lf-photo.org.uk

Hi - I have decided that I ought to start taking notes for each LF shot I take. Obviously I will have to reconcile the notes for each shot with the sheet of film when it is processed.

I have carefully numbered all my film holders (on the outside) both sides odd and even. However I am stuck when it comes to identification when I put the sheets of film in the tank for processing as they get mixed up. I found details of this system http://www.jbhphoto.com/articles/filmno/filmholder1.htm but I think it is a bit over complicated - I was wondering if I could use an 8-bit binary system numbering from 0 to 255 although that could possibly be a bit complicated to read as well.

I thought I would post here and see if anyone else has invented a better system I could use. The Grafmatic film holder has a small number at the edge of the magazine that is changed each time the dark slide is pulled and I wonder if this has been adapted for dd film holders as. I don't know if the Fuji film holder (I cannot remember its name at present) I have about 15 holders and would like to continue the numbering scheme to include my 10x8 holders.

Thanks in advance for any help

nn

Dunno if this helps you but I know some people cut unique notches into the edge of the film holders so that you get the notch onto the edge of the exposed area when you take a shot - you then use the position/size/combination of the notch to tally with with whichever holder the sheet of film was in. You could work in binary with this system easily.

Logic would seem to dictate that there must be a way of doing this as presumably commercial labs must do it? I'm thinking in terms of the lab linking your sheet with a number/unique reference and presumably this must be a sticker that can survive processing chemicals? While loose sheet film would be difficult for a lab to reference, I'm assuming that they will be able to link a Quickload with the sheet inside it so that you could reliably cross reference the result with the shooting details?

I'm pretty much guessing here (you noticed?) as I only process a couple of sheets of mono at a time in an Orbital, but if I was shooting E6 I'd really have to know which shot was which.

I also use a binary system. To read the number i have a strip tagged 1,2,4,8,16,32 (6 bit) at the appropriate intervals. I do not have more than 30 holders so 6 bit (64) is enough to distinguish all of them.