8x10 Film Holder Missing Locks

[Dhanner]

I have an 8x10 Fidelity Elite film holder that is missing the metal locking pins that keep the dark slide from being pulled on accident. Is there a fix for this? Just using a rubber band for the moment.

Thanks,
Dave

[Keith Pitman]

They don’t work on Fidelity holders. Just forget about them.

[Willie]

Small strip of Gaffers tape works.

[Conrad . Marvin]

I had some holders without the locking pins. I just lived with them carefully. I tried tape and ended up pulling the slide out just enough to ruin the shot. But only once……

[MStat]

With or without locking pins, I always use low adhesive white tape to tape the holders closed. The tape serves as a way to keep the holders safely shut as well as a surface to write any exposure and development instructions. I then enclose the holders in a zip-lock baggie to keep out dust and moisture which then goes into a black plastic bag that comes with my enlarging paper to keep out any light.

[Duolab123]

I would try to modify some small screw hooks or L hooks, just look in a good hardware store

[Vaughn]

They don’t work on Fidelity holders. Just forget about them.

45 years of LF use (4x5, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, 7x17) and rarely use those obnoxious locks. I lose perhaps a sheet of film decade.

[ic-racer]

Someone did you a favor by removing them

[ericantonio]

I always carry masking tape, the blue painters kind. Even with the hook things, I still tape everything. Just a habit from studio days where all the house equipment is jacked up. Better to be careful and tape everything than trust the equipment. To this day I still gaffer tape my lensboards to the front standard. Too much to think out on the field. Nothing like looking down into a table top set and watching your lens fall into something. Or into a swamp, or grass, or a river. Tape it and forget it.

[Alan Klein]

45 years of LF use (4x5, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, 7x17) and rarely use those obnoxious locks. I lose perhaps a sheet of film decade.

As a new and inexperienced LF photographer, the locks slow me down enough to double check I'm not using the wrong side and double exposing.