"Crown" -brand Sheet Film Holders.

[Dugan]

I'm noticing a lot of brand-new "Crown" 4x5 film holders showing up on Ebay.
They're apparently from Taiwan.
Does anybody here have any experience with them?
It's an encouraging sign that someone has "picked up the baton and run with it" to fill the need for new CFH's.
Hopefully, they're made to ANSI specs.
Can anybody weigh in on these?

[Corran]

This is a good question! I found them here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203880879717

I just bought 10 4x5 film holders in the classifieds for more than this (Fidelity). I might've tried these Crown ones out if I hadn't just done that. In recent memory, it was hard to find film holders as many folks were getting into 4x5 (I'm picking up spares for a trip).

[Michael Graves]

Corran, you're much better off. I picked up five of the Crowns last week just to do a review. They came in today. They appear to be 3D printed. Of the five, 9 of 10 dark slides were so hard to slide in and out that you could feel the plastic pull tab starting to give way. They didn't get any smoother with repeated insertion/withdrawal actions (Keep your mind out of the gutter!!) Inside my Chamonix, I couldn't pull most of them out at all without dislodging the camera position or pulling the holder out with it. The dark slides have this grating sound like sandpaper over rough-sawn wood. The tape holding the hinges together...on all five of them...was wrinkled and very sloppy. And the hinges don't properly seat once you get the dark slide removed. I'm not bothering to try them for light-tightness (is that a word?). They're just going back. They're absolutely horrible.

[Dugan]

Bummer.
So much for my optimism.... :(
Thanks for the review, Michael.

[Corran]

Corran, you're much better off. I picked up five of the Crowns last week just to do a review. They came in today. They appear to be 3D printed. Of the five, 9 of 10 dark slides were so hard to slide in and out that you could feel the plastic pull tab starting to give way. They didn't get any smoother with repeated insertion/withdrawal actions (Keep your mind out of the gutter!!) Inside my Chamonix, I couldn't pull most of them out at all without dislodging the camera position or pulling the holder out with it. The dark slides have this grating sound like sandpaper over rough-sawn wood. The tape holding the hinges together...on all five of them...was wrinkled and very sloppy. And the hinges don't properly seat once you get the dark slide removed. I'm not bothering to try them for light-tightness (is that a word?). They're just going back. They're absolutely horrible.

That's unfortunate! Thanks for chiming in.

[grat]

The ones shown on eBay don't appear to be 3D printed, rather some form of injection molding. There's no distinct line patterns visible anywhere.

Do yours look like the eBay images, or are they noticeably different?

[cptrios]

I also just picked up 10 of them, and echo Corran's comments about the dark slides being hard to move. I'd also say that the adhesive holding on the whatever-you-call-them flaps at the bottom doesn't fill me with confidence. I dunno about sending them back...$5 a pop certainly wasn't bad, and maybe the dark slides will loosen up with time. Definitely a "you get what you pay for" situation, though.

Note as well that the same eBay seller is also selling this (for more money) branded as "Adorama." I wonder if they're going to start popping up at the real Adorama soon.

[Rod Klukas]

Corran, you're much better off. I picked up five of the Crowns last week just to do a review. They came in today. They appear to be 3D printed. Of the five, 9 of 10 dark slides were so hard to slide in and out that you could feel the plastic pull tab starting to give way. They didn't get any smoother with repeated insertion/withdrawal actions (Keep your mind out of the gutter!!) Inside my Chamonix, I couldn't pull most of them out at all without dislodging the camera position or pulling the holder out with it. The dark slides have this grating sound like sandpaper over rough-sawn wood. The tape holding the hinges together...on all five of them...was wrinkled and very sloppy. And the hinges don't properly seat once you get the dark slide removed. I'm not bothering to try them for light-tightness (is that a word?). They're just going back. They're absolutely horrible.

Michael, Take some emory cloth or fine sand paper and fold over the long sides of the dark slides and slide the emory paper up and down each side a few times while pinching down on maybe 1/4" at the edge of the slides.. Wipe off with a cloth and test. Do it as many times as needed until to the smoothness you like.

It works.

But I will say Toyo holders are the most accurate holders made today.


Rod