Pentacon Six with 50mm Flektogon 1/125 f/6.3 focussed at hyperfocal distance Fuji Reala 100
Exakta 66 Mk II with 150mm Tele-Xenar 1/250 f/32 on Fuji NPH 400
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by TRA Why should I choose a square format system?
Avoid design compromises The first reason for choosing a square format system is that the designers have not had to make the compromises that are necessary with an oblong format, like 35mm, APS – or even 6 × 4.5! With these systems, the camera needs to be usable in two different positions:
If you add a flash bracket, you are really asking for problems. In one orientation, the flash is likely to be above the camera, in the other, to one side, resulting in quite different lighting. Of course, any problem can be overcome, if you spend enough money, and there are some very expensive flash brackets that will flip through 90°. Then there are matters such as the optimum location for the controls – shutter release, film advance, shutter speed dial, etc. If what the designers choose is best when the camera is held one way, it will not be best when it is rotated through 90°, and this will slow you down. Image format Of course, the most important reason for choosing a format is for the images it can enable you to produce. We may not often see square images these days, so here are a few of my favourites from those I have taken with my Pentacon Six or Exakta 66 |
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Pentacon Six with 50mm Flektogon 1/125 f/6.3 focussed at hyperfocal distance Fuji Reala 100 |
Exakta 66 Mk II with 150mm Tele-Xenar 1/250 f/32 on Fuji NPH 400 |
| As you can see, plants and flower arrangements often work well in square format, and the last two images show that landscapes do not need to be in “landscape” format. |
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Traditionally, painters have rarely used a square format, although
Dr Gerhard Heyde says in his book “Pentaconsix Praxis” that Hans Holbein
the Younger’s famous portrait of Georg Giesze, which is virtually square,
is a piece of evidence against the claim that square format is “unartistic”.
The exact dimension of the picture are 96.3 cm × 85.7 cm. He
also refers to square and nearly-square pictures by Rubens and other famous
painters.
Not surprisingly, for many decades Hasselblad promoted the square format, and even offered a free booklet called “Quadrat Kompositionen” (I have the German version, although this was also available in English, and no doubt other languages, too.) In his book, “The Hasselblad Manual”, Ernst Wildi gives many advantages of the 6×6 or 2¼×2¼ in square format, concluding: “Picture editors, artists, graphic production specialists love square prints or square transparencies because it gives them full freedom to crop to their specifications. The 12 images from a 120 roll of film fit beautifully on a sheet of 8 × 10 in paper and since the camera is always held the same way, all the shots appear the right way up.” |
| Maximise freedom of choice
Of course, one of the greatest advantages of the 6×6 film format is that it is so much larger than 35mm (not to mention most digital cameras’ sensors!!) that you can easily “crop” images to whatever format you want, without compromising on image quality. In fact, one of my favourite formats with my Pentacon Six is the panoramic format used by the Russian Horizon/Horizont cameras and the Japanese Widelux – 24mm high × 56 or 58mm wide – without incurring the distortion problems that arise from using a swing lens camera. To learn more about taking panoramic photographs with the Pentacon Six, click here. |
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© TRA March 2006, February 2007