Toyo Half Plate Metal Field Camera

[jackpie]

I have just acquired an original Toyo metal field camera that came with what I take to be a half plate back.

The ground glass is approximately 4 3/4 x 6 1/2 but a fairly modern, plastic, fidelity half plate holder is slightly too wide to fit.

What film holders fit this back? Are there non standard Toyo half plate film holders for this camera?

[Clive Gray]

A dealer near to me has one of these and indeed they do not seem to take standard size holders, he has obtained one holder for it and out of interest I found one on ebay which has now unfortunately sold.

That has Toyo Field film holder embossed in to the plastic along with the size.

The box has 330 and Cut Film Holder F on it.

[John Schneider]

I have one of those, and if the back is the same as mine, it takes standard 5x7 sheet holders. Toyo didn't call them 5x7 cameras for some reason, maybe because the GG is not quite 5x7. But the full film area of a 5x7 sheet in a holder is just covered when inserted into the back.

[jackpie]

Clive, thanks for the info on the Toyo "Cut Film Holder F". I'll start searching for some of these. If anyone knows where there are any I would be pleased to know.

John, the back on my camera must be different to yours because a standard 5x7 holder does not fit. It doesn't look like the photos of the original 5x7 back you posted here:

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=47056&page=3&highlight=toyo+metal+field

The back on my camera looks like the back to the far right in Mark Thorley's photo in this posting:
http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/007kiA

Like many others I would like to buy, or make a 5x7 back for this camera and I am studying the various mods that people have made to fit 5x7 backs. It seems the neatest option would be to modify an existing Toyo Field back. If I can't find holders I may do this to my non standard half plate back.

Does anyone know a source for any format back for this camera?

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Oren will know.

I have a few half plate Toyo holders, so I know they were made. I will check tonight and see if they are the same external size as the 5x7 holders.

[Oren Grad]

"Where can I find a 5x7 back for my Toyo half-plate metal field camera?" has to be one of the classic LF discussion board questions. Search here and you should find several other examples.

The answer, as always, is that the original 5x7 backs are very scarce - as are the half-plate holders, if you want to go that route. If you must have a 5x7 back, it's most likely going to be easier and quicker to adapt one from another camera than to find an original.

If there's a stash of the original components anywhere it's likely to be in Japan, though searching there is very hard to do from abroad, especially if you don't read or speak Japanese. The best advice I can give is to follow eBay very closely. There are a few sellers like "astrosmith22" who have a knack for digging up uncommon or obscure Japanese medium format and large format stuff.

Our own Dirk Rosler (http://www.japanexposures.com/) can help with procuring items from dealers in Japan if you know exactly what you want and where it is, but I imagine it would be very costly for him to do an active, open-ended search for obscure items like these that turn up only occasionally and in odd places.