Bail on Canham 5x7, 4x5 woodie

[Herb Cunningham]

I spoke with Keith Canham a couple of years ago about putting a bail on his wooden cameras, as I use grafmatics a lot in 4x5 and find cameras w/o bails are hard to use, making inadvertent camera movement a real possibility.

He was not enthusiastic about doing bails, but since my arca 5x7 and 8x10 both have them, I rather suspect somebody could figure out how.

Who would yall suggest as the person to approach for such work?

[Oren Grad]

Try Richard Ritter.

[RichardRitter]

Due to the way the back is design and built it is impossible to do. The only way to do it is to build a new back with a different spring design.

[Turner Reich]

Or do it this way... Canham back.

[Renato Tonelli]

I really like the bail Richard has put on my Wisner; I use 6x12 and Grafmatics and the bail makes it easier to work with them.
I am considering (struggling to resist, really) an 8x10 Canham or other such beast and wonder if a bail could be retrofitted.

[Mike Castles]

I really like the bail Richard has put on my Wisner; I use 6x12 and Grafmatics and the bail makes it easier to work with them.
I am considering (struggling to resist, really) an 8x10 Canham or other such beast and wonder if a bail could be retrofitted.

Or get a Ritter 8x10 and it will come with a bail (after using the Ritter 8x10/7x11 this past weekend can't tell you how much I appreciate the bail back).

[Michael Jones]

Try Richard Ritter.

I've had Richard place bails on two backs for me and have no complaints. Its cost effective and really improves using the cameras.

Mike

[seabird]

Please excuse my ignorance, but as a 4x5 Technika user I'm wondering what a "bail" is and how it improves camera handling. Thanks in advance.

Carey Bird

[Rakesh Malik]

My understanding is that a bail allows you to "open" the back to slide the film holder into place under the ground glass with very little pressure, reducing the likelihood of accidentally moving the camera or standard.