Fidelity Riteway film holders

[Mike Lopez]

I read elsewhere on this site (film holder reviews) that the current style of Riteway film holders (4x5) has a number wheel that ends up printing a number within the frame. Could anyone out there either post or send me a picture of this? I would like to see how much of the frame gets affected by this. Thanks a lot.

Mike

P.S. Is it possible to remove the wheel without causing a leak?

[Henry Friedman]

If you don't want the number imprinted on your film, just buy another type of holder.

[Scott Davis]

I use the riteway holders that have the wheels in them. I remove the wheels, and this is very easy to do. The number intrudes enough that if you want to see it, it's there in the print, but if you don't want it, you can easily mask it in printing. On an 8x10" print, I think it means a 1/8" crop. In my opinion, it is annoying, especially if you are using the negs for contact prints, not enlargements.

Removing the wheels causes no film fog or flare. They are just clear plastic disks with black numerals on them. I use the Riteways for the self-locking buttons to keep you from accidentally pulling the darkslide. The numbering disks are also annoying because they don't reliably hold position between when you set them and when you expose your film. The last time I used them before ripping all of them out, I ended up with two #20 sheets of film and three #03's. I still prefer them for the locking button, so I just removed the wheels and keep on shooting.

[Mike Lopez]

Thanks a lot, Scott.

Mike

[Sal Santamaura]

Also, if a low value happens to be where the number overlay is, you end up with no number at all.