5x7 film holders

[Don Dudenbostel]

Sal:
Thanks for the information. I have somewhere around 20 Lisco and Fidelity that are fine but fear that they will give out one day and leave me without holders. I've been using some of them for nearly 40 years now and have some serious wear on some. I may add a few of the Chamonix from time to time and slowly put the old holders back in storage.

[jimgalli]

Scratching my head trying to figure out which virus rides along inside every wooden holder? Aren't the new ones from Shen wood? You'd think they carried Leprosy. Since 5X7 holders are now nearly extinct I'll happily trade 5 5X7 holders for 2 6 1/2 X 8 1/2 FILM holders. Wood is OK.

[dpurdy]

One of the good things about camera swap meets. I got 15 lisco 5x7 holders for a buck each. Of course thas was probably 5 years ago.
Dennis

[Don Dudenbostel]

Seems like problems come up no matter how simple the solution. I sent the Shen Hao holders back to Badger without a hitch. Jeff is a great guy and made no fuss about refund. I deceided to buy some more older wood holders and take my chances and rebuild the ones I could. I discovered Eastman holders could easily be rebuilt if needed so I purchased a quantity of them to find they won't seat in my Canham. The ridge on the holder is about 1/16" nearer the slide side of the holder. The Canham tolerences are much tighter in this regard than my Sinar and they simply won't seat. It looks like I will need to get the groove in the trap enlarged about 1/16" amd then they will work.

[freygr]

Seems like problems come up no matter how simple the solution. I sent the Shen Hao holders back to Badger without a hitch. Jeff is a great guy and made no fuss about refund. I deceided to buy some more older wood holders and take my chances and rebuild the ones I could. I discovered Eastman holders could easily be rebuilt if needed so I purchased a quantity of them to find they won't seat in my Canham. The ridge on the holder is about 1/16" nearer the slide side of the holder. The Canham tolerences are much tighter in this regard than my Sinar and they simply won't seat. It looks like I will need to get the groove in the trap enlarged about 1/16" amd then they will work.

If I were you I would look for a back to use with the Eastman Holders as by enlarging the the light trap could cause light leaks!

Gordon

[Don Dudenbostel]

If I were you I would look for a back to use with the Eastman Holders as by enlarging the the light trap could cause light leaks!

Gordon

There's about 5/8 inch extra wood forward of the trap in the back. it only needs to be enlarged by 1/16 inch roughly. this will bring it to about the same size groove as my sinar. I can't imagine this causing light leaks. IMO the back was either improperly grooved or the tolerences are just too close. This is one thing I've noticed about Canham. I ordered one of the Linhof metal adapters made by Canham so I can use my Linhof boards on the wood 5x7. The tolerences on the adapter are so close that some of my Linhof boards fit, some fit very tight and some wil not fir at all. Some snap in but I have to use an exacto blade to wedge between the board and the adapter to get the lens off. Tolerences IMO are just a little too tight and when the weather warms up I might not be able to get any of my boards to fit the adapter. Anyway, in any case there will still be about a half inch of wood between the film and light when I enlarge the groove. I figure sinar knew what they were doing when they designed their back and I've had no problems for nearly 40 years.

[photomc]

Don, have you contacted Keith about the holders not fitting? From what I have heard, he would be more than happy to help solve the issue, I think.

[Curt]

The older wooden 5x7 holders can work just fine. I have and use plenty of them, and sometimes I have to rebuild them, including putting in new felt for the traps, but with a putty knife one can usually pry up the wood surrounding that end of the holder and then glue it back in place. The old glue often will let go with very little pressure. Also, some brands of older 5x7 holders had metal plates retained with screws over the light traps, rather than glued wood. On older Agfa-Ansco holders the light trap felt and spring metal centers are removable from the end of the film holder by removing two screws. You can gently pry the whole thing out, replace the felt, then work it back in.

It's interesting to reread this thread I started a couple of years ago. I recently decided to look at some of the old wood 5x7 film holders and one I had drilled out the rivets and upon inspection found that the felt was no longer folded around the brass on one side. If the locking screws are taken out the end will come off and the entire brass/felt plate will come out for fix or replace. Since the brass has been sitting for who knows how long with the slide in I found that it only needed to be bent outward a bit.

I also noted that some old wood holders actually had screws and not rivets. So the chronology was probably screws, rivets, then plastic fusion. The inside of the wood holders can be as clean as the plastic ones. The slides appear to be made of the same material, new or old. The one constant. There was a deviation to plastic and some had metal slides but the majority have slides that I believe is Garolite.

With the new holders coming from China I see that the top plates are again fastened with screws. It would appear that the older design is making its way to the newer holders. The price of course is a pain in the wallet.

[Curt]

Scratching my head trying to figure out which virus rides along inside every wooden holder? Aren't the new ones from Shen wood? You'd think they carried Leprosy. Since 5X7 holders are now nearly extinct I'll happily trade 5 5X7 holders for 2 6 1/2 X 8 1/2 FILM holders. Wood is OK.

Jim, you are correct, there seems to be an attitude toward the wood holders. I've found that they can be a good find. Mine have metal septum's and Garolite slides. The wood that was used to make them was a superior choice and none I have are warped. Some of the black stain has rubbed off and there might be a need to check the felt but considering the inability to repair the plastic models I see the wood models as a plus.

Curt