute or something…. Let’s be honest nothing about large format photography is about being ‘quick’
So in good sunlight Instax film absolutley SINGS!! Love the results from the shoot with Danni, now let’s take a look at some shots indoors on a shoot with Sophie.
Big thank you to Sophie and Danni my two creative collaborators for these images - amazing to work with you both as always!
I rated the film indoors at 640 ISO and outdoors between 400 and 640 ISO to make the most of it, it does blow out highlights easily whilst also having fairly low shadow detail so it’s a bit of a balancing act, but it all adds to the look, I love the texture and tone of this film!
The absolute joy of this though is that the film itself is so reasonably priced (comparatively) I can get a box of 50 instax shots for about £35 which elevates shooting the speed graphic from something I’d use rather sparingly to something I use ALL.THE.TIME!
The instax film is an interesting stock to work with, having very little latitude for highlights or shadows so you have to be quite careful with it, it’ll blow highlights very easily and shadows are really not up to much, but knowing these limitations you can either work around them or build them into your final outcome! I am obsessed with the results and the magic of being able to view the image almost ‘instantly’ (it takes a few mins to develop) never gets old.
At around £120 the Lomograflock should be in every large format shooters kit!