Plate holders for Horseman 985

Lollipop · Dec 17, 2021

I recently bought a lot of ancient (more and less) 2,25x3,25 and 6,5x9 plate holders to be used with the Hoserman 985.
Eleven of them are double side, in plastic or metal/wood, others are single film in all metal construction.

My trouble is: double film holders have a deeper film plane, respect the flush, than the sigle ones.

Why it happens and which type of film plate I should use.

Thank you.

ic-racer · Dec 17, 2021

Those look like they hold film and not glass plates.

It depends on how the ground glass is mounted in your camera, but I will contribute that In my Horseman VH-R, the plastic two sided ones give correct focus.

Lollipop · Dec 17, 2021

ic-racer said:
Those look like they hold film and not glass plates.

It depends on how the ground glass is mounted in your camera, but I will contribute that In my Horseman VH-R, the plastic two sided ones give correct focus.

Uh, maybe this is not the right section for my posting.
Sorry for that and thank you for your contribution.

grat · Dec 17, 2021

The double-sided holders are "modern" film holders, and should work with your Horseman.

The singles are combination film/plate holders, but they're designed for a totally different style of camera, and the film plane won't be in the right place for the horseman (a few mm closer, which will completely throw off your focus).

So you do actually have a stack of plate holders (that will also take film), but they're not for the Horseman or other "standard" backed cameras. They appear to be for German plate style cameras-- I was confused as to why they would have been patented by Kodak in 1933, but looking at the actual patent, the application lists August Nagel of Stuttgart, and Nils Bouveng of Sweden, so I suspect this was an effort to ensure Kodak had control over these style plate holders in the US.

Patent link

Lollipop · Dec 18, 2021

grat said:
The double-sided holders are "modern" film holders, and should work with your Horseman.

The singles are combination film/plate holders, but they're designed for a totally different style of camera, and the film plane won't be in the right place for the horseman (a few mm closer, which will completely throw off your focus).

So you do actually have a stack of plate holders (that will also take film), but they're not for the Horseman or other "standard" backed cameras. They appear to be for German plate style cameras-- I was confused as to why they would have been patented by Kodak in 1933, but looking at the actual patent, the application lists August Nagel of Stuttgart, and Nils Bouveng of Sweden, so I suspect this was an effort to ensure Kodak had control over these style plate holders in the US.

Patent link

Very interesting infos, thank you.
Would be interesting also to know to which kind of cameras are destined those single film/plate holders.

Donald Qualls · Dec 18, 2021

Hard to be sure from just the photos, but they're thin-edge slide in type, likely correct for Voigtlander or Kodak/Nagel cameras. There's a sticky thread here that has a link to a fairly comprehensive table of plate holder types and what they fit.

grat · Dec 18, 2021

Based on the patent and the design, I would say a Kodak Recomar 18.

Lollipop · Dec 20, 2021

Thank you dears for the precious informations!

Plate holders for Horseman 985

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