Crop/Negative cards?

[Cropline]

Where can I find some? (in 35mm)
Surely somebody still makes them. Google was no help on this one!

 

[BrianShaw]

I don't know anyone who still uses them. Unfortunately all I have is for 120 film. My former favorite lab offered me all they had when they closed but I didn't take enough!

 

[MartinP]

I have no idea what they are, or why anyone would want one, so I am intrigued to hear what crop/negative cards are, or were ?!

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

If you can't find them, you can get one of these.
Dead Link Removed

 

[MattKing]

I think the OP is referring to what I used to refer to as machine printing masks.
My pro lab used to supply them for free. They were on thin card stock and were a fixed size on the outside. Each had a standardized window cut into them and, depending on the film format, that window was available in several standardized sizes. One would tape the negative to the card with the window determining the crop. The machine printer would then print from the result.
The standardized masks allowed the machine printers to work in a standardized way. Thus the charge for the prints was the low, machine print charge.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I think the OP is referring to what I used to refer to as machine printing masks.

Oh those. My print lab 20 years ago had them for free too. Those cards you taped your negs to? That's going way back.

 

[BrianShaw]

Crop card = aperture card = machine printing mask.

Yup, the card one taped their neg upon... once upon a time.

 

[Cropline]

.....

Yup, the card one taped their neg upon... once upon a time.

The things one wishes they had held onto. Mr. King and Mr. Shaw are correct.

 

[BrianShaw]

This is no help to you at all, but someone was trying to improve crop card design as recently as the early 1990s but abandon the idea.

https://www.google.com/patents/US5271792

When my favorite "wedding lab" converted to digital only (and quickly perished) they offered me their stock of crop cards. I only took a few handful for 120 film and none for 35mm. That was foolish of me, I thought, but now nobody knows what they are so I assume nobody uses them.

Do you mind if I ask... what will you do with them when you find some (and I'm sure you will eventually)?

 

[BrianShaw]

... and for folks who never knew this kind of equipment...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/232194917933

https://www.ebay.com/itm/252708939074

(For illustrative purposes only. Not an endorsement of this item. Not affiliated with the seller. Other fine print goes here.)

 

[darkroommike]

Not sure why you want them if your lab no longer uses them, unless you are trying to store individual 35mm negatives taped to the cards. I also seem to recall IBM Hollerith cards with apertures for 35mm (just don't put them through a card punch after you mount the film chip). http://www.microfilm.com/supplies/miscellaneous/aperture-cards/ And microfilm jackets would be another choice, made to hold 3 strips and have a spot on top for info. In any case make sure your tape and cardstock are archival. Here's a place that apparently still makes the microfilm aperture cards. http://www.minpack.com/microfilm-cards/

 

[Cropline]

.......

Do you mind if I ask... what will you do with them when you find some.....

Entering thread morph stage.
I was pondering things from a business standpoint-will be going back into business later.
The idea considered was to offer clients negatives and scans of their low volume photo session as a package. Basically a work for hire session. The more archival nature of the negatives would have been a marketing tool, along w/the scans for present use as they saw fit. Offering the session as the end product without having to make prints or do retouching or storage of negatives on my end.(Color corrected only)
Other methods were considered-archival print files- after responses pretty much showed cards would be hard, if not impossible, to obtain
.
On a more serious note, I have some labs I would like to try that make machine and custom darkroom prints. Having the cards would allow me the crop I want from the start. I would then write up an article on the print quality and my experiences with the given lab and share those experiences here. I started with film and still believe in its quality. There are still labs that have these services. People just need to know about them. Another way to promote film and sharing which labs are worth going to.

Don't know that I'll offer future customers the above film session option. If I make that decision, however, the archival pages would be the option.

 

[New Hope Photo]

I am also looking for some Crop Cards / Aperture Cards. I have some A, F and G cards, but would love to get one each of B, C, D, E, BSQ, CSQ, DSQ & ESQ. I can cut additional ones on my computerized mat cutter, but it would help to have one of each to use as a template.

 

[wiltw]

I am also looking for some Crop Cards / Aperture Cards. I have some A, F and G cards, but would love to get one each of B, C, D, E, BSQ, CSQ, DSQ & ESQ. I can cut additional ones on my computerized mat cutter, but it would help to have one of each to use as a template.

I can send you a USED card C, D, and E. I can also scan into PDF the A, B, and F cards so you have a template. And the actual C/D/E card can help you to scale up/down the PDF illustration so you know precise dimensions.

I have one unused set: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, BB, CC, DD, EE

 

[New Hope Photo]

That would be great! Thank you. Are the BB, CC, DD & EE square? If so would you be able to scan those also? Ted Nichols, New Hope Photo, 358 W Bridge Street, New Hope, PA 18938.
My end game here is to create custom sized crop cards for 126, 127, and 828 negatives. This would be easier if I have a reference crop card for each size so I know exactly what area is being scanned with each size crop card and can choose the size closest to the negative size I want to scan. I also want to make a crop card that will allow me to scan a 2x2 mounted slide in 126 or 127 Super Slide format without cropping, as well as one for 120 mounted slides and stereo mounted slides. I am using a Noritsu HS-1800 scanner with the MFC carrier with the Crop Card carrier. This will be much more efficient than using a flatbed scanner to scan these odd films. I remember back in the day at the PMA shows when there were dozens of venders selling crop cards and samples were plentiful. I'd be happy to share the end results with you if you are using a crop cards for scanning. Thanks again.

 

[wiltw]

New Hope Photo,
I got to thinking, it might be better to scan to JPG files, which would permit easier scaling vs. JPG resize command in postprocessing programs. And if you send email address via PM, you can have electronic files, not paper.
the BB thru EE are indeed square negs.

 

[John51]

There are labs that still do optical printing?

 

[BrianShaw]

There are labs that still do optical printing?

I haven’t known if one in the past decade or so.

 

[New Hope Photo]

New Hope Photo,
I got to thinking, it might be better to scan to JPG files, which would permit easier scaling vs. JPG resize command in postprocessing programs. And if you send email address via PM, you can have electronic files, not paper.
the BB thru EE are indeed square negs.

Ted@NewHopePhoto.com

 

[New Hope Photo]

I am using a Crop Card carrier on a Noritsu HS-1800 with the MFC carrier. I am trying to create custom sized crop cards for 126, 127 & 828 negatives as well as 2x2 mounted 126 and 127 Super Slides and 120 mounted transparencies, This will allow me to scan these odd films more efficiently than on a flatbed scanner.

 

[pentaxuser]

I think the OP is referring to what I used to refer to as machine printing masks.
My pro lab used to supply them for free. They were on thin card stock and were a fixed size on the outside. Each had a standardized window cut into them and, depending on the film format, that window was available in several standardized sizes. One would tape the negative to the card with the window determining the crop. The machine printer would then print from the result.
The standardized masks allowed the machine printers to work in a standardized way. Thus the charge for the prints was the low, machine print charge.

I have never heard of such cards so just curiosity on my part. I may have misunderstood the uses to which these cards can be put in darkroom printing but what do you do if the crop desired isn't covered by one of the sizes offered?. I'd have thought it simpler to crop with the enlarger by either making the projection bigger than the paper so the unwanted part of the negative isn't printed. The alternative which is available with my Durst neg carrier is to use the sliders on the neg. carrier for this purpose. I have never used other than a Durst but isn't this method available for other enlarger neg carriers?

As I said I may have misunderstood how these cards work and have overlooked their real purpose when it comes to cropping

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[BrianShaw]

They offered standardized crops, a variety of them but only so many, that were used mostly used by wedding photographers to support “machine printing”.

It was an easy way to visualize the cropping and get repeatability.

When a crop card wasn’t right a custom print was required.

 

[New Hope Photo]

Here is a photo of several crop cards (3 on top row) along with my first generation of ones I am making to scan older odd sized films that are not accommodated by scanners today. I have some tweaking and refining to do, but these are a big time saver compared to scanning these odd negatives on a flatbed scanner.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Brian. It would seem that I had largely got it right. It was just that apart from the example you give which makes sense I couldn't get my head round why except the kind of large scale machine printing you describe any "home darkroom enthusiast might want set sizes. When I look at my negatives for cropping I can think of very few occasions where a standard crop would have any value. Sometimes when I re-print a negative I even make a slightly different crop

pentaxuser

 

[cmacd123]

One camera store I visited occasionally in the 60s had a "crop Mat" provided by their photofinisher on the counter. you could send in a negative for printing and specify the desired Crop number.