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David Karp
8-Jan-2002, 20:16
Hi all,

I heard from someone that Bender Photographic makes a Panoramic adapter for 4x5. I checked their website, and it is a dark slide, trimmed in half the long way, which you insert in your film holder after removing the dark slide. It gives you two panoramic images on one sheet of 4x5. It sure seems like an economical alte rnative. Has anyone tried this or made their own similar apparatus. I am interes ted in your experience/comments.

Thanks in advance

Brett Thomas
8-Jan-2002, 20:56
Dave, I made one some time ago and it works great. I made mine by cutting the middle away so that I had one "2 1/4 by 4 1/2" for the dark slide. I also made a mask that sticks to my ground glass so that I only see the section that corresponds to the cut I made in the dark slide. It's worked great each time I've used it. I later bought the bender panoramic adapter but have yet to actually use it. I have verified that you do get 2 images on the 4x5 film, they do not overlap. The nice feature of the bender adapter is of course the two images per sheet of film. But I'm quite happy with the one I made. Easy to make, easy to use and sure beats a 6x12 roll film back.

Dave Schneidr
9-Jan-2002, 16:55
I guess I'm a little dense. What would the benefit be to exposing only a center section of the 4x5 sheet of film? Why not just print whatever portion of the frame is appropriate? A mask that can be moved around on the glass to aid in composition is understandable but why not just expose the whole sheet of film? The only advantage I can see to the Bender approach is that you get two exposures on a sheet of film.

Tony Karnezis
9-Jan-2002, 18:04
To Dave Schneider--cost is the only benefit. But it's enough. If someone offered me new Velvia at $1 a sheet instead of $2, I'd take it. I'm going to buy or make a 4x10 half sheet for 8x10. At $8 a sheet, slide film aint cheap, and it beats buying a 4x10 adapter. Also, I believe Toho makes adapters too.

Tony Karnezis
9-Jan-2002, 18:05
To Dave Schneider--cost is the only apparent benefit. But it's enough. If someone offered me new Velvia at $1 a sheet instead of $2, I'd take it. I'm going to buy or make a 4x10 half sheet for 8x10. At $8 a sheet, film aint cheap, and it beats buying a 4x10 adapter. Also, I believe Toho makes adapters too.

David F. Stein
10-Jan-2002, 02:09
It ain't rocket science. There are many old 8x10 and 5x7 backs out there with sliding dividers, both horizontal and vertical. Instead of fooling with the film holder, why not try blocking half the back at a time? Good lu