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  #1  
Old 19th October 2010, 04:56 PM
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Default Photographic Paper Size

35mm is probably the world’s most common film format, but paper manufacturers don’t seem to make paper in that 3 by 2 ratio. Is this a gap in the market or am I missing something?
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Old 19th October 2010, 05:10 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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35mm is probably the youngest film size historically,and paper sizes were decided when MF and LF was king, and tradition dictates they stay the same,just a guess, but lf came before mf and the paper sizes matched to film before the upstart 35mm came along, it is all tradition,Richard
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Old 19th October 2010, 06:06 PM
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13x18 cm and 18x24 cm are common and very close to that ratio. I also like 24x30 cm with wider border left at the bottom.
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Old 19th October 2010, 06:23 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Clive I have asked the same question myself on another forum as well as raising it with Simon Galley on an Ilford Tour. On both occasions it was like the biblical parable of the seeds: "Ye, it fell on stony ground and bore no fruit.":

Surprisingly few others seemed to share my desire to see packs of 5 x7.5 inch paper and yet as you say the vast bulk of film used is 35mm with 5x7 paper probably being the most used paper.

OK It generates some issues such as no fixed easels being made that size( make new ones?) and the raises the question of: do you run two sizes in parallel or risk needing firesales of the old stock because no one wants it after the new size comes out.

Most importantly from a commercial aspect is: If it ain't broke at say 5x7 then why fix it?

My impression was that Ilford didn't consider it to be broke and based on others' sentiments it is probably correct in that assumption.

Mike
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Old 19th October 2010, 06:27 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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I rather like 35mm printed full frame on 9.5x12, for me it works so, as Mike says, if it ain't broke why fix it, for the majority of people the present sizes seem to work,Richard
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Old 19th October 2010, 06:29 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
Clive I have asked the same question myself on another forum as well as raising it with Simon Galley on an Ilford Tour. On both occasions it was like the biblical parable of the seeds: "Ye, it fell on stony ground and bore no fruit.":

Surprisingly few others seemed to share my desire to see packs of 5 x7.5 inch paper and yet as you say the vast bulk of film used is 35mm with 5x7 paper probably being the most used paper.

OK It generates some issues such as no fixed easels being made that size( make new ones?) and the raises the question of: do you run two sizes in parallel or risk needing firesales of the old stock because no one wants it after the new size comes out.

Most importantly from a commercial aspect is: If it ain't broke at say 5x7 then why fix it?

My impression was that Ilford didn't consider it to be broke and based on others' sentiments it is probably correct in that assumption.

Mike
Mike. What is the basis of your assumption that "the vast bulk of film used is 35mm with 5x7 paper probably being the most used paper"?
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Old 19th October 2010, 07:11 PM
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If you like a generous border on your enlargements such as a one-inch all around on 7x9.5 inch paper, then you will get the image size of 5x7.5 inches that Mike mentions which corresponds to the aspect ratio of standard 35mm negatives.
It depends if you like borders on your prints.

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/mgr...-100-201-p.asp

I would have thought that 8x10 inch papers are a more popular size than this or 5x7 inch papers though.
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Old 19th October 2010, 07:48 PM
Paulographic Paulographic is offline
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35mm may be young(ish) if anyone born in the1920's considers themselves so but the same ratio was in 120 rollfim as 6x9cm so I will repeat the original posters question.
I would venture to say that more exposures have been made on 135 than anything else.

Paul
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Old 19th October 2010, 09:48 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave View Post
Mike. What is the basis of your assumption that "the vast bulk of film used is 35mm with 5x7 paper probably being the most used paper"?
I have made the assumption that most who still use film(worldwide) have 35mm cameras. This was amost certainly the case pre-late 90s in the U.K. and I see no reason why the proportion of 35mm to MF has significantly altered, although there has probably been more 35mm migration to digital than MF to digital.

Certainly we have a mini-lab in Daventry that does enough film processing to keep an owner and 2 assistants going. The vast bulk of that is of course colour neg with some C41 B&W neg. Much less is MF.

People who use mini-labs tend to have all negs printed and do so at 5x7size. Bigger for 36 frames is very expensive

Most students( well the one on my course) used 35mm. In fact all did.


I have no evidence to back this up. It is just assumptions based on the above . In the U.K. only Ilford could give sales figures and probably wouldn't but I'll bet for instance that the Ilford dev and print mailer process deals mainly with 35mm and 5x7.

It's a kind of "it stands to reason" set of assumptions on my part

I might of course be wrong.

Mike
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Old 20th October 2010, 12:40 AM
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Hi everyone,

Most of my printing I do tend to be either on 12x9.5, 10x8 or 7x5 regardless of which film format I'm using. Somehow small is beautiful and personal.

I fully agree with Mike about photographic students because the last 18-24 months I've been doing some contracted photographic tutoring and all of my students use 35mm cameras with legacypro or rollei retro 100 film.

When it comes to printing our standard size is always 7"x5" paper because it's just right for passing round the class for constructive feedback. Unfortunatly my contract just ended (cut-backs). It's been very satisfying knowing that every student leaves with a better understanding of analog processes and will continue they artistic skills outside of college.

Personally for myself, I use a mix of sizes; 12"x9.5", 10"x8" and YES 7"x5" like ex-students.


I like the small paper for making test prints to see if it's worth enlarging but sometimes prefer these samples as the finished photo - very detailed and quite cute - particularly nice for individual b&W portraits - black velvet background. I did try printing full frame 7.5"x5" onto 9.5"x7" Tetenal paper but actually like the smaller 7x5 printed 6.5x4.5 with quarter inch boarder, seems to suit my style.

Printing on to small papers are a real doddle now I'm using my Dunco 4-bladed easel (now my initial problems with it are sorted) and centering the paper is easy as pie.

Larry

Last edited by Larry; 20th October 2010 at 12:58 AM. Reason: missing word
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