Why are 8x10 and up film holders so expensive?

[Pawlowski6132]

$400 for a used wooden 11x14 film holder?

C'mon. $20 worth of wood and a few hours worth of work??

No fuckin' way. I'm sure someone with rudimentary wood working skills can make these for $50 all day long.

[karl french]

Ultracrepidarian.

[Tracy Storer]

Take a close look at any film holder, wood, metal or plastic. There are a lot of grooves notches and joints which have to be not only precisely located for proper film location on X, Y, and Z axes, but also have to be light tight.
Believe me, it'll take substantially more than "rudimentary wood working skills". (not to mention a serious shopfull of quality tools)
And how much wood do you have to buy, resize and reject for one defect or another before you've got suitable material? It's a sad fact of woodworking that not every bit of every piece of stock purchased is usable.
Like anything else, production cost per unit goes down with volume in a well organized operation, new holder manufacture is a boutique business, and old ones are a limited commodity.

Also, what Karl said.

[Erik Larsen]

There are actually a lot of cuts to be made, there is no way you could do it in a couple hours just because of the numerous times you have to set up the tools for different cuts. It's not difficult but it takes quite a bit of time.

Well, Tracy typed faster than I did and summed it up well

[RandyB]

There you go!!, looks like you found yourself a new career. Along this thought process, why does a pound of chicken eggs cost about a buck fifty but a pound of fish eggs can cost $500.00. Its very simple, demand and supply. Not much demand these days so not many are made and many of them that were used at the turn of the last century were simply destroyed as the marginal demand declined. Its kind of the same in other hobbies, back in the early 60's when I was a wee lad, I bought a Japanese bamboo fly rod for about $3.00, have you seen what bamboo fly rods cost today, outrageous.

[Pawlowski6132]

But once you figure out how to build one...

Cars are built quicker.

Its nice to know there are folks out there ready to gouge us at a moments notice.

$50 lens boards anyone?

[Pawlowski6132]

Ultracrepidarian.

I don't know what that means.

[Jan Pedersen]

Once again, google can be your friend and i gues it could also be your enemy! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultracrepidarianism

[CP Goerz]

If you want to make some 6x10 or 4x10 holders I'll give you $35 a pop, I'll take six of each. When can you be finished with that order? :-)


Alan once told me that he has to make over 100 different cuts per holder, there is a reason there are plenty of camera makers but few holder makers.......

[Pawlowski6132]

If you want to make some 6x10 or 4x10 holders I'll give you $35 a pop, I'll take six of each. When can you be finished with that order? :-)


Alan once told me that he has to make over 100 different cuts per holder, there is a reason there are plenty of camera makers but few holder makers.......

So, make them out of plastic. I'm sure the Chinese can make them dirt cheap. Come on, are you guys that gullible? Some one in mfg help me out here.