Best film holders?

[Corran]

I have about a dozen Linhof film or plate holders - the ones with a spring back than can hold either/or. They are a pain to load but they have clearly shown superiority in film flatness and precision when shooting faster lenses at wider stops.

But a lot of times I use Grafmatics, especially hiking and shooting landscapes where that doesn't matter as much since I'm at f/22 and beyond usually. The Grafmatics are really nice for size/weight savings, at the cost of occasionally having a black speck in the print due to dust on the negative which I usually never get with traditional film holders.

[Ben Horne]

I have worked with Fidelity, Toyo, and Chamonix 8x10 holders. The Fidelity holders are light which is nice but I'm not a big fan of them. I have had some of them develop light leaks over the years, and the fidelity holders are more likely to have an uneven exposure near the edge where light gets reflected back into the film surface from the edge of the film holder. I've also found that I'm more likely to experience film pop with the Fidelity holders. For those reasons, I've retired my Fidelity holders, and now I have mostly Toyo Holders. I really like the Toyo holders. They are easy to load, and very sturdy, I don't get the bright spots along the edges, and I don't seem to experience film pop very much. Earlier this year, I ordered 4 of the Chamonix holders for backpacking. I enjoy working with them, but they are more difficult to load than the Toyo Holders. I turn the Toyo holders sidways in my film changing tent and can easily load the film. When I load the Chamonix holders, I need to have the holder facing away from me, which is more difficult because in that orientation, there isn't a lot of extra space in my film changing tent.

[Ari]

I've bought and used all of the commercially available holders around today, and the Toyos are the best for 4x5 and 8x10.
They don't warp, and they are remarkably consistent from one holder to the next.

[Kirk Gittings]

"The best film holder are the ones you have that work." RR

I have a mixed bunch of 4x5 holders (maybe 50 MoL), many of which I bought new in 1978 (which still work fine after nearly 40 years). They are all Fidelity and Lisco. The only problem I have ever had with them is dropping them and busting the side seam. Gluing those seems to work fine. None of any these even leak light if the slot is aligned with the sun with the dark slide out.

[Merg Ross]

My holders range in age from forty-five to seventy years of age. The last that I bought new were Fidelity and Riteway holders in 1972. I have never had a failure attributable to the holder itself. However, I always use the darkcloth to cover the holder in all steps of the exposure process. I can't stress this practice enough when discussing "best film holders".