Medium-format and View Cameras

[kes]

There's a big difference between medium and large format. Not the obvious one ;) , but the fact that large format (4" x 5" and larger) cameras generally have "movements"...

Thanks for comparing the engineering of MF and view cameras with DSLRs. I do not have a bezillion dollars to buy one of these MF backs, but I am trying to satisfy my curiosity about how photographers made two books about Indiana's (U.S.) covered bridges and other out-of-the-way places. A TV documentary showed a photographer standing in a wood and beside a huge camera. Perhaps he used film and a scanner.

Another TV documentary showed a photographer with a big camera, laptop, and a cable between the two. What is that about? Was he in the field with a too small memory card?

[another view]

The first one was most likely shooting film and scanning it after processing. There are still quite a few people who shoot LF although I'm not one of them. I may try it someday myself; I've always been interested in it.

The camera connected to the laptop could have been a medium format with a digital back, I think most of them are used this way because each file is so large. Some of them use memory cards but most don't. Usually they're shot in a studio so it's really not an issue - plus then you have the LCD on the laptop to confirm the shot.