Historical Sources for Film Holder Sizes

Ryuji,

I checked in my files to see if I had any information of the type you
requested regarding historical information on camera formats. Sorry,
but I could not find anything of use.

As best I can surmise from my own files the 6.5" X 8.5" format
appears to have become a standard size very late in the 19th century.
It may well have appeared about the same time as film on nitrate base
since all of the film holders I have seen in this size have been
standard, whereas many plate holders sold as full plate are quite
irregular.

Hope someone else can help and provide a good lead. The subject is
also very interesting to me.

Sandy King

>From: Jon Danforth <jdanforth@sc.rr.com>
>Subject: Re: plate holders for dummies
>Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:10:09 -0400
>
>> Do you know of a way to calculate or measure this? The offset, I'd imagine,
>> would only be the thickness of a single sheet of film (anyone have this
>> measurement handy?). I'd prefer to calculate it and input that into my
>> design.
>
>Do you mean the thickness of glass used to make dry plates?
>
>Depending on the era I see "fifteen to an inch," "about 1/16 of an
>inch," and 1.6mm. I think 1/16" and 1.6mm are more common later than
>earlier ones but am not sure. There is about 1mm discrepancy between
>1/15" and 1/16". Oh, I'm talking about 6.5x8.5 or smaller. Some larger
>plates used thicker glass.
>
>--
>Ryuji Suzuki
>"You have to realize that junk is not the problem in and of itself.
>Junk is the symptom, not the problem."
>(Bob Dylan 1971; source: No Direction Home by Robert Shelton)
Received on Thu Jul 15 19:44:03 2004