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View Full Version : Are these standard film holders? ID?



walter23
2-Nov-2006, 10:20
I was hoping someone here could ID these for me. Are they standard film holders that should work with any back? They are supposed to be for 4x5. I can get them from a guy I know fairly inexpensively, but I'm not sure if it's worth the shipping if I can't use them. They look kind of odd, but the price is right.

I'm getting a Shen Hao.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b377/walter2323/filmholdersph9.jpg

Jim Jones
2-Nov-2006, 12:00
At first look they appear to be plate holders, not film holders. Also, they may need some reglueing in the corners.

Bart Nadeau_6607
2-Nov-2006, 12:05
The holders in the picture are glass plate holders. Film holders would have a hinged bottom to allow a sheet of film to slide in, the notch in the bottom of the ones in the picture are to allow a plate to be pushed in against a spring at the top and then drop into a notched bottom.
These could have been used for film by using a sheath made of sheet metal that the film slid into and then went into a plate holder like a plate.
Whatever, these are quite old and probably well used. Even if they have the sheaths, they may leak light. Modern 4x5 film holders can be had quite cheaply if you look.

walter23
2-Nov-2006, 13:03
I'll suggest to him that he comes on here and trys to hawk them in the classifieds section to someone who wants such things. Thanks.

Donald Qualls
2-Nov-2006, 14:48
Modern 4x5 film holders can be had quite cheaply if you look.

This is true for certainly values of "cheaply". ;)

For good quality film holders in good condition, you can expect to pay between $8 and $15 each, used (new ones run around 2-3 times that figure). FWIW, I have fourteen holders, a mix of old Graflex brand wood, Riteway, and Lisco Regal; half were gifts with sticky dark slides and such (all since corrected with a little dry graphite lubricant), the other half trade items (traded a Moskva-5 I wasn't using, roughly equivalent of paying $10 each); of the lot, only one leaks (and I'm going to start putting ID notches in them as I work through them, so I can identify *which* one).

If you have the budget for it, I'd certainly suggest buying matched lots of modern type plastic film holders -- mostly because those sold that way are more likely to have come from professional use and thus be all in usable condition, as opposed to a mixed bag of whatever was lying around the darkroom.