Want to Buy Seneca Whole plate Film Holders

I am looking to buy several Eastman whole plate film back for use with a Seneca camera.
thanks
Mitch

Mitch, I think you'll find most US whole plate holders are for plates rather than film so would need an insert to convert them for film.

You've far more chance of finding "Kodak Ltd" whole plate film holders as the format was still in use here in the UK after WWII and Kodak still made film holders here into the 1960's. Keep an eye on ebay.co.uk (login etc is the same as .com - it's one database but the searches differ).

There were some at the camera fair I go to, the next one is the 25th, I'll keep my eyes open

Ian

Those Kodak Ltd. (GB) holders are very nice. But hard to find. I have two. I like the fact that they have metal rib lock plates, but the end flap is more delicate than the Eastman holders. There are Eastman whole plate film holders out there, but they don't come up for sale as often as I'd like (I have 5). In general the Eastman holders have been in worse shape than the Kodak GB holders I've found. And yes, there are probably more plate holders than film holders for sale at any given time with this format.

My Gandolfi was clearly designed around the British Kodak holders, but the Eastman holders seem to work fine. I just lose a bit of the image area on the flap end of the holder.

karl said:

My Gandolfi was clearly designed around the British Kodak holders, but the Eastman holders seem to work fine. I just lose a bit of the image area on the flap end of the holder.

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This needs to be a separate thread really. You're Gandolfi camera was designed to take Book form holders but Arthur and Fred also gave the option of a modern back, Whole Plate was the only "common" size left out of the International Standards just after WWII, I guess because we in the UK were the only country still using it, there will be a BS standard which will effectively be the Kodak standard used by both Eastman Kodak & Kodak Ltd.

Karl, you make a point as not all 5x4 DDS (UK term - double dark slide - for modern film/plate holders) yield the same usable image size, some crop more than others. With whole plate the Eastman Kodak holders are usually considerably older than the Kodak Ltd ones.

We suffer the opposite in the UK with modern 7x5 holders, we never had 7x5 cameras sold new here, we had Half plate instead most using book form holders except again Kodak Ltd, so second hand 7x5 DDS are very rare and expensive here, modern Kodak Ltd Half Plate DDS are the same outside fit but film's expensive only available via the Ilford ULF run. So I bought my 7x5 holders here on APUG from the US.

Ian