Sony Alpha Rumors’ Andrea Pizzini’s Walk-In Camera: Wall-Size Photos, No Pixel Count – Focus Check ep138

by Johnnie BehiriToday

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Can you imagine stepping inside your camera — which is actually a tent — and seeing the very same sheet of material that captured the light hanging on a gallery wall as a photograph? In this week’s episode of Focus Check, our special guest Andrea Pizzini explains how he makes single, unrepeatable color photographs up to 127 x 220cm in size. The story behind the camera is a deeply personal one, and Andrea talks candidly about the events that led him to leave the project behind — and eventually return to it.

Most of you probably know Andrea as the person running Sony Alpha Rumors, a website about Sony cameras and the Alpha system. Though, we would love to dedicate an episode on this alone, this week’s episode is about something very different: his art – or how he likes to call it, exploration – project.

Andrea works with a mobile, walk-in tent camera that exposes one sheet of FUJIFILM Fujiflex at a time. A reversal process turns that sheet into a color positive, and the same sheet is then framed and exhibited. There is no negative, no digital file, no enlargement, and no stitching of several images. The formats range from 127 x 127cm (50 x 50 in) to a planned maximum of 127 x 220cm (50 x 86.6 in), which is almost 2.8m² (about 30 ft²) of image surface. Andrea shoots with three Apo-NIKKOR lenses: a 480mm f/9, a 890mm f/11, and a 1210mm f/12.5.

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Why this episode is different

(05:38 in the episode)
The technical side is only part of the conversation. Andrea also opens up about his childhood, his son, and the loss of his friend Christian. Rather than retelling that part of the story here, we’ll leave it to Andrea to share it in his own words in the episode above.

The “CUBE”, the camera you can walk into

(14:13 in the episode)
The principle is the same as in any camera, but at a much larger scale. Light from the subject passes through the lens and falls onto a single sheet of photographic material inside the tent. “After chemical processing, that same sheet is framed and exhibited.” Each photograph is one physical original, made at its final exhibition size.

Because the camera is mobile, Andrea can take the process to his subjects rather than bring every subject into a studio. He works both under studio lighting and outdoors, in the mountains around Merano in northern Italy, where light conditions change during the day.

Turning a print material into a positive

(27:25 in the episode)
Fujiflex is a glossy, polyester-based silver-halide material. It is normally used for color printing: an enlarger or a printer exposes it from a negative or a digital file. If you put it directly into a camera and process it in the usual way, you get a negative image, with the colors and tones reversed.

To get a positive, Andrea uses RA-4 reversal processing. RA-4 is the standard chemical process for color photographic paper. In the reversal version, the sheet first goes through black-and-white development, then it is exposed to light again, then it goes through color development and finally a bleach-fix bath. The result is a color positive on the original sheet. This is similar in principle to how slide film produces a positive image directly.

According to Andrea, light filtration was one of the largest parts of the research. With the help of friends who support the project, the team spent a year testing how to get reliable color under studio light and under changing outdoor conditions.

What 480, 890 and 1210mm mean at this size

(21:06 in the episode)
Apo-NIKKOR lenses were designed for reproduction work in the graphic arts industry, where they had to cover very large flat originals. On a sheet of this size, even 1210mm is not a long telephoto. Specially for our CineD readers, Andrea took the time and calculated theoretical full-frame comparisons for all three lenses:

• On the 127 x 127cm format, the 480mm f/9 compares to an 11.6mm lens at approximately f/0.22 on a 36 x 24mm frame. The 890mm f/11 compares to 21.4mm at approximately f/0.26, and the 1210mm f/12.5 compares to 29.1mm at approximately f/0.30.
• On the larger 127 x 220cm format, the figures become 8.2mm at approximately f/0.15 for the 480mm, 15.2mm at approximately f/0.19 for the 890mm.
• And 20.6mm at approximately f/0.21 for the 1210mm.

Andrea is clear about the limits of these numbers. They are nominal comparisons, based on the diagonal, at infinity focus, against a 36 x 24mm frame, and they assume that each lens covers the entire sheet. The equivalent apertures describe depth of field, not exposure settings. Andrea writes that aspect ratio, close focusing, and the actual coverage of each lens must be considered before anyone treats them as practical shooting equivalents.

One original, and no pixel grid

(30:42 in the episode)
Andrea describes the result as having “something of the directness of a giant Polaroid,” although the sheet needs separate chemical development. The photograph on the wall is not a print made later from another image carrier. Because there is no negative and no digital master, there is also no edition. The work can be scanned and reproduced, but in Andrea’s words, “even a gigapixel scan must pass through another printing process, with its own limits in resolution, colour, tonality and surface.”

The size of the sheet also changes how people look at it. From a distance, the viewer sees composition and color. Closer to the wall, attention moves to fine textures and small changes in color. The image does not break down into a visible pixel grid or inkjet dot pattern, and it does not show the enlarged grain of a smaller film negative. Andrea mentions the texture of skin, the surface of fabric, and the transitions across a petal as examples of what close viewing shows.

Sharpness within softness

(33:43 in the episode)
The depth of field figures above are the reason for one of the most visible characteristics of the work. Particularly at close focus, the very large format and the long lenses combine a wide frame with a very thin plane of sharpness.

A subject comes out of strongly softened surroundings while selected details stay finely resolved. “The softness is as important as the sharpness,” Andrea says. In his view, the two together create separation, depth and intimacy, and they guide the viewer’s attention to a face, an object or a small natural detail.

From slides to a two-meter cube

(11:17 in the episode)
The project started with Andrea’s interest in slides. In 2002, he changed from color negative film to transparencies and never went back, because he could look directly at the positive image without enlarging or scanning it. He wanted to find out if that directness could exist at the size of a wall.

In 2009, Andrea and his best friend, Christian Martinelli, built a mirror-clad cube camera that measured 2 m (6.6 ft) on each side. They used Ilfochrome, a direct-positive color material, to make their photographs. After Christian’s untimely death in 2022, Andrea thought the project had ended for him. But in 2025, friends encouraged him to start again, and their support made the return possible.

Honesty of process

(34:21 in the episode)
Andrea does not start with a large narrative and then look for photographs to illustrate it. He starts with something that moves him: the mountains around Merano, changing light, or a moment of connection with a person. Each photograph can stand as a complete work, even inside a larger series.

He works without retouching and without compositing. Andrea connects this to the influence that images have on what people believe, at a time when editing and generation can make the origin of an image uncertain. He calls it “honesty of process, not a claim to absolute truth,” because framing, timing, and perspective remain his choices. In his words, “If a photograph makes someone stop for a moment and experience something quiet, intimate and real, that is enough.”

Would you like to learn more about what Andrea Pizzini is doing and how he is bringing his dream to life? Let us know in the comments below, and send your questions and suggestions to [email protected].