burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Full disclosure: I'm posting this because I own, use, and LOVE this product. It's a free endorsement.

Andrew Clifforth in the UK is selling his Essential Film Holder 33% off, and the CATCH (if there is one) is that you have to spend a few minutes screwing it together yourself.

The EFH is a holder for 35mm and 120 film formats that keeps your film absolutely FLAT above a fantastic diffuser that provides even illumination for your light source. A small LED panel made for video is all you need (Viltrox L-116t works well). Add your own camera and macro lens (or enlarger lens on a bellows rail system) on a copy stand or inverted tripod column.

I featured the EFH in my 2021 white paper on camera scanning film to digital files. That PDF is attached below.

I've disassembled and reassembled my EFH several times. It's dirt simple and idiot proof. An average kid can do it. I bought mine about two years ago. I got it with the 35mm slide holder in addition to the 35mm strip film and 120 strip film masks. My complete rig is shown in the paper below.

Copying film with a digital camera is faster than scanning it to the same high resolution, and since you use raw capture and post-processing software, total control over color balance, brightness, and tonal scales is easily achieved.

It costs £60 as the self assembly version and £90 as a fully assembled EFH. If you've thought of ordering this little gem, do it TODAY, Black Friday. Free world-wide shipping is included. Order the EFH-09-SA. It contains:

- 100% Identical components as a standard EFH-09
- Same quality Perspex diffuser
- Same 6x9 120 mask layers
- Same 35mm mask layers
- Same film masks and guide layers as latest spec EFH models
- Same fixing components (plus a few spare bits too!)
- Same product support from the inventor
- Same options for additional masks to be shipped free with your order
- Same options for extra masks at some future time (at additional shipping cost)
- It now includes non-slip feet.
- Includes easy-to-follow assembly instructions
- Includes free world-wide shipping

See clifforth.co.uk for the standard EFH-09 product, selling at £90

Camera Scanning.pdf opens in your favorite PDF reader.
Attached file:
(Download)

jgudpns Loc: Pensacola, FL

OK, I bit, and ordered this morning before my coffee has woken up my brain completely..

Have used my Epson scanner to do a bunch of negatives and slides, but I have a ton to do yet. I do not own a macro lens though.

Will a macro tube extension work OK?

(Awesome job on your White Paper, btw!)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Tempting, but then I'd have to find things to copy.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Thanks! Yes, macro extension tube sets can work, along with bellows-and-rail setups with enlarger lenses, reversing rings for normal camera lenses, and of course, macro lenses. I caution folks against using diopter "filter" attachments, which "sort of" work, but do a lousy job copying flat objects. But if you have any other sort of macro setup, as long as it gets close to 1:1 (or closer), it's fine.

Here are a few sample images from my rig (higher resolution than the white paper — view the download.):

Charleston Graveyard 1976 (35mm Tri-X)

(Download)

A Delicate Arrangement (35mm Tri-X)

(Download)

Flower with Bug 1978 (35mm Fujicolor 200)

(Download)

Flower 1978 (Kodachrome 64 Slide)

(Download)

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Beautifully done 🔆🥇💎🥇🔆

JohnnyDW Loc: Richmond and Sunshine Valley British Columbia

Thanks for the information.
I've been macro/D850 shooting Kodachrome cardboard slides backlit with an Artograph LightPad and homemade mask with good results but they are quite often warped. Does the EFH really flatten them?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It will flatten strips of 35mm film and strips of 120/220 film. Freshly processed, uncut, unmounted film works best in the film holders. Strips of 4-6 35mm negatives or transparencies, or three 6x6cm or four 6x4.5cm negatives or transparencies work extremely well in the EFH.

Slides in good condition work fine in the slide holder. As an old AV producer, I know slide film can be a problem when the mount is loose or damaged or warped. The slide holder does not flatten warped paper slides. Depending on mount brand, they may fit snugly enough to stay flat in the holder. I've had pretty good luck with Kodachrome slides, but I kept them in album pages. Pakon Mounts used by local labs for E6 films (Ektachrome, Fujichrome) work well if intact. Wess and Gepe glass mounts work okay, but I don't scan slides in glass. They're usually dirty or moldy.

In my white paper, I show how I use enlarger negative carriers to handle single frames of film, or strips too short to go through the EFH. It slows me down to the speed of making prints by hand in a darkroom, but it works.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I should add that this method isn't for everyone. I have a lot of knowledge, experience, and patience working with many different films to make pro quality prints in a lab setting, and slides for large, corporate shows back in the 1980s. So I can get very good results from most slides and negatives. I have very high standards for my images. Not everyone cares to strive for that, which is fine.

Working with Negative Lab Pro is great, but you need a few things:

> A high CRI light source (95 to 99 CRI)
> An understanding of the color wheel of additive/subtractive color pairings (Yellow to blue, magenta to green, cyan to red)
> A realization that the process is not completely automatic, and that you should make initial tonal and color adjustments in the plug-in, before converting to TIFF or JPEG (which you don't have to do — I keep a complete raw workflow in Lightroom Classic).

A final note: Nate is about to release version three of Negative Lab Pro! He just released version 2.4.2. If you ordered since October 1, 2022, the upgrade to version 3.0 is free; otherwise, it's about $50. V.3 should be out in January.

I used to work with $50,000 lab scanners and Kodak's industrial strength DP2 software. Negative Lab Pro does a REALLY good job of mimicking the results from those systems, and similar ones from Fujifilm, Noritsu, and Pakor. It's worth the price of admission.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice results.