The Nikon Coolscan series of film scanners largely live up to their reputation, but thanks to that reputation there comes crazy costs with the film holders. When I first started shooting medium format film, I started with a 6×4.5 camera and the way those strips cut and laid on the FH-869S holder worked just fine.
When I added 6×7 shots to the process, things sort of fell apart. Since only two frames fit on a cut holder, the edge of the second frame would curl inward, and make a nice crispy scan impossible. The obvious answer online is the Nikon FH-869G holder, but with some online prices being more than what I paid for the scanner, I have not been able to convince myself to buy one… Add in that with that holder there are now 4 additional surfaces to keep dust free, and it’s just not perfect.
3D printing to the rescue! I had several iterations before one worked, but I now have a holder that holds all of the negative around 2 6×7 images out of a Mamiya camera (Mamiya has 6.5mm spacing between frames, other manufacturers may vary)
The holder comes in two pieces, one as the carrier that goes into the scanner, and the other is a mask that ‘snaps’ on top with magnets and keeps everything flat.
After the magnets are added, I also recommend adding some flocking paper/tape on top of the two surfaces that touch the film to keep things nice and soft. I bought these two things from Amazon and used some cyanoacrylate glue to hold the magnets.
Magnets: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NZSLWZG
Flocking Tape: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087PDRZKT
Printable files were added to Thingiverse here. Now that I have a working outline and mechanism for the holder, I intend to experiment with some other ideas as well.
A word of warning… This is not a small print, and has several critical dimensions/flatnesses. Please measure and compare to other holders once a print is done. Anything you put in your scanner is at your own risk.
Update June of 2024: Per some requests here and on thingiverse I made a version that should cover 6×6 (I do not have any 6×6 film, so I did not test it.)
New thingiverse files for 6×6 here
And lastly, Thingiverse file for 645 holder here
Extra note on the 6×6 and the 645 , this is the full length version that matches the existing film holder lengths. If your printer isn’t big enough to print the whole thing, it can be cut off at the back of the teeth without any downsides.
Hi – is there any way you could post your raw CAD files for this? I’d like to make some holders that aren’t fot 6×7, and I would really appreciate having all the key dimensions figured out already. Thanks!
I used fusion 360, so what kind of files would you like? A STP?
A STP file would be incredible. I’m trying to make a spin of this that would be a 6×6 holder with ANR glass so working from a parametric file would be awesome!
I’ll see if I can get fusion 360 to export a STP with parametric data.
I added a 6×6 holder on thingiverse and uploaded the STP file over it. Hopefully this is able to help you out some.
I added a 6×6 holder on thingiverse and uploaded the STP file over it. Hopefully this is able to help you out some.