Stupid question re: Dry Plate...

[Scott --]

Revealing my ignorance here, but is "Dry Plate" a distinction of the holder or the camera? I'm looking at a camera advertised as a dry plate cam, and am wondering if it could be used with film holders.

Please don't laugh too hard at me...

[Vaughn]

Dry plate camera = old camera. Also perhaps takes a non-standard (non-modern) size of film holder. A modern back can be put on it to "modernize" it.

Vaughn

[Kirk Keyes]

I've got several 8x10 glass plate holders and they fit in my camera (8x10). I have not checked to see if they focus at the same place as sheet film holders do - perhaps someone else can comment on that.

[Vaughn]

I've got several 8x10 glass plate holders and they fit in my camera (8x10). I have not checked to see if they focus at the same place as sheet film holders do - perhaps someone else can comment on that.

How old are your GP holders? There are modern ones to fit modern cameras...they look just like modern film holders on the outside (tape hinge on the bottom, for example).

Put a glass plate in the holder (finding the glass plate will be the hard part!) and measure down to the glass plate. Then do the same down to the film in a film holder. Should be the same.

If someone knows the exact thickness of the glass plates, then you won't need one for the measurement.

vaughn

[Scott Davis]

Dry plate holders were meant to use pre-coated glass plates that had an emulsion applied to them. They were in essence the predecessors of film on an acetate base, and co-existed with film for much of the 20th century. You can shoot film with them if you put in a glass plate first to act as a backing to get the film up to the expected focal plane of your camera. They are distinct from wet plate holders, which were made to shoot glass plates also, but wet plate as a process involves coating the glass plate and exposing it while the emulsion is still wet. Dry plate holders, at least in the smaller sizes (8x10 and below), may well be externally identical to modern film holders even if they are quite old. If you go back far enough into the early 20th century or late 19th century, even the small sizes become proprietary to the camera maker, and may not work with other cameras without modification.