how to notch film holder

[jcowles3sinar]

I've read oh here about notching your film plates so you know which sheet film came from which holder. One user recommended a "V" for no.s 1-4 and a square notch for 5 and a round one for 10. My question is do people do this and how do and where do you do the notch...? TYIA

[Vaughn]

I don't as a habit, but I have holders that came to me this way. A few of my 8x10 holders are marked with a small round hole drilled in the rail that holds the film in place along one of the 10" sides -- shows up as an exposed circle in the film rebate. I thought it someone's unique approach. Markings such as these can be difficult to use if there is a lot of pure black shadows in the same place as the notch.

I do not use a large quantity of film, so far keeping track of each shot in my record books based on film holder number has served me well enough. I did get a bit of a surprise recently, though. I developed an 11x14 sheet of film (exposed in Zion NP in April'19) direct from the film holder. Instead of the vertical cove wall of light filled rock my records and memory promised me, I got two 5 1/2 x 14s, looking towards the sun over a sea of rock...petrified sand dunes...that I had taken right before. Nice surprise, but I was worried about the vertical image I had in my records until I found an unrecorded 11x14 holder with exposed film in it. Any system used will only be as good as the info (correct, consistent, useful) one puts into it (GIGO).

[Doremus Scudder]

I notch all my holders, similarly to what you have pictured. I use a set of small files to do the work. I like a Roman numeral system: a small half-round notch is "I," a "V"-shaped notch is "V," a square notch is "X," an inverse "L"-shaped notch is "L," and a large half-round notch is "C." These correspond to the Roman numerals I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50 and C = 100.

Example: a square notch followed by a large half-circle followed by a small half circle followed by a "V"-shaped notch = 94 (XCIV). I have holders notched 1 - 100.

Best,

Doremus

[Tin Can]

Just got a set of 2 tiny format 1/4 plate size film wood holders.

1 to 4 V notches with painted numbers on holder to correspond.

Very nice, very old holders.

Made my day.

[Pere Casals]

If one has some beaten holders then notching is highly intresting !

[LabRat]

I have a bunch from an early aerospace photographer that were coded, and as mentioned, there were holes on the metal film hold downs for each 10, and under the hinged flap there were square and V notches filed into the wood or plastic, probably to mark 10's or 100's on the top notched edge of the sheets (they shot 100's of sheets daily)...

One interesting/funny thing I found was that each photog signed his name and date of holder purchase (mostly mid 50's) on the inside with property of the photog, but one holder had property of with the names of all 8 of the photogs in the dept, so it was everybody's holder!!! ;-)

Steve K

[malexand]

I have a set of 10 holders with a base-5 notch system on both sides of the long side For example, #7 = v vv . I used a tiny milling bit for a dremel style tool to cut them (they're more half- round than vee-shaped). These are great for testing or other tracking. But I don't always want that intruding on the rebate so I also have another set of holders without notches.

[Jim Jones]

Binary coding with narrow and wide notches in the flap is the most practical system where large numbers of film holders are numbered. Just six notches can code up to 32 holders on both sides.

[Rainymac]

I have 8 holders which I have notched with binary code using a Dremel tool. Each number was printed onto a small self adhesive label. Only the "1" for each number was drilled with a half round mark on the inside edge of the holder flap. Each label was placed in the same position on each film holder so that the code on the negative can be read accurately. Works beautifully. Maintains my record keeping accurately. . . and my sanity!

[jcowles3sinar]

Thanks all!