In landscape photography it is often best to use a large format camera. The finer grain and better rendition of details in the final print is highly desirable. For hobby photographers a large format camera is expensive, cumbersome and bulky. When travelling, such a camera is almost impossible to bring along. Only very serious photographers are willing to spend the extra time and inconvenience required.
It may be interesting to know that Ansel Adams had to load his equipment, including the 8x10 inch camera and many glass plates on a donkey when he made his photo excursions and took his legendary pictures in the Yosemite Valley in the early twenties!
Here are some tips to get 35 mm pictures with a sharpness approaching that of a large format camera:
If you prefer a longer lens, such as 90 mm or longer, here is another sharp tip:
To demonstrate the technical quality that is possible with the 35 mm format, I will show below a series of enlargements from one single negative. It is also interesting here to compare the potential in the "obsolete" chemical imaging technology of yesterday with the digital imaging and on-screen viewing of today.
This picture from Yosemite Valley shows a man who wants it all... and gets it, with a 360 degree panorama camera. This old camera uses an enormous film format and the whole roll of film is used for one exposure. Later the same evening I could examine his marvelous contact printed pictures in the store down in the valley.
I took this picture with a Leica M3 and a Summicron 90 mm lens on Kodak Technical Pan film. The negative is very sharp and it is possible to read the text on the button on the man's hat.
Next picture is a moderate enlargement for orientation:
On his T-shirt it says: "I made it to the top", meaning he has climbed the Half Dome to the top. Check the scarf around the man's hat. There is a button on it. Now we switch to the real high magnifying lens:
It seems we have to do with a versatile man! Apparently he has been also in Alaska. After all, the highest mountain in the USA, the cold Mount McKinley, is found in Alaska.
This little suite of enlargments shows clearly how much picture content there can be in a minute 24x36 negative. On the first picture on the screen, one cannot even see that there is a button on the hat.
From a climber and photographer, having a very attractive photography site, I have got feedback indicating that sharp pictures enlarged 38 times would require a negative resolution around 200 lp/mm. Well, that's not quite possible! As you can see, my 38 times enlargement is not exactly sharp at normal viewing distance. Here are some facts:
Negative size: 25x37 mm, enlarged 38 times with a 20 mm Canon macro lens.
Enlargement on 14 " VGA monitor: 58 times, corresponding to a full picture length of 2.15 m.
Width of hat on negative: 4.7 mm, text height of button on negative: 0.0315 mm.
Width of thin line around button: 0.0079 mm, corresponding to a resolution of 63 lp/mm.
Since the line is pretty clear, the resolution of the neg must be well above 63 lp/mm, maybe around 100, but certainly not 200.
I have taken other pictures on the Technical Pan film with a Super Angulon 3.4 lens for the Leica where the useful resolution is in the order of 120 lp/mm. In this case no adjustment of distance setting is necessary. Other types of abberrations are dominating for wide-angle lenses. To enlarge such negatives is a challenge! The enlargement lens must not be stopped down to more than 5.6 if 120 lp/mm is to be reproduced.
Click here to read more about my method for supersharp pictures.
In search of Sharpness is an interesting site for all sharpness-freaks.