Bizarre (silly?) question of the year attempt: 5x7-to-4x5 reducing film holders?

[moltogordo]

Okay - I've been playing around with 5x7 now for 3 weeks, and done perhaps a dozen photographs and the same amount of paper negatives. Verdict? I just LOVE the format. I've done contact print, digital conversions, but so far no enlarging.

Question: I'm liking this format so much that I might add a wooden field camera in this size perhaps next year. I know that there are reducing backs, but I'm wondering (here's the stupid question) has anybody ever made a REDUCING FILM HOLDER, ie a 5x7 sized holder that will hold a 4x5 sheet film?

Reason? I'm simply not EVER going to have the space for a 5x7 enlarger. I already have a 4x5. I figure that having access to a couple of reducing film holders might allow me to take a few along if I do a scene that ought to be enlarged rather than contact printed. Reducing back is of course the solution but that limits camera selection and is going to be more expensive, as well as taking up valuable time in the field switching backs. Ya might lose that light!

I'm thinking it might be possible also, to modify a 5x7 holder to take 4x5 film. Anybody ever done this? Perhaps a stopper of some kind and markings on the ground glass?

[dasBlute]

ok, old curmudgeon here...

Stick with the 4x5 back if you want 4x5s for enlarging. No such holder exists,
you'd have to hack your own, essentially adding rails onto the inner face of the holder.
Probably doable, but tricky to get right, and you'd always want a bunch -say 10- in the field, sounds like a serious project. You'd also ruin a bunch of nice 5x7 holders

Zone 6 has a fairly 'small' 5x7 enlarger.

Also, never say never.

Most 4x5s need to sit on a table, and my standalone Durst 138s takes up about the
same amount of floor space as a 4x5 on a table.

Just saying...

[Jim Jones]

Having made several reducing backs for my B&J 5x7 cameras, it is the route that seems most practical. Making a septum that would hold 4x5 film in a 5x7 film holder should be possible. After all, septums were once made to adapt 5x7 plate holders to 5x7 film. Making a septum to adapt these 5x7 plate holders to 4x5 film would be easier than adapting 5x7 film holders to the smaller film.

[Steven Tribe]

I have dozens of plateholders that adapt to smaller size film formats.

But these are the opening book type holders with loose mahogany inserts to hold plates. And they fine are for film through the use of sheaths.

[BrianShaw]

Perhaps I'm being excessively literal, but if you convert from 5x7 to 4x5 by any method... Aren't you shooting 4x5 and getting none of the 5x7 characteristics you seem to enjoy? Aside from not having to buy another camera... Why?

[Flauvius]

In the early 60s, the Itachi camera company made a metal field camera under the Toyo name, and that came with 4x5 and 5x7 clip-on rotating backs.

The camera is a really a 5x7 with a 4x5 reducing back,

They occasionally surface on flea-bay.

Flauvius

[mdarnton]

This sounds like a job for masking tape! Build a frame on the back plate of the holder with tape to locate the film, drop the film in the hole, tape it in place. Maybe you could make a couple of fancy tape flaps to hold the film in place, too, instead, or just little bits at the four corners to pop the film under. I can immediately see how to do this, if you can't.

[Oren Grad]

I have a handful of vintage 5x7-to-3.25x4.25 plate adapters; I believe I have some 5x7 plate holders hiding somewhere in the closet as well. Instead of the smaller plates, I could substitute 3.25x4.25 septums/film sheaths and use the 5x7 plate holders to shoot 3.25x4.25 film. There might be some slight film-plane misalignment.

So look for some 5x7 block-form plate holders, 5x7-to-4x5 plate adapters, and 4x5 septums/film sheaths, and you're all set.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Somebody--perhaps Tachihara or Wista--made an adapter that fit on a 4x5 film holder to make it the same dimensions (and presumably same film plane) as a 5x7 film holder. If you can't find one, I am sure SK Grimes could make one for you.

[Oren Grad]

It was Toho. I don't recall whether they had 5x7-to-4x5; what stands out in my mind is the 8x10-to-smaller versions. They were awkward, in that they necessarily positioned the smaller holder at the edge of the frame, so as to allow access to the dark slide.