Notched Film Holders, Examples

[Alan Klein]

But these will not tell you which side of which holder a specific piece of film came from.

I was just giving an option that some people might find useful besides notches. Notches wouldn't help me because I send my film out to a lab to develop. I'm more interested in keeping track of which film is in which holder. When I take the film out of the holders in a tent, I work with the same type of film relative to the development process. SO I'll do all the E6 processing film first. Then I do the C41 films. I suppose you could add a second label with a discrete number if that would help some people.

[Alan Klein]

I was just giving an option that some people might find useful besides notches. Notches wouldn't help me because I send my film out to a lab to develop. I'm more interested in keeping track of which film is in which holder. When I take the film out of the holders in a tent, I work with the same type of film relative to the development process. SO I'll do all the E6 processing film first. Then I do the C41 films. I suppose you could add a second label with a discrete number if that would help some people.

Actually, notches would help me even with a lab. Sometimes I take more than one exposure of the same picture, changing exposure, let's say. So the nothces would help me determine which is which even when a lab developed it. I wonder if I'm complicating this too much?

[Bob Salomon]

I was just giving an option that some people might find useful besides notches. Notches wouldn't help me because I send my film out to a lab to develop. I'm more interested in keeping track of which film is in which holder. When I take the film out of the holders in a tent, I work with the same type of film relative to the development process. SO I'll do all the E6 processing film first. Then I do the C41 films. I suppose you could add a second label with a discrete number if that would help some people.

Then you could do what LInhof use to offer with their double sided sheet film holders and their double sided glass plate/sheet film holders.
You could buy them with a friskit inside the holders. Each one was numbered from 1 to 12. Each side of the holders was also numbered the same. When you made an exposure the number was printed on the edge of the film where the notches were. So the numbers were not in the image area.
The number was printed on a piece of high contrast film, the number cutout and glued into the holder.

[Dugan]

I have seen where people have drilled sequences of tiny holes through the film retainers along the long sides of the holders...(the bars the film slides under).

[Ulophot]

I have seen where people have drilled sequences of tiny holes through the film retainers along the long sides of the holders...(the bars the film slides under).

Ansel Adams wrote of this approach, mentioning the employment of a skilled machinist and counseling that any burrs on the underside be meticulously removed. I know sort of how a drill press works (from junior high school in the 1960s...), so I'll stick with the lip notches.

Bob, interesting that Linhof designed this system. Sounds exactly like Tim Klein's, mentioned in my post above.

[Bob Salomon]

Ansel Adams wrote of this approach, mentioning the employment of a skilled machinist and counseling that any burrs on the underside be meticulously removed. I know sort of how a drill press works (from junior high school in the 1960s...), so I'll stick with the lip notches.

Bob, interesting that Linhof designed this system. Sounds exactly like Tim Klein's, mentioned in my post above.

They didn’t design it. Friskits have been in use since sometime in the 19th century in photography. Most commonly seen on prints.

[esearing]

Put a label on the holder like 1A and 1B, then note which holder# you used for the scene. I use a 3x5 card for each image that has all my exposure info on front including holder number. The back is then used for developing info. Even if you bracket a scene, and send to a lab, it should be apparent which one came from which holder in most cases.

[Bob Salomon]

Put a label on the holder like 1A and 1B, then note which holder# you used for the scene. I use a 3x5 card for each image that has all my exposure info on front including holder number. The back is then used for developing info. Even if you bracket a scene, and send to a lab, it should be apparent which one came from which holder in most cases.

But not which side of the holder each sheet came from. That’s important if, for example, one side develops a light leak.

[Alan Klein]

But not which side of the holder each sheet came from. That’s important if, for example, one side develops a light leak.

Fortunately, I have all new holders. Of course, that doesn't help when I shot two exposures of the same thing at different settings and then forgot to remove the dark slide for one of them.

[abruzzi]

as I see it, the primary benefit of the notches is that the location of the film is marked on the negative itself, so you don't have to be especially careful to track the sheet once it comes out of the film holder, unless you are unloading and reloading on the same trip. If you develop in batches, that simplfies matching up the negative to your notes after the fact. A few months ago, I did a week-long camping trip with my camera and took about 45 shots. My film holders aren't notched, so I lost track of what is what. having things notched would have made lining things up, after the fact, much easier.