"Modern" Fidelity Elite holders, (a look at personal bias and whether there is truth in it)

[Ardpatrick]

Ciao!

Thank you for sharing your process, it's always great to see what other people do and it's interesting how we all have different preferences when it comes to gear - it seems to me that we all favour what we use and are comfortable with, out of habit and familiarity, which makes perfect sense.

For instance, I personally would never go through the process of removing holders from the bag, then unzip the ziplock, then pull them from the ziplock, then open the metal wires, remove dark slide, unload / load, put dark slide back, lock the metal wire, put the holders back in the ziplock, zip the ziplock and put it back in the bag when at home, and I would be even less keen on having to go through the whole ziplock routine in the field, where I have to fiddle with what feels like enough bits and pieces already

To me, when at home the simplicity of removing holders from the bag, pushing the lock while pulling the slide, unload / load, put the slide back, put the holders in the bag, done - and, most importantly, when in the field the convenience of just having to pull the holders from my f64 bag (hanging from my neck), inserting the holder in the camera, pull the dark slide, take the shot, put the dark slide back, remove the holder and put it back in the bag without any extra steps is a lifesaver.

Unless I am missing something, to me the button lock holders feel much simpler, and it seems to me that the number of steps involved in the workflow is much lower with those - since I got the Chamonix, I sold half of my Fidelity and the other half rest easy in a drawer and never saw the light of day again. That said, as I said at the beginning, with gear - pretty much always - what counts and what makes us the most productive is what we are used to, and feel comfortable with.

Best,

Vieri

I have a few of those 4x5 holders with the white button latch instead of the wire. They worked well in a Sinar F I had, but don’t work well in my Canham DLC. When I put the film holder into the camera back, it doesn’t align to unlatch the dark slide. So I have to manually depress the latch and nudge the dark slide 1-2mm before placing into the camera back.

As I say, it worked with the Sinar. But not with the Canham.

 

[Michael Mutmansky]

mabe extremely lucku but ,I never had any trouble with 2nd-hand holdersof any brand. the only issue I had with most was that people¬ikedto glue tape on them to mark them up. That was always aa PITA to remove them.

Yes, that's seems common, but the odd thing I've seen if you look on Ebay at the listings, for example (and there are hundreds of film holder listings on there) is that there seem to be a lot of people who put the tape ON THE REGISTRATION SURFACE OF THE HOLDER... So they are shimming one side of the holder out from the proper T-depth by the thickness of the tape and adhesive.

I've even seen holders where they put "embossing" tape on there. Not only is the tape pretty thick, but the embossed letters really increases the thickness of the shim they are putting on the holder.

 

[Michael Mutmansky]

I have a few of those 4x5 holders with the white button latch instead of the wire. They worked well in a Sinar F I had, but don’t work well in my Canham DLC. When I put the film holder into the camera back, it doesn’t align to unlatch the dark slide. So I have to manually depress the latch and nudge the dark slide 1-2mm before placing into the camera back.

As I say, it worked with the Sinar. But not with the Canham.

Other than Linhof cameras, that is the first I've heard of other brands that don't work well with the button-style DS locks. Thanks for posting about that.

 

[Vieri Bottazzini]

I have a few of those 4x5 holders with the white button latch instead of the wire. They worked well in a Sinar F I had, but don’t work well in my Canham DLC. When I put the film holder into the camera back, it doesn’t align to unlatch the dark slide. So I have to manually depress the latch and nudge the dark slide 1-2mm before placing into the camera back.

As I say, it worked with the Sinar. But not with the Canham.

Thank you for the info - which brand are those? My Chamonix all have a red button, and they work perfectly in the three cameras I tried them with, Chamonix, Toyo and Arca-Swiss.

Best,

Vieri

 

[Ardpatrick]

Thank you for the info - which brand are those? My Chamonix all have a red button, and they work perfectly in the three cameras I tried them with, Chamonix, Toyo and Arca-Swiss.

Best,

Vieri

They are Lisco Mark II holders.

I still use them but rather than being more convenient and safer than my Fidelity holders, they are slightly less convenient and less safe.

 

[Vaughn]

Ciao Vieri,

I use 1 quart / 1 liter ZipLoc style freezer bags (I used Toppits 1 liter bags when in Europe - can you get those?). A 4x5 holder fits perfectly inside each bag. Yes, every holder has its own bag. They go into my film-holder carrying case in the field. I take the holder out just before the exposure and put the holder back in the bag after the exposure. No dust that way

Hope this helps,

Doremus

I use the one gallon zip-lock bags to hold two 5x7 film holders...pretty handy. Unfortunately, an 8x10 holder fits in but will not close. The bags are nice for both wet and for dry/dusty situations.

If my holders all lost their locks mysteriously overnight, I would not miss them.