Ebony Whole Plate!

[David Karp]

Check out the new Ebony SV Whole Plate camera: http://www.ebonycamera.com/cam.html

I read about it on the Online Photographer: http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/

If enough of us dive in to this format, and holders become readily available, I think I will have to dive in too. The main thing that has kept me back is that I don't have the time or inclination to search and search for holders and wait unitl I can luck into some. As so many have said, it just seems like a wonderful size for contacts.

Thouht some of us might be interested.

[Doug Dolde]

Talk about non standard ! I'd rather 8x10 !

[Oren Grad]

Dave - stay tuned, T.O.P. will have more to say on the topic, likely sometime within the next two or three weeks.

[David Karp]

Oren,

I gathered that you would be providing something for TOP after reading Mike Johnston's blurb. I am looking forward to reading it.

Of course, if the only new camera available is an Ebony, I am still out of the game, but their introduction of a camera is a somewhat interesting development.

[Oren Grad]

I gathered that you would be providing something for TOP after reading Mike Johnston's blurb. I am looking forward to reading it.

Yeah, Mike's been on my case, and very cleverly put a public stake in the ground. I guess I can no longer evade my duty to uphold the honor of wholeplatedom...

But don't get carried away with speculation, all. I think we'll have some good information to share, and we'd love to see others pick up an interest in this fun format. But so far as we know, there's nothing cooking in the way of bargain-priced new cameras or holders. If anyone has information to the contrary, please do get in touch and we'll investigate further.

[Christopher Perez]

Come on, I need a reason to live. A person can hope, can't they?

... so far as we know, there's nothing cooking in the way of bargain-priced new cameras or holders...

[Oren Grad]

Come on, I need a reason to live. A person can hope, can't they?

We definitely encourage all whole-some hopes.

[George Hart]

I would be amazed if resurrecting this format is an economic proposition! 3 months ago I drew attention to this new camera on the LF Forum (http://www.lf-photo.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=271), and the response was not overwhelming, to say the least!

I write as an enthusiastic user of Ebony cameras (45S and SV57E). I have no connection with them.

[Christopher Perez]

There was a discussion over on APUG where the Fotoman, well, man responded (Paul Droulak(sp?)). He was surprised at the level of interest.

Fotoman already offers "odd" sized film holders and some interesting cameras. The trick would be to offer an attractively priced bellows-based full plate camera with new plastic film holders. Apparently Fotoman's camera creation process is scalable. I was under the impression that they could get a decent ROI at 20 units. Seems almost too good to be true, so I must have misunderstood something from the discussion.

I recently uncovered a complete working tab-style film holder camera with like new holders. Ilford kindly had HP5+ in stock pre-cut. I bought what I could afford and will continue to pursue the format.

English Full Plate is SUCH a brilliant format. It fits nicely between 8x10 and 5x7 contact print work. Final matted images fit nicely to hand for viewing. It's probably the largest "personal" format where a person doesn't have to share viewing space with others. Unless they wish to, that is.

I would be amazed if resurrecting this format is an economic proposition! 3 months ago I drew attention to this new camera on the LF Forum (http://www.lf-photo.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=271), and the response was not overwhelming, to say the least!

[Sal Santamaura]

...3 months ago I drew attention to this new camera on the LF Forum (http://www.lf-photo.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=271), and the response was not overwhelming, to say the least!...

Thanks for pointing out that thread. I just registered and posted a link to information on APUG detailing the availability of Ilford wholeplate film. There are many avenues to using the format; not all need be expensive.