Ebony Whole Plate!

[clay harmon]

Lotus just made me a brace of whole plate holders. You have to ask.

I also hve a few S&S holders from Sandy. Again, you have to ask.

6 1/2 x 8 1/2 holders are not listed at Quality Camera's web site, the usual outlet for S&S holders. I seem to recall a post from Sandy saying that he'd been burned on making that size and wouldn't consider it again. I could be wrong...

Full plate isn't listed on the Lotus web site, either. That's too bad; some Lotus holders would be very nice to have. AWB does list the size, but I can't help wondering how long it would take to actually get the holders in hand.



Sal, where's that post? I can't find it.

[Jim Chinn]

I recently started a thread about retailers for LF film holders. As far as S&S holders go, Sandy King responded to contact him directly about holders. He listed a lot of sizes in stock although I don't recall if any were plate sizes.

[Sal Santamaura]

...Sal, where's that post? I can't find it.

It's at the bottom of the thread George Hart linked. Click on that and scroll down.

[Oren Grad]

6 1/2 x 8 1/2 holders are not listed at Quality Camera's web site, the usual outlet for S&S holders. I seem to recall a post from Sandy saying that he'd been burned on making that size and wouldn't consider it again. I could be wrong...

Full plate isn't listed on the Lotus web site, either. That's too bad; some Lotus holders would be very nice to have. AWB does list the size, but I can't help wondering how long it would take to actually get the holders in hand.

So far as I know, nobody has them on the shelf. Lotus will build anything you want, you just have to wait a few months. AWB will, too, though timing is iffier. Sandy made a batch years ago - before he formally launched the S&S business - of which I purchased a few at the time. I think Clay got the leftovers from that batch. If I recall correctly, Sandy said recently that he's flat out with other formats and is reluctant to take custom jobs for the time being.

[David Karp]

I have been thinking about this development a bit over the past day. Does anyone know how this Ebony whole plate camera came about? Did someone convince Ebony to build one for them, and it ended up in the catalog? Or perhaps Ebony decided that there is a big enough market out there to justify creating a new product?

[Oren Grad]

I have been thinking about this development a bit over the past day. Does anyone know how this Ebony whole plate camera came about? Did someone convince Ebony to build one for them, and it ended up in the catalog? Or perhaps Ebony decided that there is a big enough market out there to justify creating a new product?

Two people requested custom-built cameras from Ebony in this format. Not for the first time, Ebony chose to show the result of a custom job on their website; it's a nice way of reminding customers of what they're capable of doing. And if anyone else wants one, they'll be happy to build more.

The distinction between custom and regular items for a company like Ebony is a bit artificial. Although their more popular 4x5 and possibly 8x10 models may be in serial production, their catalog lists all sorts of variations in other formats that are probably built one or two or at most a few at a time.

[David Karp]

Thanks Oren.

I expected as much. Hopefully they will sell a lot more and Tachihara or Shen Hao will offer a whole plate camera too.

[Asher Kelman]

What film is aavaliable in this size?

Asher

[Sal Santamaura]

What film is aavaliable in this size?

Asher

As part of its approximately annual "ULF" special order periods, Ilford offers FP4 Plus and HP5 Plus. Check with Silverprint for availability in Europe. There are others as well, including something offered by Retrophotographic.

[Oren Grad]

It's also not that difficult to cut down from 8x10 using a compact rotary cutter.