I am looking for a negative carrier which will give me slightly better "throughput" when I want to print most or all of the frames on a roll. With the glassless, hinged type that I have now, I usually have to take the carrier out of the enlarger to move to the next frame. This tends to be rather difficult with only the light from my safelight.

Would something like a negatrans help me here. Are there any generic brand alternatives for my enlarger.

Thanks, Peter Schauss

-- Peter Schauss (schauss@worldnet.att.net), February 12, 2002

Answers

Peter, the negatrans carriers are exactly what you describe you need. There are two, one for 35mm and one for 120 roll film. Note, the roll film carrier has masks for either 6x6 or 6x7 [no 6x9]. Although the rollfilm carrier does have one glass plate, and its best to raise the head slightly while transporting the film, but you don't have to remove it to reposition the film. No such movement is required for 35mm. Once it is mounted, the head remains down while you transport the film through.

I would recommend you look for a discontinued accessory that Beseler once sold for the negatrans, the Extension Control Shaft. It connects to the transport wheel and hangs down so you can more closely view the image being projected through the aperture [especially handy when making large prints].

The only other alternative I know of were the [now hard-to-find] Carlwen holders. Those consisted of a base mounted in the enlarger and various negative holders which, once the film was inserted, were manually moved through the base. Although precisely made, they are not as easy to use as the negatrans, and have been out of production for years.

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), February 13, 2002.

I generally just open the negative stage, separate the leaves of the negative carrier a bit, and move the next neg into position, all without removing the carrier from the enlarger. My negs are in strips of four or six; so I don't have film hanging down the sides of the enlarger. If you want to print uncut rolls, I suppose a Negatrans will accommodate the loose film better.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols1@mindspring.com), February 16, 2002.