Grafmatic film holders

[Fred Braakman]

Are there any retailers who sell Grafmatic film holders?

Thanks.

Fred

[douglas antonio]

fred,

not sure whether you expect to find new or used grafmatics? as far as i know if you found "new" ones, they would be new old stock since they were discontinued quite a while ago. but this might be a source to get some good used ones. his statement concerning the condition of his grafmatics sounds encouraging.

http://www.manfredschmidt.com/graflex.html

i have no connection to him.

[Scott Whitford]

They are no longer made, so you won't find any new ones.

Lots of used ones around, however. You might try MPEX.

They pop up here every so often, and there are always lots of them on eBay. You just need to be careful that you get the right kind for your back...for most applications (Graflok type backs) you need model 1268. There's another model, no. 1168, that's made for the Graflex SLR cameras. To make matters confusing, sometimes the model number is not marked on the holder. In most cases, the unmarked holders are 1268's.

Also be careful to make sure all six septums are present, and that they are all nice and flat.

Scott

[Gene McCluney]

Grafmatic holders haven't been made in decades. There are plenty of them out there used. I often see them for sale here and over at apug.org sales forum. As well as they seem to always be people offering them for sale on the popular auction site.

[vinny]

I've never seen these used. How do they work and how do you load them?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Check graflex.org for the instruction sheet (or maybe there is a link there to another site with the instructions).

They hold the film in six septums and they can shuffle the septums from the front to the back of the stack. They don't particularly save much weight, but they are less bulky than standard holders. There was a test of film holders in one of the photo magazines back in the 1970s that suggested that Grafmatics have better film flatness than standard holders, so that's another potential attraction. I've got 8 of them in 4x5" and 4 in 2x3".

There are also Kinematic holders that hold ten sheets. They are a little fiddlier than Grafmatics, but it is handy to be able to go out with 20 sheets in the space of about 4 regular film holders. I've just got two of these.

Another variation was the Fuji Quickchange that held 8 sheets with a removable cartridge system (you could buy them preloaded and reload them, though they weren't really designed for reloading), but this was not made for very long, so it probably doesn't make sense to get into this system at this point, if you're not already using it.

[Rob_5419]

They are very practical in use and save a lot of time. You load them in the dark by putting film in them. And then cycle them by raising the drawbridge, letting the light through the light-proof portcullis, and dropping the drawbridge, recycle the drawbridge in and out, to the next number and so on.

Seriously:

http://graflex.org/speed-graphic/grafmatic/

I used to like them, but I kept finding strange scratches on the emulsion with mine and I couldn't figure out why. Septums straight - it was a mystery. I gave up and use DDS even though they're heavier.

[Fred Braakman]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will follow up on your recommenddations.

Fred