[Leica] Weston's 8x10 contact prints

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

You are probably not old enough to remember but in Weston's time there were
many who argued that his results would have been better if he used a
"miniature" camera and enlarged to get the final print. Of course, at the
time, "miniature" was anything smaller than 6x9 cm. My 1950's two pound
Kodak Medalist was advertised as a miniature. The logic was simple.
Miniature camera lenses were corrected for a much higher degree of
resolution than large sheet film camera lenses. Most of the latter were
optimized for large image circles so that lens shifts and other camera
movements could be accommodated. Pundits suggested that even with the
resolution loss of the enlarging process, Weston's pictures would have been
sharper if he had used a smaller camera.

Larry Z


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Mark writes:

"I am totally mesmerized by the "idea" of making 8x10 contact prints and am

intrigued that other than Ed Weston none of them it seems did that but

projection printed the negs even when making 8x10 sized prints."