Film Holder Suggestions

[roteague]

I went to Australia for a month, and didn't take that much sheet film.

[Richard Kelham]

Your rucksack will be so full of film holders you won't have space for a camera. I think a sense of proportion is needed here...

[Dave Parker]

I have 2 4 x 5 cameras that I recently aquired.

One is a View Grapic and the other is a Speed Graphic.

What I need are film holders I have about 40 but several are on their last leg due to age. i want to get around 150 so I can pack at home for a weekend of shooting without having to try and reload in the field.

Any suggestions I have seen them ranging from $10 to $80 with $10 being more in my price range.

150 holders is pretty darn ambitious! to say the least, I don't know that I ever shoot more than about 10 exposures(5 holders) in a single day when shooting 4x5 gear, and then I reload in the evening for the next day of shooting, I don't know that I have ever owned more than 25-30 holders at any given time, and currently I carry 10 holders on a trip with me, which includes my yearly week long trip to Yellowstone twice a year..When my older holders start to wear heavy, I retape them and go from there...the only time I replace a holder is if it gets warped(wood) and broke in some manner that allows light leaks.

Good Luck

Dave

[cyrus]

50?????

Rich

You don't need 50 - they're reloadable!

I use a handheld 4x5 polaroid conversion much as a "snap shot" camera when travelling.

I take 5 grafmatics with me - 1 in the camera and 4 on a belt. About lunch time, I just reload them.

[Pat Kearns]

150 film holders, thats 300 sheets of film at roughly $1 per sheet for a weekend of shooting. I don't know who is bankrolling you, but would you please mention my name to them.

[Sounguru]

Wife wanted to kill me when I shot a case of 35 velvia 50 in a weekend.

[Brian Ellis]

Photographing a moving chipmunk with a 4x5 camera? Exposing 300 sheets of film in a weekend? If only there were a few more photographers like you wet labs would still be in business.

Seriously, 300 photographs in a weekend is a gigantic number of photographs. I don't mean this facetiously but in all seriousness, I think you need to slow down a whole lot. Unless the light is changing rapidly or something else requires really fast action give a good bit of thought to what you want the photograph to look like, walk around and check things out from different angles, see what the light is doing, how the shadows are falling, the contast range of the scene, things like that. 4x5 photography doesn't lend itself to making 10 slightly different photographs of the same scene and then picking the best one later, if for no other reason than the cost of the materials and the money or time it takes to process them. Spend a lot more time thinking and composing and less time photographing and I think you'll find that you don't need 150 film holders.

[Sounguru]

I am playing around with running the speed graphic like the old press protographers did. So alot of hand held and on the go type shooting.

One of my goals is to shoot people in downtown seattle. I rarely use the back for focus but use the rangefinder instead. John the gentleman who sold me the cameras showed me the setup he used to use when shooting new articles so I'm trying to perfect that style. I always loved the old press shoots. I'm even trying to rebuild the flash and get it up and running.

So having alot of film on hand is a must. Basing off what John said he ran in a weekend of good news events

On the view graphic if I shoot more than 20 it will be a miracle since it is a monorail and takes alot more time.

[MIke Sherck]

If you're going to shoot that much film you should seriously look into the Fuji or Kodak Quickload/Readyload systems. One film holder and as many boxes of film as you can carry (or afford.) Or polaroid film. Grafmatics wouldn't be a bad choice, either, if you can find enough.

300 sheets of film in a weekend just boggles my mind!

mjs

[Ed Richards]

I do shoot handheld like the old press photographers, using a Technika. Readyloads are really a pain handheld, with the sheet flapping in the breeze, and all the hassle of pushing it back in and carefully removing it so you do not pull it off the film. Regular holders are much faster and more fool proof - but note, more, not completely fool proof. Unless you are a real obsessive compulsive you are going to get some double exposures.:-)

That said, it is still a lot of shooting. You did not mention the processing side - if you can afford to get it all professionally processed and proofed, it could be a lot of fun. I would certainly shoot more sheets if I did not have to come home and process and proof them myself. If you have to process it yourself, you will quickly realize the virtues of more careful shooting because you will spend so much time processing and proofing that you never go out to shoot again.