Film holders for scanning

Ben johns

Ben johns

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Ive been using the Lomography 120 holder for a while and whilst its decent it still doesnt hold the negatives completely flat. The 2 holders that I've been looking at the Pixl-latr https://pixl-latr.com/product/pixl-latr-film-holder/ and the Essential Film Holder https://clifforth.co.uk/EXA/ . The Essential Film Holder is £90 for the 35mm and 120 version whilst the Pixl-latr is £40 and does both. The Pixl-latr looks more of a faff though and looks like it would take a lot longer to scan an entire roll, it looks like you have to re-configure the front each time you want to scan a new frame, but it is more than half the price... Has anyone tried either of these? £40 and £90 is a bit too much to take a punt on
 
Are you actually experiencing problems with the negs not being flat? The only problem I get is that sometimes with a very curled negative I find it touches the glass and I get Newtons rings, in those cases I flip the neg over, scan it upside down and then flip the scan for correct orientation. Otherwise I don't see any problems in the scans, they are sharp across the frame.
 
You don't mention whether you're DSLR scanning or flatbed? I'm guessing DSLR if you're considering EFH?

For me, flatbed scanning (MF) straight on the glass with ANR glass on top (to hold it flat) does the trick quicker and far better than anything else. For 35mm I have the Plustek 8100.

As for the Pixl-atr, I tried it once, discovered what a huge faff it was, then sold it. But DSLR scanning just isn't for me. Way too much of a pain to set up and scan a roll.
 
sirch said:
Are you actually experiencing problems with the negs not being flat? The only problem I get is that sometimes with a very curled negative I find it touches the glass and I get Newtons rings, in those cases I flip the neg over, scan it upside down and then flip the scan for correct orientation. Otherwise I don't see any problems in the scans, they are sharp across the frame.
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I'm not getting newton rings as I scan with a camera but its always sharper in the middle with some fall off at the edges. I should have said though that the main reason for looking at those two holders is that they do both 35mm and 120.
 
Harlequin565 said:
You don't mention whether you're DSLR scanning or flatbed? I'm guessing DSLR if you're considering EFH?

For me, flatbed scanning (MF) straight on the glass with ANR glass on top (to hold it flat) does the trick quicker and far better than anything else. For 35mm I have the Plustek 8100.

As for the Pixl-atr, I tried it once, discovered what a huge faff it was, then sold it. But DSLR scanning just isn't for me. Way too much of a pain to set up and scan a roll.
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Yes I'm scanning with a camera. I had an Epson scanner, a v550 I think, and I found the 35mm scans lacking. I tried scanning with a camera and if the negative was good enough some 35mm frames would approach what the Epson would give me from a 120 frame, even with my old Canon Fd macro lens, its even better when I borrow my friends sony macro.

I did think the Pixl-latr looked like a lot of work, just a shame the Essential Film holder isnt cheaper
 
Stegosaurus said:
Stupid question, but are you sure the actual images on the negatives are sharp to the edges?
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sharper than they appear when scanned with the lomo holder. Its a massive deal breaker its more than it can only do 120 and its a bit of a faff to set up. Opening and closing for each strip is a pain, I tend to scan in batches so its taking a long time. With the Essential holder you can just slide a strip in.
 
Ben johns said:
Ive been using the Lomography 120 holder for a while and whilst its decent it still doesnt hold the negatives completely flat. The 2 holders that I've been looking at the Pixl-latr https://pixl-latr.com/product/pixl-latr-film-holder/ and the Essential Film Holder https://clifforth.co.uk/EXA/ . The Essential Film Holder is £90 for the 35mm and 120 version whilst the Pixl-latr is £40 and does both. The Pixl-latr looks more of a faff though and looks like it would take a lot longer to scan an entire roll, it looks like you have to re-configure the front each time you want to scan a new frame, but it is more than half the price... Has anyone tried either of these? £40 and £90 is a bit too much to take a punt on
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From a purely engineering point of view (and full disclosure, I designed the original Pixl-latr with Hamish before he moved to the moulded design), I’m not entirely sure why the Essential Film Holder is £90? It appears to be a few layers of laser cut acrylic with some wing nuts holding them together. I’ve also been pretty disappointed at the marketing style used for the EFH, as they appear to focus more on putting other products down than selling their own benefits.

With regards to the Pixl-latr, you don’t need to reconfigure the front between frames, just the first time depending on the film format you’re using. After that, you simply pull the film through to move to the next frame.

I’ve also just designed a frame to mount a Pixl-Latr directly to a Raleno led light panel (around £35 from Amazon) and allow them both to sit flat on a table so you can mount your digital camera directly above. This should be available soon [emoji1303]
 
stevelmx5 said:
From a purely engineering point of view (and full disclosure, I designed the original Pixl-latr with Hamish before he moved to the moulded design), I’m not entirely sure why the Essential Film Holder is £90? It appears to be a few layers of laser cut acrylic with some wing nuts holding them together. I’ve also been pretty disappointed at the marketing style used for the EFH, as they appear to focus more on putting other products down than selling their own benefits.

With regards to the Pixl-latr, you don’t need to reconfigure the front between frames, just the first time depending on the film format you’re using. After that, you simply pull the film through to move to the next frame.

I’ve also just designed a frame to mount a Pixl-Latr directly to a Raleno led light panel (around £35 from Amazon) and allow them both to sit flat on a table so you can mount your digital camera directly above. This should be available soon [emoji1303]
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Funnily enough I watched a video with Hamish talking about how it was designed, didnt realise it was you!
It does seem expensive for what it is, one review on Youtube said he had put a lot of effort into getting the best defusion plastic he could...didnt sound very likely to me.

Ah ok. What I meant when I said reconfigure is it didnt seem like sliding the film was that easy, reconfigure probably wasnt the right choice of words.

So it might be a silly question but I take it youd recommend the Pixl-latr over the Essential? I did wonder if the film being that close to the defuser would mean any marks or dust on it would show in the scans
 
Ben johns said:
Funnily enough I watched a video with Hamish talking about how it was designed, didnt realise it was you!
It does seem expensive for what it is, one review on Youtube said he had put a lot of effort into getting the best defusion plastic he could...didnt sound very likely to me.

Ah ok. What I meant when I said reconfigure is it didnt seem like sliding the film was that easy, reconfigure probably wasnt the right choice of words.

So it might be a silly question but I take it youd recommend the Pixl-latr over the Essential? I did wonder if the film being that close to the defuser would mean any marks or dust on it would show in the scans
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From what I can gather from the EFH website, they both use the same acrylic for the diffuser panel, it’s just that the guy who makes the EFH tries to make it sound way more “professional” than it actually is.

The Pixl-Latr has a small gap on each side, between the diffuser panel and the clip on outer frame, where the film slides through so it won’t scratch.

I’d definitely recommend Pixl-Latr over the EFH, mainly due to the fact it’s less than half the price with much more flexibility. There are a range of accessory frames being designed/printed by the community too, for things like mounted slides, sprocket holes and APS, so it’s much more flexible.
 
stevelmx5 said:
From a purely engineering point of view (and full disclosure, I designed the original Pixl-latr with Hamish before he moved to the moulded design), I’m not entirely sure why the Essential Film Holder is £90? It appears to be a few layers of laser cut acrylic with some wing nuts holding them together. I’ve also been pretty disappointed at the marketing style used for the EFH, as they appear to focus more on putting other products down than selling their own benefits.

With regards to the Pixl-latr, you don’t need to reconfigure the front between frames, just the first time depending on the film format you’re using. After that, you simply pull the film through to move to the next frame.

I’ve also just designed a frame to mount a Pixl-Latr directly to a Raleno led light panel (around £35 from Amazon) and allow them both to sit flat on a table so you can mount your digital camera directly above. This should be available soon [emoji1303]
Click to expand...

This would (presumably) work with a 5x4 negative? Seems a decent budget solution to a V850 scanner if so, assuming my current OMD EM1Mk1 and non-macro lens is up to the task. Still more investigation required :/
 
flook999 said:
This would (presumably) work with a 5x4 negative? Seems a decent budget solution to a V850 scanner if so, assuming my current OMD EM1Mk1 and non-macro lens is up to the task. Still more investigation required :/
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Yes, it's designed around a 5x4 sized negative (take out all of the gates), and everything smaller. You may need to add an extension tube to your standard lens to get better results without excessive cropping.

How pixl-latr Works - pixl-latr

How to use pixl-latr to digitise your film negatives, photo negatives and 35mm slides. All in one film carrier and film holder with backlight.
pixl-latr.com pixl-latr.com
 
stevelmx5 said:
From what I can gather from the EFH website, they both use the same acrylic for the diffuser panel, it’s just that the guy who makes the EFH tries to make it sound way more “professional” than it actually is.

The Pixl-Latr has a small gap on each side, between the diffuser panel and the clip on outer frame, where the film slides through so it won’t scratch.

I’d definitely recommend Pixl-Latr over the EFH, mainly due to the fact it’s less than half the price with much more flexibility. There are a range of accessory frames being designed/printed by the community too, for things like mounted slides, sprocket holes and APS, so it’s much more flexible.
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Well I think you've sold it to me :) Just hope theres no lead time when I order it! I've just ordered a copystand so hopefully should make a big difference
 
Ben johns said:
Well I think you've sold it to me :) Just hope theres no lead time when I order it! I've just ordered a copystand so hopefully should make a big difference
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As far as I know, they're pretty much packed/shipped straight away but I'll check with Hamish.
 
Ok, I've just spoken to Hamish. He said there's a sale starting today (£5 off) and the absolute latest you should receive it would be Tuesday, although he'd hope it would be sooner (depends on postal delays)
 
stevelmx5 said:
Ok, I've just spoken to Hamish. He said there's a sale starting today (£5 off) and the absolute latest you should receive it would be Tuesday, although he'd hope it would be sooner (depends on postal delays)
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Thank you, didnt expect you to do that :). Timings right then :)
 
Ben johns said:
This one https://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/firstcall-copystand-320/p6802 for the price its probably not amazing but I have a a6000 so the max weight it can hold shouldnt be a problem. I believe its the one Matt Day uses, or he has in one of his videos and it seems to work fine for him
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Pretty good price at £34, max load 800 gm. Even the next one up with a max load of 1.5 kg at £65 seems pretty good value, compared with the Kaiser stands. I'd really like to know how it performs!
 
ChrisR said:
Pretty good price at £34, max load 800 gm. Even the next one up with a max load of 1.5 kg at £65 seems pretty good value, compared with the Kaiser stands. I'd really like to know how it performs!
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Just got it today at 9:30. very quick delivery. You can tell it costs £34, not that it feels bad it just doesnt feel heafty. Its a bit shorter than I expected which isnt a big problem in the long term as I want to get another macro lens at some point but my current maco is a pretty long 70-210 with a fixed focus point for macro. Luckily I happen to have a pretty long panaramic adaptor, the kind that positions the lens at the nodal point, which adds about 20cm to the height so should be ok for now.
 
Untitled by benjohns4 johns, on Flickr
Just a quick look. Its just the Sony kit lens but gives an idea of size. Its clearly not the tallest one in the world, you can see how much extra height has been added with the nodal slider, but it should do the job hopefully. If its not tall enough now then it will certainly be good enoigh when I get a new macro lens, its just the fixed focus of my current one that causes the problems
 
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