Roll film holder options for Wisner Trad'l 4x5?

[Al D]

I have an opportunity to acquire a Wisner Traditional 4x5 camera at a pretty good price for my first view camera.

One concern I have is that this camera does not have a Graflock back. As such, are there any roll film holder options for 6x9 or 6x12 that are compatible with the Traditonal?

Thanks

[Brian Vuillemenot]

There's one made by Linhoff or Arca Swiss (someone please correct me) that slides in the back of a non-Graflock type back, but they will set you back about as much as a new Wisner traditional 4X5. I was in the same boat as you a year and a half ago, wanting to use a roll film back (the Shen-Hao/ Day-Yi 6X17, 6X12, and 6X9 multiformat back) on my Wisner 4X5 TF. I ordered a graflock back from Wisner for $250 through one of his dealers. After waiting for almost a year, even with the dealer calling him constantly and receiving all kinds of half-truths and end-of-the-week promises, I finally gave up and got a refund. I used the money to buy a Shen-Hao 4X5, which was hardly more than twice the cost of the Wisner Graflock back, is a fine piece of craftsmanship, and works great with the panoramic back. Now that I think of it, for the price of that expensive "slip right in" panoramic back that you could use with your Wisner as is, you can pick up the Shen Hao and the multiformat panoramic back. In my book, the choice is a no-brainer...

[John Berry ( Roadkill )]

I have one of the grafloc backs for my wizner. It works good but you have to setup and then remove the two thumbscrews then install the roll film adapter and take the shot. The back was $200.00 and it is made good but for less money you could get one of the calumet rollfilm holders that you insert like a sheetfilm holder. Been here, wish I had done that.

[David Rees]

I use a Calumet 6x9 adapter on my Wista 5x4 DX, since it doesn't take the Graflok backs. It slides in just like a standard double-sided film holder (it is a little thicker, though).

I picked it up on eBay a few months back, and have used it quite a bit. Loading is not too difficult, even in the field. No instructions came with it, but I managed to download them from the internet.

One caveat: when I received it, I set up a test: camera mounted 10 yds from a church window, 180mm lens, no movements. I focused VERY carefully, then took an exposure at each of the aperture settings from f5.6 to f45. When I got the film back, I was surprised to see that the frames taken with the wide apertures were out of focus. It was not until the aperture had got as small as f22 that the window was sharp.

This led me into some testing, and I found:
a) My Wista ground glass was a little further forward than the film in the Fidelity Elite film holders I use, which meant that the focus point on the film was a little closer to the camera than indicated on the ground glass, and
b) The film in the Calumet 6x9 adapter was even further back, thus bringing the actual point of focus even closer to the camera.

I have put thin plastic shims under the ground glass on the Wista, which brought the G.G. and the film plate to exactly the same distance, and retested: now perfect focus with 5x4.

The above shims helped a little with the film holder, but nowhere near enough. I eventually prepared a translucent thin plastic sheet, to the same dimensions of the film holder, with a hole cut to the dimensions of the 6x9 film gate. I now insert that when focusing/composing for the 6x9 holder, then replace it with the holder itself when making the exposure. With this plastic sheet in place, the G.G. is placed into the same plane as the film in the adapter, thus solving the focus problem.

I have no idea whether my adapter is faulty, or my Wista (again purchased 2nd-hand) is/was faulty, but with a little ingenuity, I have them all working properly now. I find I do more work with the medium format adapter than I do with 5x4 (partly because I only have a film scanner capable of 6x9 at this time), and I am now very happy with it. Please don't let me little issues put you off buying one -- they are definitely useful.

[Armin Seeholzer]

There are no Arca holders wich slide under the grondglass. But there are the Linhof Rapid, the Sinars and the Toyo which goes under the groundglass, but the Toyo is very thick about 4 cm. The Calumet and Cambos also work thad way but have the reputation not holding the film very flatt!

[neil poulsen]

In the meantime, why not order a back that accepts Graflok accessories? Check his website. They're not that much, considering the amount one might have to pay to get a decent non-Graflok roll film holder.

[Ralph Barker]

I have one of the Calumet roll film holders. The big problem with the under-GG designs is the tight radius of the end roller that enables the holder to fit under the GG without putting too much tension on the back's springs. If the film is left in the holder for any length of time, the section at the end developes a "bump" that causes flatness problems when it is moved to the taking position.

[Kirk Gittings]

Ralph,

I use C2N's extensively. I have owned at least 8 of the 6x9's.

The tight radious "end roller" is already past the "taking" position. So the bump occurs after the film is exposed. It will not effect film flatness as far as exposure is concerned. Something else must be going on with your holder.

[Bob Salomon]

The Linhof Rapid Rollex slip-in holder is made in two versions. One for 2x3 cameras and one for 4x5 cameras. Both versions are 6x7cm 120 film only. Linhof does not make a slip-in 6x9cm or 6x12cm holder. Both of those formats are Graflock type from Linhof.

[Al D]

Neil,

Unfortunately, Ron Wisner is no longer taking new orders for any work. He's going to try to fulfill existing orders to salvage his reputation and then move on to very low volume highly-custom new camera work.

If you have an earlier camera from Ron he will (apparently) honor his warranty but he isn't going to accept orders for accessory work. At least that's what I've been told from the gentleman offering to sell me the carmera and that's actually one reason why he's selling the camera in the first place.