Darkroom help (need to ID types of film)

[steveb599]

I have a stack of LF Holders holding unexposed film. At least three different kind; b/w, slide and color, but probably from different manufacturers as well.
I hired someone to clean my room and they mixed them all together so I cant tell for sure which is which.
Is the best way to ID them simply feeling the rebate edge in a dark room? or will it be hard to tell them apart? What about some special type of flashlight?


Steve

 

[Paul Howell]

Each film has a different notch pattern, if recall which manufactors you use then you can look up the pattern. r

 

[photog_ed]

The notches may difficult to identify by feel. You could pull out each sheet (in the darkroom of course) and trace the notches with a pencil onto a piece of notepaper to make it easier. Or beg, borrow, or steal a pair of night vision goggles.

 

[bdial]

If you know what the possibilities are, for example Kodak Portra or Ektachrome vs Fuji, you can look up the notch codes for those and make a pass through your holders to ID those. Then repeat for the other choices. Generally, the notch codes are fairly distinct. For example, Ilford tends to use rounded notches, Kodak's are "V"s or rectangles, Fuji has wide cuts with angled sides.

If you have no preliminary id of what you have, then tracing the codes, as suggested, might be the easiest. I'd make up some numbered tags on some masking tape or post-it's so that you can keep track of which holder resulted in what tracing. Hopefully both sides of each holder have the same film.

 

[steveb599]

thanks thats a good idea about tracing