Is Wisner out of business ?

[PHOTOTONE]

A lot of "view camera" type stuff is made by individual craftmen/women as a hobby pursuit. Sometimes this turns into a full-fledged business. Some people just don't want the hassle of a full-time business.

[garysamson]

Not sure what your time line is but we (S&S) just made a batch of 30+ holders in 12X20 size and could deliver to your door in 2-3 weeks. You can order directly from S&S (me) , or through QCC in Atlanta, or through Richard Ritter for his cameras or modifications.


Sandy King

Sandy,
I am very interested in your offer, but here is the problem. I presently have four 12x20 holders that are made to Wisner's specs which are slightly different than your holder specs. If I am not mistaken, Richard Ritter would have to modify my back to accept your holders which would obsolete the holders I already have. If you or Richard have a solution for this I would love to work something out. Or if someone else shooting with a Wisner 12x20 wanted to acquire my holders I could make the switch to yours. Sandy, I have seen your holders and they are beautiful!
Gary

[RobertP]

Gary , If the rib locks are off by enough, you may be able to just route another rib-lock groove to accept the new holders. Sandy or Richard is much more qualified than I am to assess this. But this may allow you to use both sets of holders. Just a thought.

[sanking]

Gary , If the rib locks are off by enough, you may be able to just route another rib-lock groove to accept the new holders. Sandy or Richard is much more qualified than I am to assess this. But this may allow you to use both sets of holders. Just a thought.

In most cases the only difference between holders is the position of the rib lock. That is true if you compare AWB and S&S holders in 7X17, 8X20 and 12X20 size. Even the position of the rib lock with a certain brand may vary because of adjustments already made for existing cameras.

In any event, making sure that the rib lock drops into the groove on the camera back is the single most important thing one needs to do in buying holders for an existing camera. I am happy to provide assistance to anyone who has questions about this.

Sandy King

[TracyStorer]

I suspect you'll find a "t-dimension" difference between Wisner holders and S+S holders. Something nagging my memory about that, but should definitely worth checking.

[sanking]

I suspect you'll find a "t-dimension" difference between Wisner holders and S+S holders. Something nagging my memory about that, but should definitely worth checking.

Tracy,

Not sure what the t-dimension is for Wisner holders. It is a tad different for S&S and AWB. However, depth of focus of long lenses used at the apertures typically seen in ULF work is very great. I did the math on this on APUG at some point in the past but can not find the post now.

Depth of focus is the zone of sharpness surrounding the film plane, and is different from depth of field, which is the zone of sharpness surrounding the plane of focus. There is a good discussion of the topic, with relevant formulas that allow you to calculate depth of focus, in Way Beyond Monochrome by Ralph Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse.

If you take your large ULF camera out in the field with a lens of 300mm or more and use the back focus mechanism you will find that at an aperture of f/11 or so it is very hard to see any difference in sharpness over a span of several millimeters. The difference in t-dimension measured in most ULF holders is on the order of .1 - .3 millimeters.

From Lambrecht and Woodhouse.

"Depth of focus increases with the circle of confusion and magnification. It decreases with lens aperture and is at its minimum when the lens is focused at infinity."

Sandy King

[Falkenberg]

Just a small follow up here in the new year. I still have had no contact with Wisner despite several mails.

[Ted Harris]

For those that are interested, Michael Mutmansky has done an article for the January issue of View Camera that is a comprehensive report on all the ULF film holders currently available. Michael did extensive testing of the holders before writing the article.