To anyone looking to buy a copy stand - for double digits you can buy a flat piece of plywood, a threaded flange & pipe, a clamp & tripod head. For myself, it all came to £50, and it functions genuinely as well as 'real' copy stands, that are 10x the price. Don't let these manufacturers trick you into thinking dropping £200 on a perpendicular pipe is worthwile. Alexander Matragos has a great video showing exactly how to do it "Building a Copy Stand to Scan Film for $100"
I have one of those 35mm JJC film strip holders and it was easily modified to enable pulling uncut film through without damage to the film. I cut out the middle frame side bars also to enable scanning with the sprocket holes visible, used ultra fine sand paper then a bone paper creasing tool to round off all the internal edges, and lastly glued a piece of film alongside the clamps at each end, above the film channel, to reduce any remaining friction. Works well for me, I didnt like it at all before that for use with the JJC version of the Valoi Easy35.
Look forward to the Ago processor and how it works etc Great video Thanks P.s I have been using the LAB BOX for developing my black and white film and love it for it’s simplicity Cheers from Andrew in Ottawa Canada 🇨🇦
Thanks Hashem! We're glad you're enjoying everything. The Stabilizing Masks will vary slightly from unit to unit based on manufacturing tolerances but we designed them with that in mind to give a slight buffer. If thery're too tight, you run the risk of damaging a plate or acrylic on the light source. We thought it was better to have a little movement rather than struggle to snap it on and off.
Nice quick overview of some interesting ideas. Myself, I use my 10 year old Manfrotto tripod. Didn’t cost me anything or take any time to build. With my 50MP Canon, a very nice tokina macro lens I got used, and CineStill Cs-lite light source with the Valoi360 120 film holder, I can easily, consistently, and quickly scan several 120 rolls. Takes me just a few minutes to set up or take down. I just wait until I have several rolls to scan and then have at it. But it’s cool to see other approaches and ideas. Thanks again for the run through on these!
Thanks for posting. Always nice to see some alternatives to the more popular options. Personally, for a copy stand, I bought a 40mm diameter table leg from IKEA for £2.50 which I mounted to a plywood offcut 12" x 15" and to which I clamp a 30cm arca swiss plate longitudinally using a pair of photographer's pipe clamps. I can then use a back to back arca swiss clamp to affix my camera at a suitable working height. To avoid extraneous light, I also employ a 68mm drainpipe union to bridge the gap between my macro lens hood and EFH film holder which sits on a Raleno LED light panel.
A lot of tripods have where you can reverse the mast for macro photography. I always recommend that someone buy a decent tripod - then it is a dual purpose tool (and still cheaper than the Negative Labs copy stand.....)
I just received an AGO in the mail today, Vintage Visual sent one over for me to check out. Really excited to try it out and curious to see your video and whether you've tried C41 with it!
@@mattdayphoto nice! I've done a couple of rounds of C41 (one was just some tests strips), and so far so good! Definitely check out @Shaka1277 he is a wizard when it comes to this stuff and did a video on it recently.
Awesome video! You’re always making very informing and detailed content! I would love to see some videos about experimenting with slide film like the pushed e100 video with a filter but also about the future of slide film. Keep creatiny!
Love to see more on the AGO. I haven't developed film for ages due to loss of a dedicated darkroom. I'd like to know what other equipment would be needed to develop B&W film and if it could be used in a lighted room such as a bathroom, and if that could be done without a lot of set up and take down time. Thanks .
I purchased the Negative Supply Basic 120 Carrier Mk2 recently and this may be the only video covering it (I'm not sure why Negative Supply didn't put out a video at launch). I had an issue straight out of the box, it was relatively easy fix but wanted to put this here in case anyone else was having the same issue. When I received it, the film would enter the carrier fine but absolutely would not exit. Luckily I had a long piece of 120 laying around and had to really force it through the end and pulled it in and out a few times to "clear out" the exit. Now it works just fine. I'm not sure if this is a Quality Control issue or due to the fact that it's 3D printed.
Hey, sounds like something was jamming the path and you cleared it! It does make me wonder if QC was done to test the unit before shipping... unless it happened in transit (less likely).
Very helpful. I am not crazy about tech videos but I am moving from digital back to film (I moved to digital around 2005) and I am looking at options for a scanning setup. It's quite expensive and there's quite a few options but good to see what works and what's new.
Love your scanning review, i have negatives sizes, 110 to 4x5, i would have loved to have the tank rotater for pattsrson tanks. I must have over 10k photos and slides too. That copy stand looks nice and sturdy. Wish i kept my 35mm durst m601 enlarger. I had an adapter for any camera. Thanks for sharing the info on your equipment
Why not use a slide / neg copier like those sold up until a few years ago ? .. I do, and the results are great. For anyone with a low budget, they're available cheaply on Ebay etc. This solution is the precursor to the Valoi, JJC, Black box, Negative supply etc.
I like most of my negative supply stuff. I do have that exact 120 basic carrier you showed and the optional full frame border attachment. It appears to be well designed but really struggles if your 120 film has any curl at all. I would not recommend that based on my experience. I contacted their customer service and was not very impressed either. I am currently looking for a better setup for 120 scanning if you have any suggestions with an emphasis on film flatness
I see! sorry to hear that. I would like to see a solution to the usage of 3D printed "film paths" (for lack of a better description). That is one area where a smooth material like that of the EFH would benefit the travel of film through the holder. This could also reduce the chance of curled film "catching". It might also be worth trying the newest Valoi holder; although I did have a lot of trouble with curled film catching on the exit point of that. However, mine was a beta version, and it happened mostly when scanning emulsion side up. So maybe the latest version is worth a try for you. Curled film will generally cause difficulties in my experience!
So many of these products make me laugh at loud at the price. Negative Supply wants $277 for their complete MK2 120 set - and it is all 3D printed. That is ludicrous to me - as I own several 3D printers and know what the cost is on producing stuff like that. Also, these rotary developers that cost (the AGO, and the not in this video Jobo one that was just released ) $500 is just robbery plain and simple. I have been shooting film for two decades - and developing it for nearly as long and what these companies are gouging new/inexperienced/hobbyist photographers for is just disrespectful. I made my "copy stand" out of extruded aluminum rail from amazon, 3d printer axis roller wheels, and a rechargeable light source. I used a 3d printer lead screw and bushing - so my stand is height adjustable by turning a knob - I don't have to loosen/tighten fasteners for all the different formats I use. Total cost with the materials, fasteners, light source and camera mount? - somewhere in the $100 range and it is way more sturdy / easy to use than $170 dollar crap Negative Supply sells. Took me just a couple hours to design, order, and assemble. I am doing the same for when I build a processor. There are tons of great negative holders on Thingiverse and other 3d printer file repositories that you can download for *free* and print yourself (3d printers these days can be had for less than the price of what some companies charge for their negative holders. The 120 negative holder I use I downloaded off thingiverse, made a few changes to suit my "system" and resin printed. Cost me literally pennies in materials. I don't even know why people buy Negative Supply 35mm stuff - the Lomography Digitaliza+ is less than 100 bucks with a light source and works awesome. These companies charging absolutely ridiculous prices for their products cause "film" are nothing but harpies on the enthusiast trying to cash in on those who don't know better by peddling products that they can markup to obscene prices. Find a friend with a 3d printer - or buy one and learn a new skill - and make these things yourself and spend all the money you saved on buying film and making images.
Hey there! Glad we could provide you with a little laughter for your day. This is a common argument that we have chatted about previously. As with many businesses, cost of materials isn't necessarily the entire picture (which, by the way, our 3D printer filament isn't standard PLA. It's a fairly expensive carbon fiber reinforced filament that's pretty difficult to work with but is super strong). We employ a staff of 15-20 people in house with standard wages, paid time off, health insurance, etc which costs money. Then there's R&D costs for new projects, shipping costs, building rent, maintanence and upgrades, maintenance on printers and lasers, buying new printers and lasers, taxes, marketing and a plethora of other things that goes into our pricing and those go up every year. None of us here are swimming in money, trust me. I (Brennan) have been shooting film for 15+ years now and have used nearly all of the popular film scanning options from the V500, V600, V750, Noritsu, various Frontier models, various Plustek various Imacon models and camera scanning is by far the most efficient way to scan film at home. Getting started in our ecosystem costs about as much as dev/scan 25-30 rolls of film at a lab. Many users don't have the time or energy to dedicate into a DIY system, have the knowledge or the equipment to build their own. We're here to provide a turnkey solution for those people. If you were to buy products from most other competitors who print their stuff in China for pennies (our tools are designed, built and comprised of USA based components) and compare it to what our systems offer, the costs aren't much different but our tools are an entire ecosystem with expandability in the future, a warranty and can be found in retailers worldwide.
@@NegativeSupply I appreciate the time you took to respond, however I worked in manufacturing for two different companies that were low-volume production for niche markets (construction / automotive - using CNC / Injection molding / & additive ) so the argument of overhead / ease / ecosystem / competition doesn't really change my opinion on the pricing for some of your stuff. I am also no newbie to 3d printing - been doing it for a decade and half and currently run 2 large-ish resin printers and two large-ish FDM printers for personal work as well as a few things I sell reasonable quantities of (the typical order for the parts I make is around 1000-1500 items.) Carbon filament isn't "pretty difficult" to use these days and other than increased wear with a few components I never found it to be an exorbitant exercise over other manufacturing grade filaments. When I try to reconcile the products vs the price of Negative Supply gear I come to two conclusions - either your processes are horribly inefficient leading to overhead that is unnecessarily high or just high price due to to trying to cash in on presenting as a "premium" product in a niche hobby. The fact you mention "getting started in our ecosystem costs about as much as dev/scan 25-30 rolls at a lab" is just hilarious to me given what labs charge these days. No one should have to spend 750-1000 dollars to "get started" in scanning their own film when the same results with the same reliability can be had for a fraction of the price. This is why I am glad the local photo clubs I am involved with have people like me to steer people into realizing what the actual costs of things *should* be and there are several options when choosing gear. I would rather DIY my solutions or buy your competitors stuff (all my Lomography scanning gear has been a joy to use, and I have two friends with the Valoi Easy35 and they love them and are a fraction of the NS stuff ....) and spend the hundreds of dollars I saved on buying more film. I am sure plenty of people buy your gear given how much of it I seen pushed on RU-vid - and some of it is pretty neat and I sincerely hope as a company you stay afloat and have success - but I can never recommend it due to the pricing.
Sounds like you have the knowledge and resources to start your own brand and price it super low. Let me know if you do, and I'd be happy to spread the word! As for making your own stuff and saving money, I'm all for it. Sometimes though, I prefer to pay someone to do something, or eat out rather than cook from scratch myself 😁
@@pushingfilm Obviously "super low" wasn't what I was implying in regards to NS's pricing. Just fair pricing would be nice. Any way you shake it - $277 (on sale, normally $317 according to their own website....) dollars for a 3D printed 120 negative carrier is hilarious - and don't get me started on their other stuff. If their products were markedly better, more innovative, or made of premium materials over their competitors I would at least kinda-sorta get the prices. Obviously there are some people that will pay their prices - so good for them I guess.
@@theangrymarmot8336 You're intentionally quoting the price of the highest bundle with the full border cassette, rather than the actual $129 price (which pairs better with the way you describe it here). Again, I'm not denying that it's expensive... but man, the extreme way you describe it as "hilarious" and such just makes you come across as overly dogmatic, and lacking an adequate sense of balance in your viewpoints. I have no respect for that.
The AGO is really interesting, if it works. Because I don't know if temp and dev time are really that tightly coupled that any temperature works with a clever enough algorithm. So a comparison with everything the same except one time 10 degrees and one time 40 degrees chemical temperatures would be interesting to see.
Yeah I wouldn't use any old temperature. I think it's more for the inevitable drift from an ideal starting point (especially when room temp varies greatly from this target). Looking forward to continue testing and sharing my thoughts!
@@RYANPARKPHOTOGRAPHY hey Ryan, I'd be happy to give you the Tristand if you want to try it out and see if it works for you. Coming to Melbourne any time soon?
