TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

The short answer: 67  refers to the frame size of the film my Pentax 67II camera uses.

The much longer answer:  Just as digital cameras have different sizes of sensor, film cameras use varying sizes of film. The vast majority of film cameras use 35mm film. One step larger than 35mm are the medium format cameras that use roll film. Roll film always has the same width (56mm), but different medium format cameras vary in how much of the roll they use in each frame. The most popular medium format cameras are 6×4.5, 6×6 and 6×7. The image below shows how the frame sizes compare.

Why use larger film?

Capturing an image on a larger piece of film has many advantages. It allows you to record more detail, there are better gradations in tone and they require less enlarging when printing. In the past 35mm was fine for smaller prints but 2 page spreads in magazines or commercial work for advertising, portraits or even weddings was done with medium format cameras. You could go one stage further and use large format cameras for even finer detail. (These are the bohemoths that take single sheets of film 4 by 5 inches or even 8 x10 inches in size. These cameras were mainly used by landscape photographers who loved the detail and the special shifts and tilts that could be made.)

There are, however, disadvantages to using bigger pieces of film including size, weight, availability, practicality and cost. A bigger piece of film requires a bigger camera. Bigger cameras need bigger lenses, which then means you need a bigger tripod and end up with a bigger, heavier camera bag.  The cameras and lenses also tend to be more expensive to buy, but more importantly is the cost of film and processing. On my camera each click of the shutter costs more than a dollar in film and processing.

Photographers using film therefore had to weigh the advantages against the disadvantages for their particular situation. News photographers tended to use 35mm while studio photographers tended to use medium format. As a travel photographer a smaller camera will mean you are less conspicuous, it’s less intimidating, you can walk around all day without backache, you have more shots on each roll of film and you have the advantages being able to use autofocus or metering if you need them.

 Back in 2002, I checked what the submission requirements were for various travel magazines and noticed that many preferred medium format slides, stock agencies likewise preferred the larger transparencies. My goal was to take the highest quality photographs I could get while traveling. To be able to offer photo editors the best images I could produce.  I looked at various possible cameras, but in the end chose the Pentax 67II.

Pentax 67II

The Pentax 67II is a 6×7 camera so the film size is 4.3 times that of 35mm.

The camera does, however, operate very much like a traditional manual 35mm SLR with the film advance lever, shutter release button, prism etc all where you expect them to be. The biggest difference is the size of the camera which leads to its nickname in Japan – Gulliver. The camera body with meter weighs 1.66 kilos while the lenses I use range from around 700 grams to a back destroying 3.7 kilos.

So back to the short answer.  67  refers to the  frame size of the film my Pentax 67II camera uses. Why include this in the title of my website? Because it’s not just about taking travel photographs, but pushing myself to get the best  images possible.