JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate > JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate

Press packs, duplex film holders etc

(1/1)

Hugo Habicht:
Hi,

in the discussions about the autopsy photos I repeatedly stumble upon terms as "press pack", "duplex film holders" etc. While old enough to be familiar with 35 mm film rolls, these things are out of my personal experience (and imaginative power)... I wonder if there is a site explaing this older film formats?

Regards,
HH

Mitch Todd:

--- Quote from: Hugo Habicht on October 22, 2023, 09:17:41 PM ---Hi,

in the discussions about the autopsy photos I repeatedly stumble upon terms as "press pack", "duplex film holders" etc. While old enough to be familiar with 35 mm film rolls, these things are out of my personal experience (and imaginative power)... I wonder if there is a site explaing this older film formats?

Regards,
HH

--- End quote ---
Stringer used a Graflex large-format view camera. It's quite a bit different than a roll-film camera, and these were used by professional photographers for high quality work for decades. Film came in individual 4"x5" sheets that were loaded into a holder that was then inserted into the camera before exposure. The holder had a light-tight cover that that protected the film from exposure before it was inserted into the camera and when the holder was removed. Duplex holders held one sheet of film on each side. Once you took the first exposure, you reinstalled the cover over the holder while it was still in the camera, removed the holder assembly, flipped it over, reinserted it into the camera, removed the holder, then exposed the second sheet of film.

This guy has a decent overview of the camera and how it was used:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=68fGK88scDM
He doesn't get into the press packs. Those carried multiple sheets of film in one unit, 8 IIRC, and were intended for press photographers. I've never actually seen one, so I'm exactly sure how they worked.


 

Hugo Habicht:
Thank you, this was really helpful! For a "press pack", I found this:

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Film_Pack

https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/102924-whats-the-difference-between-sheet-film-and-pack-film/

"Film packs are a memory of my youth where you had 16 sheets of 4x5 film in a pack the size of a normal 2 sheet holder. You pulled paper tabs like a Polaroid after each exposure. "

So the advantage of a "press pack" was to be able to take 12-16 pictures within short time without the need to change film holders after only 2 photos being taken which made this perfectly suited for the press.

Navigation

[0] Message Index