120 Film - Do You Cut it 4 strips of 3 images or 3 strips of 4 images?

Kino · Sep 19, 2018

What a pain.

In going back through my 120 negatives, I have noticed that some negative sleeve protectors house 4 strips of 3 images and others offer 3 strips of 4 images.

Accordingly, I cut the negatives therein to the required length, so now I have mixed length strips of negatives through the years.

Seems the 4 strips of 3 images is a more recent development; at least as far as as the chronology of my negatives indicate.

I find 3 x 4 better for photo chemical printing and the 4 x 3 better for scanning.

What length do you use or do you just cut them to whatever length is appropriate to the negative sleeves you find on sale?

A dilemma...

REAndy · Sep 19, 2018

I was cutting 3 strips of 4 negs each, because that was the size of my negative sleeves. Then I got a film scanner, and it only holds a strip of 3 negs long. UGG.
I have found negative protection sheets (fits in 3 ring binder) that holds 4 strips of 3 negs each and I am going that route now.

Sirius Glass · Sep 19, 2018

Three strips of four because that fits in the PrintFile plastic sheets.

winger · Sep 19, 2018

The Print File sheets I have take 4 strips, so I do 4 strips of 3 frames for square cameras and 4 strips of 4 images for the 645 ones.

removed account4 · Sep 19, 2018

3 across, x down ( depends on the camera and format )

MattKing · Sep 19, 2018

I do:
1) 4 horizontal strips of three for 6x6;
2) 3 vertical strips of 5 for 6x4.5;
3) 3 vertical strips of 3 plus another page for 1 for 6x7;
4) 4 horizontal strips of 2 for 6x9.

russell_w_b · Sep 19, 2018

Three strips of four because my Kenro A4 neg sheets have four rows, each of which accommodates four negs. And seeing as I can get thirteen shots out of my Mess-Baldix 6x6 folder (by advancing past 12 and winding on a teensy bit more to stop overlap), the bottom row accommodates this orphan image.

But before I got the A4 sheets I cut four rows of three, simply because I kept my negs in a plain brown envelope!

Poisson Du Jour · Sep 19, 2018

Strips of 3x3 with an orphan at the end get the job done for me. The spare space in the last row is where I slip a piece of card which contains information on location, exposure and upcoming printing notes.
My cutting tool is a pair of Fiskars shears with precision pointed blade bought 20+ years ago. Ultra-sharp Fiskars are not something you would want to have a slip-up with, and the shearing motion can lead to tearing of the film so it is slooooooowly all the way. Any scissors -- like nurse's scissors, can also be used (they might even be safer!).

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 19, 2018

The labs I used cut and ship them 3-3-2-2 in plastic page or separate plastic sheets holding four each. They're 6x7's though.

Kino · Sep 19, 2018

Thanks everyone. I hadn't even really given it a second thought until now...

WilmarcoImaging · Sep 19, 2018

5 strips of 2 images for 6x7.

Arklatexian · Sep 19, 2018

Kino said:
What a pain.

In going back through my 120 negatives, I have noticed that some negative sleeve protectors house 4 strips of 3 images and others offer 3 strips of 4 images.

Accordingly, I cut the negatives therein to the required length, so now I have mixed length strips of negatives through the years.

Seems the 4 strips of 3 images is a more recent development; at least as far as as the chronology of my negatives indicate.

I find 3 x 4 better for photo chemical printing and the 4 x 3 better for scanning.

What length do you use or do you just cut them to whatever length is appropriate to the negative sleeves you find on sale?

A dilemma...

Which fits better on an 8x10 sheet of paper? I think it is 3 x 4, so that is what I use in order to get a proof that I can get information from ala Fred Picker.........Regards!...I only chemically proof in a darkroom.

mshchem · Sep 20, 2018

MattKing said:
I do:
1) 4 horizontal strips of three for 6x6;
2) 3 vertical strips of 5 for 6x4.5;
3) 3 vertical strips of 3 plus another page for 1 for 6x7;
4) 4 horizontal strips of 2 for 6x9.

Ditto, 6x7 pages that hold 12 frames (3 frames, 4 rows ) is what I use for 6x7. These pages are too big, kind of a pain

Pentode · Sep 20, 2018

For square format I use 3 strips of 4 frames á la Printfile sleeves. For other formats I play whatever tetris is needed to get it all to fit.

GLS · Sep 22, 2018

4 x 3 images for 6x6

2 x 3 + 2 x 2 for 6x7

Slixtiesix · Sep 22, 2018

With 6x6 it is 4 strips of 3 images ever since for me. This is also how the lab cuts my slide film.

Agulliver · Sep 27, 2018

For 6x6, four strips of three frames each.

For 6x9 four strips of two frames each

120 Film - Do You Cut it 4 strips of 3 images or 3 strips of 4 images?

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