PDA

View Full Version : Are second hand Darkslides good value for money ?


Martin Aislabie
9th November 2011, 07:47 PM
I have recently been contemplating buying some additional Darkslides.

Initially, I bought 12 new ones (Toyo) when I bought my 5x4.

Looking on E-Bay second hand ones go for about £10 ~ £12 each

New Fidelity DDSs start at about £24 each

I noticed someone posted recently here on FADU that they were not sure buying second hand ones were great value for money - as they need testing carefully to check for light leaks.

Care to share your thoughts and experiences ?

Thanks

Martin :)

Dave miller
9th November 2011, 08:00 PM
Yes they do need testing like most second-hand purchases, but this can be done with R/C printing paper as it's a cheaper than film and easier to develop.
All mine are second-hand off eBay, I can't remember what I paid but it was a lot less than £10 each, probably nearer £3 ea I guess. Of the 30 or so that I brought only 2 or 3 had to be thrown away although quite a few have obviously had a hard life.

Jon Butler
9th November 2011, 08:21 PM
Martin,
I too have only bought new ones, I've got twenty but only normally take 10 out on location so they should last me out.
I find that 20 shots is enough for good days photography which is just as well as I would not want to carry more. Do you really need more than the 12 you've got?
J.

Neil Smith
9th November 2011, 09:01 PM
I have about 30 all bought second hand off eBay some were in great condition some not so good. The latter I have refurbished several and will refurbish the others with a good clean and change the tape on the hinges.

As yet all the refurbished ones have proved reliable, there are two or three I will just keep for spare slides. I picked them up in large batches so they were very cheap.

Neil

Steve O
10th November 2011, 07:39 AM
Having just got back into 4x5 I too was looking for secondhand dark slides and initially bought 6 Fidelity elites from Ffordes for £55. Two were very good whilst the others were a bit worn but I managed to pick up 6 more from Peter Walnes last week , all in very good condition for £27 :)

Steve

DaveP
10th November 2011, 08:00 AM
As Steve says above, Peter Walnes is the man to go to for darkslides. I bought half a dozen from him a while back and ones was a bit worse condition than the rest, so he happily exchanged them. When you gan get them from a dealer in good condition WITH A WARRANTY then I see no reason to pay more than double that on ebay. Even ffordes/mifsuds generally sell them for on average £7-10 each tops.

I must have been lucky or something but out of my 19 DDS none of them were tested by me before use and all are fine. Like most things if you can buy second hand with a guarantee then why pay 5x that price to get new? As soon as you take them out of the box you've lost half their value - even brand new cars don't depreciate this fast!

The other odd thing I've noticed is people seem willing to pay a hefty premium for relative modern Toyo holders instead of the classic Fidelity/Lisco/Riteway ones. I have one Toyo that I got in a bundle, and yes it looks a bit nicer than the others (i.e. looks like 1980s chic not 1950s chic) but as far as I can tell there's no real functional advantage to them.

Martin Aislabie
11th November 2011, 04:22 PM
Thanks for the advice guys

The idea of using paper rather than film to test a DDS for being light tight had never occurred to me - but is a great idea and overcomes one of the problems I foresaw - how would you know what piece of film came from which film holder :D

The reason I am after some more Holders is not that I machine-gun my way through 12 DDS's per day when shooting landscapes.

I want to increase my DDS count so if I go away for a weekend of photography, I don't need to have to re-load each evening - I can simply and quickly swap exposed DDSs' for fresh ones

Normally, I only shoot 7 or 8 DDS's per day and have only twice in the past 4 years exposed all 12 in a single day - the light and the subject being exceptional all day to shoot so prolifically.

Its one of the nice things about LF - it forces you to slow right down and look very carefully even before getting the camera out of the bag. In my 35mm days I normal day would involve shooting 6 to 8 rolls in a day.

Martin