Making a 6X10 holder out of two 8X10 holders...OR, Making film grips on 8X10 Holder?

[audioexcels]

Has anyone or does anyone around here do this? I know 4X10 holders have been/are done this way. Anyone around here do 6X10 holders by using two Fidelity/Lisco/etc. holders?


Another option for 6X10 shooters would be to make metal or even wood film grips aligned directly down the middle of an 8X10 holder. This is another option I have heard about that would be easier to do, but would still force one to have to have that extra bulk of the 8X10 holder since these metal film holders are epoxied and permanently set for 6X10 use only.


Anyone that does this kind of work, especially using two 8X10 holders and making a single 6X10 holder, please do contact me or post to the forum as I would love to have some 6X10 holders without going the spendy route of custom ones.

Thanks!!!

[Nick_3536]

Why two?

Take apart the 8x10. Cut down the 8" parts. Put back together. Then figure out out how to cut the darkslide. Whole thing might be easier with some older wooden holders that are already in need of TLC.

[audioexcels]

Why two?

Take apart the 8x10. Cut down the 8" parts. Put back together. Then figure out out how to cut the darkslide. Whole thing might be easier with some older wooden holders that are already in need of TLC.

Know anyone that would do this for me (hint hint)? I will offer one holder for each one that is modded for me;):). I only have the newer style, well, not newest newest, but not the wood types.

[Geert]

Here it is done to create a 4x10" holder:

http://www.galerie-photo.com/comment-transformer-chassis-8x10-en-4x10.html

In French, but the pictures say a lot.

Kind regards,
Geert

[audioexcels]

Here it is done to create a 4x10" holder:

http://www.galerie-photo.com/comment-transformer-chassis-8x10-en-4x10.html

In French, but the pictures say a lot.

Kind regards,
Geert

Fantastic. It obviously requires the right tools, but doesn't look difficult to do in the right hands of someone that has the tools to do this. I wonder if there is somewhere around here in the US that can do this. Would love to have some 6X10 holders made...hmmmm:).

[Tracy Storer]

Mike,
that French page is very instructive.....I am willing to give it a try.
Tracy

[Sanjay Sen]

Does anyone here shoot 6x10? I first read about this format on Wisner's site, and there's a short discussion (http://www.apug.org/forums/forum44/39253-curious-about-6x10-format.html) about this over on APUG for anyone interested.

[wfwhitaker]

Does anyone here shoot 6x10?

I have a Wisner 6x10.

[Sanjay Sen]

Hi Will,

Do you have any scans of images in this format that you could post, if you don't mind? Does your website have any 6x10 images?

We can start a separate thread - I wouldn't want to hijack audioexcels's thread. :)


Thanks,
Sanjay

[audioexcels]

Hi Will,

Do you have any scans of images in this format that you could post, if you don't mind? Does your website have any 6x10 images?

We can start a separate thread - I wouldn't want to hijack audioexcels's thread. :)


Thanks,
Sanjay

It's more than ok Sanjay. I love seeing photos and Tracy is my main man, so I think that should work out a-ok!

Please post away.

[audioexcels]

Ok,

So the 8X10 holders I sent to Tracy didn't do too well and I'm looking for someone that can cut this holder to 6X10 size. Anyone able to do this with one or even two holders? Would love to get some of these for a compact camera design.

Thanks to anyone that can help on this one...

[Tracy Storer]

Mike,
I TOLD you I could keep on with it...you were the one who said never mind the other day. If you will stick by a decision, I will stick with you....don't put this on me.
Tracy

[audioexcels]

I knew this would be taken in a different way than I intended it to be taken.

We both saw the post in this thread about this French person's work to make a 4X10 holder and it looks very straightforward. I sent holders to Tracy that I tried to take open prior to sending them to him, but they were not coming apart at all. He told me the same thing, that they were locked tight and were not the ones that can come apart as in the French person's example.

Next, I found some other holders that looked like the ones the French person used. I attempted to take them apart and one side was willing to come apart not too badly, but the other side...forget it!!! The only way I could picture the holder coming apart was by prying the thing open. That this holder at least came apart on the one side made me think it might be the one that would come apart (unlike the first set I sent to him that would not come apart at all). To put it with as little bad language as is possible, I wanted to kill the thing because I was doing precisely what this French guy did, going back and forth between the diagrams, and the bloody thing was NOT coming apart!!! I remember that night...pure frustration and feeling like a complete idiot for not being able to get the thing apart so that Tracy wouldn't have to deal with that part and would be able to go to the next stage. I was trying to get this holder apart for curiousity sake, but more so so that I could both confirm they do in fact come apart fine and easy AND to get some apart so that it would get Tracy on his way. But I couldn't picture getting the thing apart unless I pryed it open and this is the last thing I wanted to do fearing it would totally destroy the holder and be un-fixable.

Tracy received the holders and discovered the same thing about them...one side was ok, but the other was basically like driven in with a few years worth of epoxy. He did manage to pry open the holder and to a wonderful surprise, was a holder with a ton of parts, ENTIRELY DIFFERENT than the French person's holder which was very simple looking in design and obviouly in procedure of making the 4X10 holder. After what I dealt with, I can only imagine what he discovered when he somehow got the thing apart (dunno what tooling he used, but I couldn't do it for me, though I got some nice blisters in the process of trying).

Tracy did do a good deal of investigation and brain storming on how to get these holders into 6X10 holders since it certainly wouldn't be an abc process like the French man's holders. After learning more about what Tracy was dealing with (phone conversation is always much more effective), it sounded just like that night when I struggled to get just the one side off and got very frustrated when I could not get the other side off. In other words, I decided it was time to forget about it because it was going to be too much to deal with and his time is very valueable.

Fact is, Tracy could have made the 6X10 holder. He clearly stated he could make one, but that it was obviously not in any way straightforward and would involve a much different procedure than the French guy's process.

I did not like that it was a way different/complicated process vs. the one we both felt we would be dealing with (going by French man's design). I didn't want him wasting any more time having a ton of pieces in front of him when he should have had a very minimalistic job in front of him as the French guy's holders were. So I told him to stop and forget about it.


I wish to apologize to Tracy, a designer, craftsman, and brilliant photographer of the LF world, not to leave out the fact that he is also an amazingly nice and fun person. For me, I know there are different people that modify, build, and deal with cameras. I had this choice from the beginning, and I chose Tracy as the person to do the job precisely and beautifully. I cannot imagine any other person out there that I would want to have my camera with.

I am very sorry that my last post regarding the 6X10 holder did not come out correctly with the mentioning of Tracy as part of the post. The story above explains precisely what I should have wrote, though to simplify things, I, along with my instinct telling me something not good is going to erupt from this, decided to post the short version.

I feel very bad about this because I have a lot of respect for Tracy and to be frank, it takes quite a lot for me to have this kind of respect in a designer and and in a person.

I'm sorry Tracy for my last post not coming out correctly.

[Turner Reich]

What film comes in 6x10 or what is it cut down from? Thanks.

[audioexcels]

What film comes in 6x10 or what is it cut down from? Thanks.

Cut down;). I don't know of any film aside from 12X20 cut in 2 or 8X10 cut down to 6X10.

[Mike Castles]

Don't forget 10x12 - one cut= 2 6x10's (and is part of the Ilford ULF run this time so FP4+ or HP5+)

[Tracy Storer]

Hey, no problem Mike, I just don't want people to think I was doing anything other than what was asked after giving a very conservative prediction on the outcome. I believe the second batch are EXACTLY the same holders as on the French webpage.....I just think our French guy left out the part where some of the holders break when you take them apart, and the part where you fill the gaps with epoxy.
Peace, I'll email you off board as well.
Tracy

[Drew Bedo]

How about a slide mask? Why not cut a 6x10 window in the middle of a dark slide. Another idea might be one off-set 5x10 (or 4x10) window; insert the slide mask for the exposure, then flip it for two shots on one 8x10 neg. You would have to recompose between shots of course. Either way avoids major modifications to equipment. Let us know what you do and what works.

[David Karp]

You might try talking to Keith Canham. I think he makes 4x10 holders cut down from 8x10 holders. Seems that the same process would work to make your 6x10 holders.

[E. von Hoegh]

Or you could shoot 8x10 and crop it. (wink wink)

I shoot 4x10 and 5x8, using the divider boards in my Deardorff v8

I must say Audioexcels, you should shoot rather than do intellectual violence to the question.

[BennehBoy]

FWIW, the holder the French guy used is very different to the fidelity ones I have. The ones I own have the sides and top section (where the slides get inserted) in one complete molded U shaped section. The central plate and bottom (with flaps) can be slid out of the U if you gently bend the U outwards - light hammer taps and or insertion of a flat tool can be used to snap any epoxy that's in there.

Once the centre plate is out, it has 2 edge pieces that simply slide off.

I found this all out when cleaning some holders I bought from another member of the forum - 2 of the 4 I bought came right apart, the other 2 needed some gentle persuasion.

If I get time I'll write up a blog article with images.

[audioexcels]

FWIW, the holder the French guy used is very different to the fidelity ones I have. The ones I own have the sides and top section (where the slides get inserted) in one complete molded U shaped section. The central plate and bottom (with flaps) can be slid out of the U if you gently bend the U outwards - light hammer taps and or insertion of a flat tool can be used to snap any epoxy that's in there.

Once the centre plate is out, it has 2 edge pieces that simply slide off.

I found this all out when cleaning some holders I bought from another member of the forum - 2 of the 4 I bought came right apart, the other 2 needed some gentle persuasion.

If I get time I'll write up a blog article with images.

Hey Benny,

Mike here from Manual Lens forum (oomz). Curious if these holders you have are quite simple to deal with and if they are the newest style of Fidelity?

As mentioned already, Canham has 4X10 holders that are cut and pasted, and so does Fotoman and others that make them from what look like the newest Fidelity type holders.

Thanks Benny!

Cheers!

[Roger Katz]

In 1978 we made a 5x10 pano-camera out of an old B&J woody. For holders, my assistant managed to cut down a number of ragged old Folmer-Kodak and Ansco wood film holders (with the fiber septum). She said she had to work very slowly and carefully at each step. Heat was used to melt glue on at least two units, but mostly it was chinese puzzle technology to disassemble everything in the right order.
I lost track or Martha almost 20 years ago, but if I can find her, maybe she can contribute to the interesting work at hand.
Right now I'm trying to figure why modern 7x17 holders need to leak light when none of my 30-80 year old units have no trouble in any format.

[audioexcels]

Right now I'm trying to figure why modern 7x17 holders need to leak light when none of my 30-80 year old units have no trouble in any format.

Geez...What a wasted potentially incredible shot from something like this. I'm surprised the new holders would do this. Aren't custom holders tested for light leaking?

Sounds like a neat project you had with the 5X10:)!

[BennehBoy]

Here's a wee blog article (http://benneh.net/blog/index.php/2008/06/26/cleaning-10x8-8x10-fidelity-double-dark-slides/) that may be handy...