Availability of 13x18 dry plates

I've recently noticed that Boots don't sell dry plates anymore - when did that happen?

Does anyone know If or where I can get hold of 13x18 plates over here in the UK? I've got an old russian FKD glass plate camera that I want desperately to use. I've purchased most of the chemicals needed for coating my own, but as I'll only be producing plates in small batches it would be great to have some backup.

Thanks in advance

cynan said:

I've recently noticed that Boots don't sell dry plates anymore - when did that happen?

Does anyone know If or where I can get hold of 13x18 plates over here in the UK?

Thanks in advance

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A stiff letter to the manager is in order! Consider writing to Head Office also, and threaten to take your custom elsewhere. They'll stop selling pyrogallic acid next, if no-one complains.

Maco announced plates at photokina but they were silly money: about $35 US PER PLATE in 9x12cm. 'Other sizes available on request'.

Yesterday I tried Ole's trick of sticking film to glass plates with an unagressive adhesive. It took a while to figure out how to align them properly but it worked. Now I have three 12x15 inch films to develop, each one over twice the area of an 8x10.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com and Amateur Photographer every week).

Try using old smaller plates available from the auction site and then make a mask with matt to fit them in. I do this and it works fine in my FKD. [asa circa 5].
Or, use slow film mounted on top of the glass in the holder. a number of suppliers make this size [and a similar 5x7].

... I found some on ebay ...

I've also found sheet film adapters to use film in plate cameras, in 6.5x9cm, 9x12cm, 10x15cm, 13x18cm, 18x24cm and 5x7". That makes it a bit easier. And then there's "the jam trick" which Roger refers to, which I use for even larger films in even larger plate cameras.

Some of my plate holders came with format reducing masks, which lets me shoot any size plate in the 24x30cm camera. Since that camera has a minimum flange focal length for infinity focus of only 44mm, I'm not even limited to longer lenses!

Addendum to my previous post: 13x18cm plates are far easier to find in Germany than in the UK!