The Chroma 4×5 large format technical camera has intrigued me since it was announced last February. When I found out its creator, Steve Lloyd, was UK based, I got in touch to find out if he’d planned to visit The Photography Show this year. It turned out that he had, so I asked if he could bring along one of his Chroma cameras so I could see it for myself.
At a mere £250, this thing is amazing. It’s the same price as the wooden Intrepid 4×5 camera, although the construction is much cleaner. Being acrylic, it’s not going to swell and shrink in different environments based on humidity. It’s also not likely to go mouldy if you throw it in a box in your garage and forget about it for a few months. The Intrepid is still a lovely camera, but the Chroma just edges it for me.
And Steve’s not quite done with the camera’s development, either. He plans to make a couple more improvements to the design before they’re shipped out to the Kickstarter backers. Once those backer orders have been satisfied, Steve plans to put the camera on general sale, so the rest of us can get one.
The best bit is that the price will remain at the same, ridiculously low, £250 it was set during the campaign. Once it’s available buy, it will be available on the Chroma website.
After having now seen this in person, I will definitely be adding one of these to my list. Large Format’s something I’ve wanted to do more of for the past few years, having only messed with it a little using other peoples cameras. This, though, will definitely be mine!
Here are some of the slightly more high-tech cameras we saw at this year’s The Photography Show.
