Original negatives- underrated? Show yours

[Runscott]

Lots of great ideas - thanks.

[mikejanesphotography]

Have scanned thousands of negatives, glass in the hundreds. Have a restoration guy as well that is cheap ($1-15), overseas.

[Exhibitman]

here's a simple hack for a flatbed scanner: get a piece of 1/4" white Plexiglas, put it over the item on the scanner bed with the lid up, and shine several lights on it. You may have to run it a few times to figure out any hot spots of too intense light but you should be able to get a nice scan of the neg. Then use a 'negative' function in photo software and you will have a positive image.

[Jobu]

I bought an Epson 4990. It is an older model but does a great job, though it took some tweaks to make the software work. You can find them on eBay for $125-$175 shipped, though there isn't always one listed so it might take some time.

[ruth-gehrig]

I do not own a scanner but 1927 Yankees. Came from Henry Yee 10 years ago

[mikejanesphotography]

Originally Posted by ruth-gehrig

I do not own a scanner but 1927 Yankees. Came from Henry Yee 10 years ago

Nice pic!

[ruth-gehrig]

Had no idea that was possible Mike from a picture of a negative. Thank you!

[ruth-gehrig]

What's the significance of a glass negative compared to what I posted above of the 1927 Yankees?

[mikejanesphotography]

Originally Posted by ruth-gehrig

What's the significance of a glass negative compared to what I posted above of the 1927 Yankees?

What you posted looks like a copy negative from a glass plate, they used to do it all the time to archive them (bought an archive from the 20/30's and have several very similar type shots) - take a photo of a photo. Glass was just the format widely used until they switched over.

[steve B]

Almost for sure a copy negative.

The notches at the top right are a code identifying what sort of sheet film it is. (From what I see, "commercial ortho" )

While I'm not as familiar with sheet film as I am with movie film, the figures after Kodak look like a circle followed by a triangle. That should be a datecode for 1923, 1943 or 1963 As they recycled codes every 20 years.

[thecatspajamas]

I haven't found anything that definitively indicates whether Kodak sheet film followed the same edge code dating system for their sheet film as they did with 35mm (much more documentation for 35mm, perhaps due to an active movie film preservation community), but did find the article below regarding notch codes for nitrate vs acetate sheet film. From what I can see in the image posted, the "U" notch code identifies the film base as acetate (which correlates to what appears to be word "safety" after Kodak on the edge printing). After that, it looks to me like two triangular notches, which IF they match up to 35mm edge codes, would indicate possible years of 1941 or 1961 for the manufacture of the film itself.

After those mental gymnastics, if anyone knows of a definitive guide to dating sheet film, or can verify at least that Kodak followed the same protocol as with 35mm but with the addition of the notch for acetate vs nitrate, I would very much appreciate a point in the right direction. I've handled a lot of sheet film over the years, but unfortunately haven't kept good enough notes to easily research the answer myself.