Marketing Question: 5x7 Film Holders

[Paul Droluk]

Before we launch into this, we would like to receive an indication of the potential market for brand new 5x7 double sided film holders. These would be in every way indistinguishable from Toyo film holders other than for three aspects...

1. They would carry the Fotoman brand name
2. The dark slide would be stainless steel (like in a Horseman RF holder)
3. The pricing would be more attractive

We have already commenced the tooling for 8x10 and 4x10 film holders, having satisfied ourselves that a viable market exists. Once again, these will be indistinquishable from the Toyo holders other than for the same three aspects. We believe there is a viable market for the 5x7's as well, however before making the considerable investment in tooling, we would like to have some feedback.

Thank you in advance for your input.

[Geary Lyons]

Paul,
There has been strong demand demonstrated in the Toyo 5x7 holder thread. Although I do not want to jeopardize the valiant efforts with Toyo, a firm offer of product, including price and quantity would likely be welcomed.

Cheers,
Geary

[kjsphotography]

11x14 would be nice for sure.

[Ted Harris]

Paul, there is a definite demand. As noted above there is a move afoot to get Toyo to do a run of 5x7 holders. Of course, there has not yet been a discussion of price and I suspect the eventual price quoted by Toyo will not be that attractive.

If you can bring the final retail price of the holders i somewhere in the range of the cost of the Fidelity Holders in their last incarnation ... $55 ... or less you will have a winner.

Folks, if anyone can do it Paul can. I am assuming these holders will have the fit and finish of other Fotoman products which is superb, by far the best I have seen come out of China.

[r.e.]

Any chance of a 5x7 Fotoman to go with the holders?

[Jim Rhoades]

Last year I bought six new Fidelity holders. The last I guess. Everything that I've bought or seen on e-bay is 75 years old and beat to hell. I'm not even trying anymore.

From the responces I've seen on the Toyo thread at least half say it depends on price. I too, would buy 6 to 12 more at the right price point.

I would wait until I heard what Ted or Kerry said about them.

[Sal Santamaura]

Paul,

See my response in the APUG thread:

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum172/...tml#post440117

If you could assure us that the concerns I expressed there would be addressed, I'd purchase 12 of your holders rather than Toyos. I'd also be interested in 6.5x8.5 holders if they are as I described in the linked thread.

[Scott Davis]

I'll put in my interest here as well, and again stir the pot for 6.5x8.5 holders. At a fair price, I would be very interested in both sizes.

[Christopher Perez]

I agree. Though at this point I have 17 "usable" holders to work with, I would be interested in new equipment at the "right" price. I think Ted suggests a good place to start.

Paul, there is a definite demand...

If you can bring the final retail price of the holders i somewhere in the range of the cost of the Fidelity Holders in their last incarnation ... $55 ... or less you will have a winner...

This may be a hold-over from our thoughts shared on APUG, however, interest remains high from a vocal few (Your Humble Servant included) in Full Plate equipment. Again, for the "right" prices (not AWG, S&S, or Lotus prices), Full Plate equipment might be interesting.

Paul,

... I'd also be interested in 6.5x8.5 holders if they are as I described in the linked thread.

Last thought: I noticed that the Fotoman lens adapters don't focus very closely after moving beyond support for extreme wide angle optics. If nothing else, a Full Plate camera back with film holders could be a way for some of us to adapt this format to existing bellows camera systems (such as Arca Swiss and Sinar).

[Paul Droluk]

Paul, there is a definite demand. As noted above there is a move afoot to get Toyo to do a run of 5x7 holders. Of course, there has not yet been a discussion of price and I suspect the eventual price quoted by Toyo will not be that attractive.

If you can bring the final retail price of the holders i somewhere in the range of the cost of the Fidelity Holders in their last incarnation ... $55 ... or less you will have a winner.

Folks, if anyone can do it Paul can. I am assuming these holders will have the fit and finish of other Fotoman products which is superb, by far the best I have seen come out of China.

Hi Ted, thanks for the compliment... we're trying hard. In fact the pricing target you mentioned ($55) is around what we have in mind. I am aware of the move to get Toyo themselves to make these, but I too suspect that the pricing will not be very favorable. I compliment Gary for all the work he did in attempting to put the Toyo deal together, but it's been a really long time without Toyo responding. I just have to wonder if Toyo's marketing relationship with MAC is perhaps getting in the way.