Giving pixl-latr a first try

The pixl-latr film holder is a product offered by Hamish Gill and it might be you know him from 35mmc.com. Hamish designed this tool in his aim to find an easy, fast and inexpensive way to hold different film formats for scanning analog film with a digital camera. You can read more about it on their website pixl-latr.com.

So far, I get my negatives scanned by the film processor MeinFilmLab, which I’m using for several years now. They provide professional and reliable work.

For rare cases, I have a Braun Film Scanner (35mm and Medium Format), which delivers very good results, but it takes time to scan a full roll of film. If everything is prepared, it takes approx. 80 seconds to get a single 35mm frame scanned.

Looking for another option to quickly scan a roll, I ordered pixl-latr. It took me some time to get started and when I planned to digitize some of my film negative rolls from the old days, I began setting up my rig.

From my early photo days, I used a Kaiser Repro-Stand as the base. On it, I placed a new light table from Huion. My Sony A7R2, equipped with an old M42 Asahi Macro-Takumar 4/50mm, I used as the ‘scanning device’. Finally, I placed the the pixl-latr film negative holder on the light table. After some tries – a steep learning curve, I used a cardboard to shield the light from the light table. What’s missing here are my cotton gloves, important when working with film, to avoid fingerprints on the negatives.

I connected the camera to my PC, so I shot tethered, and all images were directly stored on my NAS for further processing.

I had planned to digitize two rolls of Kodak Royal Gold 100, shot in the mid 80s. Since then, they slept in the drawer. After some initial hiccups, frame by frame went quicker, and finally it was a pleasure doing one frame after the other.

I did the further processing in digiKam.

First Step
I cropped the image to the real frame. Learning curve – next time I can move the camera closer, to use the maximum of the real frame and avoid wasting pixels.

Second Step
I then converted the negative into a positive, where digiKam offers a special module.

Third Step
In the next step, I adjusted colors via the Color-AutoCorrection module. In case it’s not fitting, you always can adjust colors manually. I think, it finally looks not that bad.

What to say
Nice results with nearly 40 years old film negatives.
The rig works as intended.

• The Kaiser Repro-Stand is rock solid and the adjustment works as precise as in its early days.
• The new Huion Light Table does its job pretty well. It is USB powered and gives a uniform illumination.
• The Pixl-Latr film holder is easy to set up and use. In case you have short negative film stripes (less than the usual five or six frames), where you have no end to hold or adjust the positioning, it gets quite tricky to correctly position the frame.
• The Sony A7R2 is a fine tool.
• The Asahi Macro-Takumar 4/50mm (built somewhere between 1964 and 1966) gives decent results.

Verdict
Pixl-latr film holder is easy to use and does what it’s intended for.
I’ll keep it!

In case you’d like to comment, it’s appreciated … and maybe, you want to visit my website or my flickr page too.

So long … and thanks for all the fish.