Exact Full Plate Image Dimensions?

[Gary Samson]

Hi John,

I just measured my vintage Eastman 6.5 x 8.5 inch film holder and the image area is 6 and3/16th inches by 8 and 3/16th inches. I hope this helps!
Gary

[Greg]

Beware of vintage/older whole plate film holders. Twice came across some vintage/older whole plate film holders and both times they didn't fit into the back of my Chamonix whole plate camera. For one set of them, I couldn't even load a sheet of special ordered Ilford film into them. The 6.5" dimension was more like 6.4".

[John Layton]

Thank you Gary - this is what I needed! And I do realize that image dimensions/holder dimensions may vary slightly for holders of different vintages and/or different manufacturers.

Again...it is not the film dimensions that concern me, but the actual image dimensions, equal to the film dimensions minus the width of the slots that retain the film's edges.

I'm trying to assess the viability of converting my Zone VI series II enlarger to accept whole plate. If I cannot do this, I will use my DIY horizontal enlarger for this - although the Z-VI is much more convenient for print sizes up to 30x40 inches.

As for certain holders not fitting "correctly"...I would likely try to obtain holders of equal vintage from one manufacturer - and build a back to fit them.

Got some other things going at the moment - so this one will go on the back burner for awhile, but hopefully not too long!