A film holder is a accessory that holds one or more pieces of photographic film, for insertion into a camera or optical scanning device such as a dedicated film scanner or a flatbed scanner with film scanning capabilities. The widest use of the term refers to a device that holds sheet film for use in large format cameras, but it can also refer to various interchangeable devices in medium format or even 135 film camera systems.
The most common instance of film holder is the sheet film holder. Also referred to as a dark slide or double dark slide, they are flat devices, slightly larger than the films they hold, which commonly hold one sheet of film on each side. The plate holder, which is a very similar device, holds glass plates instead of sheet film. A dark slide, from which the device derives its alternate name, is simply a dark cover that slides into a recess in the holder to protect the film (or plate) from exposure to light. Many dark slides have differently colored bands or handles on each side, one usually light and the other dark, so the photographer can distinguish between exposed and unexposed film.
Traditionally, sheet film and glass plate holders have been made out of wood. Wooden holders, properly treated, can last a very long time, and apart from possible warpage, many very old specimens are still in service. Some companies continue to make wood models today, particularly for more uncommon film sizes, and as many are mostly handmade, they can be quite expensive. The majority of new sheet film holders are now made out of plastic.
When using a sheet film holder, the device is inserted into the camera, often a view camera, and the dark slide is withdrawn, making the film available for exposure. After the exposure has been made, the dark slide is reinserted into the film holder, and the device is removed from the camera for later processing of the exposed film.
Multi-sheet holders
Grafmatic "45" Film Holder.
Some film holders can hold more than two sheets. One of the most common is the Grafmatic, manufactured by Graflex, which holds six sheets of film in individual septums. They were available in "23" and "45" models, corresponding to 6×9cm (21⁄4×31⁄4 inches) and 4×5 inch sheets.[1] It takes little effort to quickly cycle through all six sheets, which makes the Grafmatic ideal for press camera usage. Burke & James produced a similar device called the Kinematic, which holds 10 sheets, though was only available in 4×5 inch format.
Graflex also produced the Film Magazine. It is commonly referred to as a "bag magazine" (or "bag mag"), and uses a leather bag that hangs on the side of the frame to exchange the septums from front to back. It is a much more manual device than the Grafmatic, as exchanging a septum is done manually through the bag, rather than by a simple manipulation of the magazine's dark slide. They were sold in separate versions for film and glass plates, and held 12-18 sheets/plates, depending on the model.[2] They are found in 3×4, 4×5, and 5×7 inch formats.
Though all are superficially similar (a "bag mag" film (not plate) septum is the same thickness as a Grafmatic septum, but has slightly different width and length; a Kinematic septum appears almost identical to a Grafmatic septum but is in fact considerably thinner) in fact use of a septum from a different type of holder in any of these multi-sheet holders is very likely to jam the entire magazine and bend internal parts, which can then damage yet another holder if used with it. As replacement parts are no longer available one must be careful not to interchange pieces of different types of multi-sheet holders.
Fuji created a 4×5 system in the late 1990s called QuickChange, which is somewhat similar to a Grafmatic in principle. It is made of plastic rather than metal, making it lighter, and less prone to bent septums, but also less durable. It can hold 8 shots, and inserts are purchased already loaded with film. Though not sold as such, these inserts can be reloaded a limited number of times with standard sheet film. Because, like Grafmatic or "bag mag" holders, the Fuji holders used sheet film of normal thickness, they offered higher image quality than the older "film packs" (see below), but never became widely popular before digital imaging brought much production of traditional large-format materials to a halt.[3]
Film pack holders
Graflex and Polaroid produced film pack holders that could be loaded in subdued light. Film packs were available from various film manufacturers in 12 and 16-sheet units. The classic film pack consisted of several "sheets" of film (actually much thinner than standard sheet film, as they were cut from large-format roll film, for economy and physical flexibility) taped together and wound in a series of S-bends around a metal frame. To "advance" the film, the user pulled a paper tab that protruded from the side of the film pack. The tab was attached—facing the opposite direction—to the junction of each sheet and its intervening section of tape. The thin film and only slight tension this system provided resulted in poor film flatness, and negatives are often sharp enough only for contact printing. They were primarily used by press photographers, and demand fell off dramatically as photojournalists converted to roll film cameras.
According to former Kodak employees at the Eastman House photographic museum, Kodak stopped producing film packs when the last employee trained to assemble them (which required working with the very sharp metal frame in total darkness) retired in the 1980s. This rendered all traditional film pack holders in the world obsolete at once. Polaroid film packs, though mechanically similar, are not (and never were) available in standard film sizes. The Fuji QuickChange system was sometimes referred to as a film pack system but, as noted above, was a mechanical multi-sheet holder.
Instant film holders
Polaroid produced the widest range of instant sheet and pack film, but discontinued all production in 2008, leaving Fujifilm as the only producer of instant film and backs. The Polaroid 545, the lighter and more modern 545i, and the 545 Pro backs were 4×5 inch instant sheet film holders that many photographers used. New55 Holdings, LLC started producing a black and white P/N film for the 545 and 545i backs. This new instant sheet film produces a black and white negative and a positive image. The older Polaroid 550 packfilm back can take Fuji FP-100C film (3.25x4.25 inches), which was the last product of this type and was discontinued in February 2016.[4] Polaroid also produced 8×10 inch film holders and films. Polaroid produced 10-sheet 4×5 inch instant film packs and holders.
Preloaded systems
Some 4×5 inch films come in light-tight envelopes that can be loaded into a special holder in daylight. The envelopes are much smaller and lighter than a dark-slide loaded with film, so a photographer can carry a larger quantity of film than the same amount of film in dark-slides. Fuji Quickload TM film and holders, and Kodak Readyload TM film and holders, are of this type. These have not been manufactured for several years, although old stock may sometimes be sold online. New55 Holdings, LLC has started producing a variety of Ready Loads called 1SHOT TM for the preloaded systems, these include Black and white negative, color negative and color slide films.
Rollfilm holders
Film holders that adapt rollfilm to sheet film cameras are usually called film backs. Film backs for 4×5 inch cameras are particularly common—there is little point in taking 6×9cm pictures on a 20cm ×25cm (8in ×10in) camera. Horseman, Linhof, Graflex, and other manufacturers have made roll film holders in 6×7, 6×8, 6×9, 6×12, and 6×17cm formats. Some models can slip under the ground glass like a normal sheet film holder, while others require that the photographer replace the ground glass with the roll holder.
Medium format film holders
Film holders are available as accessories for some medium formatcameras. The most usual case is the Polaroid back taking instant film, often used to check exposure values, color rendition, etc. before taking final photographs on conventional film.
Several of the types of holders made for large format film, including darkslide sheet holders, Grafmatic multi-sheet holders, the Graflex bag mag, and film packs were also manufactured in medium format sizes, almost always 21⁄4"×31⁄4" (6×9cm). Press camera manufacturers often produced smaller versions of their 4×5 cameras in this size, often called "23", and while later versions of these cameras could use rollfilm adaptors, these were not widely available until almost 1950, and were expensive in their first years of production.
Sheet film or glass plate holders for medium format rollfilm cameras can be found, but are of mainly historical interest. Some rollfilm cameras have interchangeable backs to accommodate different film types. Some 35mmcameras have motorised backs that hold longer than normal film lengths, with a mechanism that automatically advances the film after each exposure.
A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photography and videography, cameras have played a significant role in the progression of visual arts, media, entertainment, surveillance, and scientific research. The invention of the camera dates back to the 19th century and has since evolved with advancements in technology, leading to a vast array of types and models in the 21st century.
A view camera is a large-format camera in which the lens forms an inverted image on a ground-glass screen directly at the film plane. The image is viewed, composed, and focused, then the glass screen is replaced with the film to expose exactly the same image seen on the screen.
A press camera is a medium or large format view camera that was predominantly used by press photographers in the early to mid-20th century. It was largely replaced for press photography by 35mm film cameras in the 1960s, and subsequently, by digital cameras. The quintessential press camera was the Speed Graphic. Press cameras are still used as portable and rugged view cameras.
The Speed Graphic was a press camera produced by Graflex in Rochester, New York. Although the first Speed Graphic cameras were produced in 1912, production of later versions continued until 1973; with significant improvements occurring in 1947 with the introduction of the Pacemaker Speed Graphic.
The Land Camera is a model of self-developing film camera manufactured by Polaroid between 1948 and 1983. It is named after the inventor, American scientist Edwin Land, who developed a process for self-developing photography between 1943 and 1947. After Edwin Land's retirement from Polaroid in 1982, the name 'Land' was dropped from the camera name. The first commercially available model was the Model 95, which produced sepia-colored prints in about 1 minute. It was first sold to the public on November 26, 1948.
An instant camera is a camera which uses self-developing film to create a chemically developed print shortly after taking the picture. Polaroid Corporation pioneered consumer-friendly instant cameras and film, and were followed by various other manufacturers.
Sheet film is large format and medium format photographic film supplied on individual sheets of acetate or polyester film base rather than rolls. Sheet film was initially supplied as an alternative to glass plates. The most popular size measures 100 mm × 130 mm ; smaller and larger sizes including the gigantic 510 mm × 610 mm have been made and many are still available today.
Large format photography refers to any imaging format of 9 cm × 12 cm or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6 cm × 6 cm or 6 cm × 9 cm size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras, and much larger than the 24 mm × 36 mm frame of 35 mm format.
A contact print is a photographic image produced from film; sometimes from a film negative, and sometimes from a film positive or paper negative. In a darkroom an exposed and developed piece of film or photographic paper is placed emulsion side down, in contact with a piece of photographic paper, light is briefly shone through the negative or paper and then the paper is developed to reveal the final print.
Instant film is a type of photographic film that was introduced by Polaroid Corporation to produce a visible image within minutes or seconds of the photograph's exposure. The film contains the chemicals needed for developing and fixing the photograph, and the camera exposes and initiates the developing process after a photo has been taken.
Monorail cameras are view cameras with lens mount, bellows, and interchangeable viewing and film backs all fitted along a rigid rail along which they can slide until locked into position.
The SX-70 is a folding single lens reflex Land camera which was produced by the Polaroid Corporation from 1972 to 1981. The SX-70 helped popularize instant photography.
The history of the camera began even before the introduction of photography. Cameras evolved from the camera obscura through many generations of photographic technology – daguerreotypes, calotypes, dry plates, film – to the modern day with digital cameras and camera phones.
Analog photography, also known as film photography, is a term usually applied to photography that uses chemical processes to capture an image, typically on paper, film or a hard plate. These processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention of digital photography, which uses electronic sensors to record images to digital media. Analog electronic photography was sometimes used in the late 20th century but soon died out.
Instax is a brand of instant still cameras and instant films marketed by Fujifilm.
In photography, a dark slide is a wooden or metal plate that covers the sensitized emulsion side of a photographic plate. In use, a pair of plates joined back to back were used with both plates covered with a dark slide. When used, the dark slide is removed for the period of the exposure and then replaced. Modern dark slides are used in conjunction with a film holder, that either holds in place pieces of cut sheet film or, if modified, some piece of light sensitive material such as glass.
Polaroid B.V. is a Dutch photography and consumer electronics company, founded as a manufacturer of discontinued film for Polaroid Corporation instant cameras. The company produces new instant cameras under the Polaroid brand name as well as wireless speakers and other accessories.
The Mamiya Press is a line of medium-format rangefinder system press cameras manufactured by Mamiya. The first model was introduced in 1960, and the final model was discontinued in the 1970s. It was targeted at the professional press photography market, and a wide array of accessories was offered.
Cold camera photography is a technique used by astrophotographers to reduce the electronic noise that accumulates during long exposures with the electronic sensors in DSLRs and dedicated CMOS or CCD astro-cameras. Cooling is usually accomplished with a Peltier thermo-electric cooler. By cooling the camera's sensor one can take longer shots without the worry of the chip heating up, thereby reducing thermal, shot and read noise.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
