Carriers for 70mm film

I am trying desperately to get a "real" darkroom set up again, and am close to getting my enlargers out of storage.

I have 3 enlargers, and hopefully all will be able to make it, but the answer to this question may dictate what does and what doesn't.

To handle medium format, I have both a Beseler 23 and a Beseler 45(I'm leaving the Focomat V35 out of this). Obviously I primarily bought the 45 for 4x5 use, but have managed to get a variety of carriers over the years for both enlargers. The 45 could be the only enlarger I use, but I also have some 23 carriers that I never managed to duplicate for the 45, and several 45 carriers that I don't have for the 23(not directly related, but for the rare occasion where I print 110, the massive 45 is the only one I have a carrier for).

More recently, I've been shooting 70mm film and have been having a lot of fun with it. Obviously, though, there's a big issue in that 70mm won't fit any of my medium format carriers.

Would it be reasonable to assume that Beseler made 70mm carriers? I don't recall seeing one, but then I've never REALLY looked.

The higest priority for me would be a 6x6 carrier as now I'm only shooting it in my Hasselblad, but 645 would be nice as I'm hoping to soon get a 70mm back for my Pentax 645N. Down the road, I'm hoping to get either a Graflex or Mamiya back to use on my Century Graphic, but that's not an immediate priority. I suppose if push came to shove, though, I can always use a 6x9 carrier and mask it for the smaller frames.

Does anyone know if such a beast is available for either of my Beseler enlargers?

For printing uncommon-sized negatives,
(i.e. Widelux, Diana, etc.), I have made custom neg carriers from 4-ply black mat board.
Cheap & functional.

Get a glass carrier, preferably an anti-newton glass carrier, and you can use it with any format, from the max it will cover all the way down to Minox if you want. Easy. A glass carrier will also give you better print quality (assuming your enlarger is aligned) since it keeps the negative flat. You won't get any negative pop or sag that can make your corners unsharp.

Now someone will come along and complain about "too much dust" with glass carriers, but ignore them. They have their head buried in the sand. It takes like two seconds to solve that issue so it isn't an issue except in their minds....

Patrick Robert James said:

Get a glass carrier, preferably an anti-newton glass carrier, and you can use it with any format, from the max it will cover all the way down to Minox if you want. Easy. A glass carrier will also give you better print quality (assuming your enlarger is aligned) since it keeps the negative flat. You won't get any negative pop or sag that can make your corners unsharp.

Now someone will come along and complain about "too much dust" with glass carriers, but ignore them. They have their head buried in the sand. It takes like two seconds to solve that issue so it isn't an issue except in their minds....

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I prefer glassless carriers when I have flat negatives and a choice - because of those dust and cleaning issues.
But a glass carrier can be a really useful adjunct to a good set of glassless ones.
Which image size are you getting from the 70mm film?

If you have a 5x5" or 4x5" glass carrier, use that with a mask. These four are all 5x5" glass, with different masks for different formats; all the way down to Minox.

I do the same thing with my 10x10" carrier and can use that for everythig down to 35mm.

Cat no. 8331 for square (Hasselblad) 70mm. I have one, I've used a couple times. Definitely works. I have a boat load of expired 70mm, I need to shoot.

Thanks everyone and especially @mshchem for the 8331 number(which I also came across but it's nice to hear they actually exist).

Ideally that's what I'll find, but I'm not opposed to a a glass option. I use glass some when I'm scanning, and IIRC the Focomat is half glass(glass top, open bottom).

Since for now the most pressing need is actually for Hasselblad negatives(well none of it is pressing since the enlarger is still in storage...) I'll start hunting for an 8331. I suppose there's no reason why I couldn't mask Pentax 645 negatives in that carrier.

I use a 4x5 Beseler glass carrier for 6x9 and 70mm (since I don't have those specific carriers).

Alternatively, you can use one of the DIY slicers to slice 70mm down to 120 width (e.g. after development). The benefits:

1) You can have all the 120 negative carriers in the world to choose from
2) You can use negative sleeves for 120 film. There is no good solution for 70mm film.

Patrick Robert James said:

Get a glass carrier, preferably an anti-newton glass carrier, and you can use it with any format, from the max it will cover all the way down to Minox if you want. Easy. A glass carrier will also give you better print quality (assuming your enlarger is aligned) since it keeps the negative flat. You won't get any negative pop or sag that can make your corners unsharp.

Now someone will come along and complain about "too much dust" with glass carriers, but ignore them. They have their head buried in the sand. It takes like two seconds to solve that issue so it isn't an issue except in their minds....

Click to expand...

Has anyone tried using scanning fluid with glass carriers?

avandesande said:

Has anyone tried using scanning fluid with glass carriers?

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I would think if it worked for scanning it ought to work just as well for enlarging, but who knows until somebody says they have tried it.

I don't have a Beseler 45, instead I have a couple of Omega 4x5's. D-3 and D-5, and a D-2 I'll be putting a new bellows on someday. I also have a metric *tonne of carriers. Many were just hacked from aluminum plate, others may have been customized from stock carriers. I've also seen a recent trend towards 3D printed carriers, I've bought/made a few sets of inserts for my 6x6 Durst. At one time you could buy adapters to use Beseler carriers on Omega (that's how I use my Negatrans and Negaflat on my Omegas), no reason that the coin couldn't flip and you could adapt Omega carriers to your Beseler. Or just 3D print what you needs. I am currently limited by the bed size on my 3D printer, that will change with my next printer buy.

mshchem said:

Cat no. 8331 for square (Hasselblad) 70mm. I have one, I've used a couple times. Definitely works. I have a boat load of expired 70mm, I need to shoot.

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If you need a tester for those rolls, I volunteer to use my A70 backs to help you test them. Got to be sure!