Compact film holders

[williamtheis]

almost every 4x5 or 8x10 I have ever owned could readily operate with a film holder half as thick as the standard ones. Why are they so thick? rigidity? if so they could be made out of carbon fiber....

[Frank Petronio]

If you think about the total carry weight and bulk, building the camera around a solid Grafmatic six-sheet holder might make the most sense. If you are truly wanting a pocket camera, then six sheets is plenty, you wouldn't want to carry too many film holders anyway, and the Grafmatic is the least bulky per sheet of anything so far. Perhaps you could even design a quick release for the front end so you could exchange dedicated Grafmatics and ground glass units, somewhat like the Dean Jones Razzle Polaroid 110 conversions?

[ric_kb]

"roll film packs".... coiled sheets ... pull from one coil side to the other

[JRFrench]

How about a carbon fiber Grafmatic?

Thats not a bad idea, although it wouldn't be easy to make. It also doesn't solve the fact its outline is rather a lot larger than it needs to be.

Maybe many sleeves for negative, and one holder for sleeves insert/pull out, something like Quickload.........

Hehe sounds exactly like readyload. The idea deserves some thought, although Im not sure how the sealing and unsealing of the end would work.

almost every 4x5 or 8x10 I have ever owned could readily operate with a film holder half as thick as the standard ones. Why are they so thick? rigidity? if so they could be made out of carbon fiber....

Standardisation. Not something to complain about really, that pretty much any holder and camera combo from the last 50 years will work together.

If you think about the total carry weight and bulk, building the camera around a solid Grafmatic six-sheet holder might make the most sense. If you are truly wanting a pocket camera, then six sheets is plenty, you wouldn't want to carry too many film holders anyway, and the Grafmatic is the least bulky per sheet of anything so far. Perhaps you could even design a quick release for the front end so you could exchange dedicated Grafmatics and ground glass units, somewhat like the Dean Jones Razzle Polaroid 110 conversions?

Im looking at a grafmatic now and I recon I can get 6 sheets in quite a bit less volume and outline. a ground glass - grafmatic combination sounds pretty bulky, how big are your pockets! I do agree with you that 6 sheets is plenty tho. I think while the 110 conversions are quite cool, they are rather large and the back system is pretty ugly, especially on the littmans.

"roll film packs".... coiled sheets ... pull from one coil side to the other

Hehe thats not a bad idea, I'm not sure how tightly you could coil thick base films, this sounds sort of like the hold packfilms that had thin base to curve around each other, also I forsee lots of jamming in the development hehe.


It would seem the time has come for me to produce a diagram of what I think is the best solution, providing it with scale will be the most difficult part but Ill have a go.

[Sal Santamaura]

...Hehe sounds exactly like readyload. The idea deserves some thought, although Im not sure how the sealing and unsealing of the end would work...

Perhaps Joanna would tell you if you invested in her project:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=52028


Or maybe just use her product when/if it becomes available.

[JRFrench]

Haha, I'm not in a position to invest in anything very heavily!

I like the thickness of the readload solution, but they are rather long from what I have seen, to work with the existing holders.

[JRFrench]

Ive started designing it today, Ill have some renderings for you guys tomorrow. Im hoping I can get away with two different materials. Some for of shim for the darkslide and spacing, and a thicker material for the core.

[jb7]

I've been thinking the same thing, but mostly in relation to larger holders-

I think you're right, the structure of a film holder is designed around the material in which they were first produced, wood-
and it should be possible to produce a new design for the 21st century-
Though the rewards might be confined to its achievement, it would definitely be worth it-

[salihonba]

Now I am inspired by gun magazine for bullets......
films piled in cartridge, exposed film is pulled out, then next film is ready....

but other problems remain.....
how to protect exposed film? in a sleeve? how to cover/uncover the sleeve when film is on shooting position?

[JRFrench]

Joseph, my thoughts exactly. Im hoping to have a prototype in the next few weeks. The laser cutter is going to do 95% of the work so it won't be any trouble for me to make more of them. I've just commited to buying a nice compact 90mm f6.8 lens for the folder so I am in it now!

Sal, have a search for pack films on here, there is a description of how they work. Basically there was a stack of film with a thin base (same thickness as 120 films) and protective sheets between them. You exposed the top on the stack, and pulled the tab on the protective sheet which slid the film off the stack, and curved it around and under to the bottom of the stack again, quite impressive.