I'll be retiring in about a year, and I'll have time to (at least occasionally) pursue some of the photography techniques I've never been able to try before. One of those is wet plate.
I have a couple cameras I could use with wet plate holders, but I'm curious what the glass costs -- collodion and silver nitrate can be purchased as one goes, but suitable glass makes much more sense to buy in quantities of dozens of plate, if not a hundred at a time -- doen't it?
For sizes smaller than 8x10*, I buy those dollar picture frames from the local dollar store and use the glass out of those. It's real glass, about the same thickness as what Jason Lane uses for making dry plates, and although it's a low quality glass (occasional imperfections, etc) it's totally suitable for Ambrotypes and glass negs. So you CAN work on glass very inexpensively if you take that route. As you've no doubt noticed, the real expense will be the making of your silver (nitrate) bath. I advise you: don't cheap out and make the minimum volume to save money! The smaller the volume of silver bath, the more often you'll need to maintain it and add more AgNO3, and the less often you need to do that, the better. Get a cheap winemaking hydrometer to monitor the specific gravity of your silver bath. Typically you want to maintain an SG of 1.074 or so. When the SG drops to less than about 1.065, you should add more silver to bring it up to 1.074-ish. (Don't go over if you can avoid it)
About buying AgNO3: it used to be that prices varied quite a bit, depending on who you bought from, but in the past 2-3 years, the price has evened out so that most sellers have a similar price. I always buy from ArtCraft because their price for silver nitrate tends to be a bit lower than anywhere else. (It's currently about $160.00 USD for 100 grams, which is
by far the most it has ever cost. Last time I bough 1/2 pound it was less than $200.00) If you buy from ArtCraft's eBay store, it's a few dollars less, and shipping is included.
As for the Collodion, you can buy the components and make your own (I used to do that, just for the experience of it) but there's no advantage to making it from scratch — you're not really going to save money. Just buy it pre-mixed from someone like UV Photographics. He offers a few different "flavors", some of which are a bit faster, and some have a much better shelf life, which is useful if you got months between wet plate sessions. UVP-Z is an excellent Collodion. I have some that is now 2 years old and still works well. Something like the traditional Old Workhorse (also a truly excellent recipe) has a much shorter shelf life, so bear that in mind.
Collodion tip: assuming you buy either 250ml or 500ml of salted collodion, it's good practice to pour 100ml (approx) into another vessel for the actual pouring onto plates. When it starts to run low, just add more from the parent bottle. This way you avoid having the solvents from evaporating from the parent bottle, and you don't contaminate it with dust and junk. My recommendation is to invest in a 250ml Erlenmeyer flask with a rubber stopper. Why? Because the shape of the Erlenmeyer flask allows you to get the neck of the flask very close to the plate when pouring, and this makes learning to pour a much easier experience— you have much better control of the pour, and this is an important technique to get right.
*I say that my limit for this cheap picture frame glass is 8x10 only because it's thinner glass (about 1.4mm) and is much more prone to breakage than standard window glass. But I have made many glass collodion negatives in 8x10 with that glass — it just required more careful handling to avoid breakage.
