Oh boy. The spring on my graf lock back for my tech field snapped in two and I lost the thumb screw that holds it down.
Now reading all this and calling Wisner with no forwarding make me cranky! I love using my graflok back! It's my main way to do color.
Any suggestions of where I can go?
Last edited by Robert Brummitt; 25-Aug-2006 at 10:33.
Tim's thread about the company that makes Lisco, Fidelity, Riteway, etc. is mostly correct. What the original thread had wrong is the company ownership and what is going on. The company is owned by/is a subsidiary of Calumet. They have shut down operations and are assembling film holders from remaining stock. My information is that they have sufficient parts to assemble some 20,000 to 30,000 4x5 holders. No information on holders in other sizes but I do know that 13x18 and 5x7 holders are now back in the supply stream (or were a few weeks ago).
At least one interested party is currently in negotiations with Calumet to buy the company.
\Originally Posted by Ted Harris
Thanks Ted for taking the time to investigate some of the facts. We should all be fine in the film holder arena.
Cheers!
Well, it has been a month since my last communication with Mr. Wisner. I tried e mailing him again but his AOL e mail address keeps bouncing back. I tried e mailing through his web site and no response. So I guess I was too optimistic about my initial assesment about Mr. Wisner trying to turn a new page, apparently it is bussiness as usual.
I dont know if it is that I am having bad luck for the last year but seems to me customer service for those who cater to the photographic community has gone to the dogs.... I lost the post to attach the camera to the tripod head for my Gitzo head. I called Bogen and their response was "we dont ship internationally" but they do ship to Canada, would somebody please tell me when the US invaded and made Canada part of their territory? I dont recall seeing it in the news.
Last year I bought a Nikon 150 SW, I did not know the back element was the same size as the front and would not fit through the hole in the front standard for my Gandolfi, which has a Teknika standar. So I e mail Gandolfi and ask them how much the hardware to convert it to a SInar standard would cost.....getting the information was like pulling teeth, after about a month of trying and maybe 5 or 6 e mails, I get a response it would cost $1000....the camera only cost me $2700!...My initial reaction was to get up and go look in the mirror to see if someone had written stupid on my forehead.......
And of course, you all know the Wisner story.......
On the rare occasion that you need to shoot your 150 SW, unscrew the back element and put the front element and lensboard on the camera. Loosen the front bellows from the front standard and screw on the rear element of the lens. Bring the bellows over the lens and affix back in place and shoot. Reverse when you are done.
A little inconvenience will go a long way in saving yourself a grand. Just a thought.
Last edited by Michael Kadillak; 13-Sep-2006 at 14:21.
[would somebody please tell me when the US invaded and made Canada part of their territory? I dont recall seeing it in the news.]
September 16, 1775. It was in the news. But not recently. And we didn't keep it.
As I recall because you were soundly beaten at Quebec in December... :-)
You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn
www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog
Could be why we gave it back. Something about a steep cliff I remember from grade school.
Probably the right time and plce to put in a plug for the good guys too. Bruce has already mentioned Richard. There are alos the folks we all know who do great work cleaning and repairing lenses but most of all it is hats off to the truly great general suppliers we still have in this business. I mean Jeff at Badger Graphics and Jim at Midwest for starters I do as much business as I possibly can with bothof them because I know they won't let me down. I am convinced that if I were in the middleof the Gobi Desert and called either one with a cry for help they would find a way to get me what I needed and get it there fast ( as long as my request was only partially insane). Not to forget the small camera manufacturers like Keith Canham and Mike Walker and Dick Phillips who are also 100% customer oriented. And I am only mentioning those in the US .... there are lots of similarly fine examples in Eurpoe and Asia.
Sooo while we have a few out there that frustrate and continue to do so I do feel, as an industry, we are also blessed with a number of excellent vendors.
I sold it for the same price I bought it and bought a SSXL from Jeff.....happy as a hog in shit....
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks