Why I Still Shoot on Large Format Film in 2026
Every time I set up my 4x5 view camera in a public space, someone stops and stares. Sometimes they ask if it's a prop. Sometimes they pull out their phone to photograph me photographing something else. And almost every time, someone asks the same question: why?
Why, in 2026 — when a digital camera can shoot thousands of frames in a single session, when AI can generate images in seconds, when your phone has more megapixels than most people will ever need — would anyone still choose to shoot on large format film?
The answer, for me, has never really changed since I first picked up my brother's film camera growing up on the West Coast. It's not nostalgia. It's not aesthetics for the sake of it. It's intention.
Film Forces You to Slow Down
When I compose on ground glass, I'm not spraying and praying. I'm thinking. I'm waiting. I'm looking at the scene upside down and backwards — the way the view camera presents it — and asking myself whether this frame is worth making. Because with large format, you don't get unlimited chances. You get one. Maybe two.
That constraint is the point.
Shooting on 4x5 and 120 film taught me something that no amount of digital shooting ever could — that the best photographs aren't taken, they're made. There's a difference. One is reactive. The other is deliberate. Large format demands the latter.
The Quality Is Simply Unmatched
I won't pretend the technical argument doesn't matter, because it does. A properly exposed and developed 4x5 negative contains a level of detail and tonal richness that no digital sensor currently on the market can fully replicate — especially when printed large (Hasselblad X2D II100C may be the first exception). The gradation in the shadows, the way highlights roll off, the grain structure that gives the image texture and life — these aren't accidents. They're the result of a century of photographic science refined to near perfection.
When I get film developed at Blue Moon Camera in Portland and scan on my Epson V850, what I get back is not just an image. It's a document. Every scratch in the emulsion (depedning on the photo I may fix these in post), every subtle shift in exposure — it's all there, preserved.
It Separates the Work
In a world drowning in digital content, large format film photography is increasingly rare. That rarity matters. When my work was exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York and featured in HERE Magazine, it wasn't because I had the fastest camera or the most followers. It was because the images stood apart — in craft, in intention, and in visual weight.
Clients and editors can feel the difference, even when they can't name it. There's a presence to a large format photograph that commands attention in a way that most digital images simply don't. Keep in mind a creative eye is needed in all formats of photography and cinematography.
It Keeps Me Honest
Here's the truth: large format photography is hard. It's slow, expensive, and unforgiving. You can't fix bad light in post (not always true but alot of the time). You can't recover a blown exposure with a slider (learn Zone System!). What you put in front of the lens is what you get — and that accountability keeps me sharp.
My training started young with film and when I went to Brooks Institute in Ventura, California, where the foundation of photography was instilled in me frame by frame on 4X5 to start. That discipline never left. Large format is how I stay connected to it.
It's Not for Everyone — And That's Okay
I'm not here to convince every photographer to abandon their digital kit (I also have one). For run-and-gun work, for sports, for events — digital is the right tool. I use it too, particularly in my cinematography work on productions like Disney's Lilo & Stitch and Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, where speed and flexibility are everything, especially when flying a drone around (also it’s a lot of work to fly a film camera around - flying a Red Raptor is much easier).
But for my still work — for the portraits, the landscapes, the documentary images that I want to last — there is no substitute for the deliberate, irreplaceable process of large format film (Plaubel Makina 67, Mamiya 7 II for doc work on the go | 4X5 for editorial protraits and landscapes).
In 2026, that choice is more countercultural than ever. And honestly, that suits me just fine.
William King is a Bay Area-based large format film photographer and cinematographer available worldwide. His work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York and featured in HERE Magazine. To inquire about prints, commissions, or upcoming workshops, visit willking.la.
