Banquet cameras were originally used for photographing large groups of people. In the 1920's, it wasn't possible to enlarge film for sufficient detail to show faces clearly. Professional photographers used very large sheets of film instead. Hauling a camera that uses 7" x 17" (18 x 43 cm) film is a lot of work. I carry roughly 32 pounds (15kg) of gear to expose six sheets of film. For comparison, the little camera is uses 4" x 5" film. The contact prints provide a sharpness, tonality and depth that must be seen to fully comprehend. These prints are on silver gelatin fine art paper, though I also make hand-coated platinum/palladium prints.