Medium Format: Is It Right For You?

You, as a photographer, are looking for the perfect image. In addition to being aesthetically and compositionally flawless, you also crave perfect representation of color, texture, and the finest of details. You want your photos to be as detailed as possible, showing on the subtle colors and sharp edges of your real world subjects. You're looking for the best possible image.

Medium format photography can help get you this image. Medium format, in contrast to 35mm, uses a much larger film size. By using a larger film area, medium format cameras, such as the famous Hasselblad H series can capture significantly more information, and therefore a much sharper, more vibrant image. The large a slide or a negative is, the better image it will give, since the larger area allows for so much more photographic information.

Additionally, since medium format cameras a generally all "professional" cameras, the quality of the lenses used is very high. In fact, some of the highest quality optics in the world can be found on the front of medium format cameras. You're not going to find much cheap, low quality consumer grade glass in the medium format world, though TLR cameras like the Yashica TLRs can be a little cheaper. Rather, the finest lens makers of all times have tasked their best engineers with the mission of creating amazing lenses for their medium format cameras. Some of these lenses are a wonder to behold, and can help you create some spectacular images.

All these factors add up to give you an amazing quality image that will blow away any 35mm image taken under similar conditions. If you look at a medium format negative or slide under a loupe, you will be shocked by the magnitude of detail that is visible. It's hard to describe, but the difference is immediately visible and striking. This is not a small quality improvement that is visible to only an elite few, this is a radical change in the quality of your photos.

Indeed, it is this quality that leads many professionals to deal with the added cost, size, and weight of medium format gear. To be sure, its not the most convenient and affordable of formats. The larger negative requires a larger, more complex camera to deal with. A larger lens is required to focus enough light to expose the medium format film pane. These larger, more complex cameras and lenses are also significantly more expensive than 35mm cameras. Medium format cameras are not for the average photographer, but rather for the professional or amateur who demands only the best looking images possible, while still allowing for some flexibility and portability, which large format lacks.

So, should you go out and buy a medium format camera today? Typically not, given the way medium format is so complex. If, however, you demand only the best, medium format is the way to go.