There are better cameras. The crystal clarity and impressive size of large format images grabs the attention and rewards examination of the details. Movie cameras capture and manipulate whole sequences of time. Scanning tunneling microscope turn ticks into tyrannosaurs. But my beloved brush is the 35mm single lens reflex.
The obvious attraction is it’s flexibility and weight. Once you add extra lenses, tripod, filters and other gear to a camera bag, it already has the potential to drag your shoulder out of its socket. Large format and technical cameras are basically a hassle to carry around.
The 35-mil is pretty discrete with a slightly longer lens. The smaller parallax (?) cameras are even less obvious, but they’re also a little like reading a matchbox-sized bible, and I’ve never been a fan of the offset viewfinder.
35-mil images can’t blow up as large with impressive clarity, though programs like Genuine Fractals and the fact that people generally have to stand back from an image to take it all in anyway dull the pain of this a little.
They aren’t cheap, especially if you want professional quality gear. So what ends up happening is you make sacrifices somewhere; lower lens quality, softer body, smaller prints. But you could also say how dismaying it was the Louis Armstrong couldn’t sing like Pavarotti.
I’ve had plenty of disappointments with 35-mil images, usually because I wanted them to be something they weren’t likely to become. When I embrace their immediacy, flaws and flexibility, I’m always reassured that, like the sax player who prefers baritone to alto, this is my natural instrument.