About a week ago I took the "heart" out of a graphic arts camera at a print shop dating back to 1946 that is going out of business---the camera is, I think 1970's or 80's vintage, but I really don't know that for sure. I got a 20x24 bellows that's ~4 feet or ~1.2 meters long and the 45 cm f11 red dot altar lens. If I'd had a crew and a truck and a place to store it, I'd have gladly taken the whole camera. Looking darkroom side, there is a flip up and out of the way ground glass (plexiglas actually) and a flip up and into place vacuum requiring film holder that weighed enough to require a spring assist much stouter than a common household oven door.

Some day I'd like to make this into a version of a field camera and if I made my own dry plates on plexiglas flatness wouldn't be an issue---though I'm not sure how UV transmits through plexiglas (perspex for the Brits and Aussies), for alt process printing I like. But, if I used film, keeping a piece of film that big flat from the edges has got to be problematic, right?

Has anyone made holders that use vacuum assist using a small, battery-powered vacuum, through a hose to eliminate vibration, as a way to keep film flat in ULF holders? I don't think it would have to make the holders that much more enormous or heavy, but I'm often wrong about "obvious" things when it comes to engineering. I guess you'd have to be sure to clip the corners of your ground glass so you didn't implode the whole camera.