When was the film pack introduced?

[Bruce Watson]

Bruce, I don't know where there's a diagram of film packs, but if you've ever used a Polaroid peel-apart pack, it's nearly the same, except that instead of coming all the way out of the pack, the film is only pulled to the rear of the pack, and the paper leader torn off. That leaves a fresh film in the front of the pack (like the Polaroid), and individual exposed films can be "robbed" from the pack in a darkroom. A really neat arrangement. Imagine: 16 sheets of 4x5 film in a film pack adapter about the same size and weight as a regular double film holder.

Let me guess - the film was on the thinner roll film base. I'm thinking that because pulling film around to the back of the pack in a radius the size of the thickness of a "traditional" sheet film holder would seem to be a challenge with thick base sheets.

I just tried it and find it, well, difficult. One might be able to do it reliably within the thickness of a grafmatic back, but I'd wonder about the health of the film, particularly in cold weather.

If the film was on the roll film base, did it have any problems with flatness? Processing?

[Bill_1856]

Yes, the negative was on roll-film stock. I never had any problems processing in trays, but don't know about those using hangers (as I recall, different size hangers were used for sheet film and film packs). The problem was keeping it flat in a glassless enlarger carrier, (thus the NegaTran was introduced by Bessler). I think it wouldn't be much of a problem today, since flat-bed scanners are usually used today for printing, which is essentially like using a glass carrier.

[Jim Rice]

Let me guess - the film was on the thinner roll film base. I'm thinking that because pulling film around to the back of the pack in a radius the size of the thickness of a "traditional" sheet film holder would seem to be a challenge with thick base sheets.

It was. And they were so cool on a Graphic.