B&H still has heat sealed cardboard mounts brand new, and they are the cheapest option at 1000 for $40 but they're slow to mount. The only other new option I'm aware of are the AP Pro CAM/CS II style mounts. AP Pro, Agfa, Kaiser, and Kindermann all made compatible mounts, and they're pretty fast to mount with the dedicated slide mounter. The difference between the CS and CS II is just which direction the mounts open (long vs short side), but as a result, you'll need a different mounter for each type. Easiest just to go with the CS II style.
The Hama DSR is a pretty nice system, but as you've noted, you're stuck with finding whatever mounts happen to show up used. Both the DSR and the CS II are under 1.8mm thick, as AZD noted, so they'll fit in the thinner trays.
Both Gepe and Pakor made two styles of glassless plastic mounts, ones that simply press together or pry apart to mount, and ones that require a machine. The mounts designed for machines cannot be used by hand, as the machine either melts or deforms rivets to lock the halves in place. At this point, given that the mounts are no longer available new, it's not worth tracking down a machine to use the mounts unless you come across a case of a few thousand mounts.
I've been told by a few different labs that plastic mounts (besides the CS II style) are not being produced any more, by Pakor, Gepe, or anyone else. Cardboard mounts I expect to be available for the foreseeable future, as they're much easier to manufacture than plastic ones.
I have been using cardboard mounts with heat sensitive adhesive. They’re pretty easy to set with the edge of a hot iron. It can get a little tedious and time consuming, but they’re cheap and they work well.
Watch out for mounts thicker than 1.8mm. There are a lot of nice plastic 3mm thick mounts, but they won’t fit in Kodak carousels and some slide copying devices.
If you have a source for reasonably priced cardboard mounts, please let me know. B&H Photo has discontinued selling them.
B&H has discontinued the Pic Cardboard Mounts recently. I had been buying them for years. Apparently this is the result of Dwayne's Photo now being the sole producer of these mounts and their refusal to sell them to anyone else. I had been buying boxes of 1000 Pic Mounts from B&H for about $40. All I'm finding on eBay these days are highly overpriced Kodak Ready Mounts. If anyone has any cardboard mounts (especially Pic Mounts) they are willing to sell at a reasonable price, please let me know.
I would also be keen to hear about potential supplies of the Pic (or other) cardboard mounts - it’s a real shame B&H have pulled them. I’d been planning to buy a couple more boxes, but it seems if you snooze you lose!
With supplies really seeming to dwindle now, I wonder if it would be viable to investigate 3-D printing mounts as a community? I’m aware of the standard arguments that slide shooters’ “niche within a niche within a niche” status means there’s not really a commercial argument to catering for us specifically (fair enough!), but for those of us that just can’t do without projection there must be a way to find some sort of collective independence.
Would Dwaynes sell them to you?
I tried it once, for the heck of it.I wonder if it would be viable to investigate 3-D printing mounts as a community?
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