Kickstarter: Galaxy Wants to Bring Back Large Format Dry Plate Photography
It isn't cheap, but this Kickstarter wants to bring back an age-old process
Wet plate photography has been making a serious come back lately, but this Kickstarter from Galaxy wants to bring back dry plate, large format photography in a relatively accessible way.
If you’re unfamiliar, the process involves, well, pretty much making big, beautiful, black-and-white negatives out of pieces of laboratory-grade glass. The dry plates have an ISO equivalent of 200, but they’re not sensitive to red-light, so metering is a bit different. That means they can also be developed with the help of a safe light.
The plates come in packs of 10 and start at the standard 4×5-inch size, then move up to 5×7-inch, 8×10-inch, 11×14-inch, and massive 16×20-inch sizes. Of course, the plates aren’t cheap, but alternative process, large format photography rarely is. The 4×5-inch plates check in at around $8 each ($9 once the early bird pledges are over) and the 16×20-inch plates cost $150 each. That’s some serious pressure.
The plates will use the new Galaxy glass plate holders, which will be part of a Kickstarter that’s coming soon.
