How do you cut film?

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

I'd like to ask you, how to you cut film into smaller stripes?
So far I have used scissors, but it's very difficult to make a precision cut, especially with small format film.
Is there a more effective way?

berraneck · Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 11:17 pm Post subject:

I cut film with scissors and never had problem.. it isn´t as difficult as it seems, just few practice and you won´t cut a shot. It isn´t neccesary to be precise in microns:)

themoleman342 · Expire: 2013-01-24

I've tried a couple different methods but have always come back to scissors. I found that a pair of very sharp fabric scissors works best as opposed to a simple pair of household ones. I bought a pair specifically to cut my strips.

~Marc

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

search ebaY Photo section for "film cutter"

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

The old exakta had a film cutter built in Cool

patrickh

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

I use a small piece of glass as a base (A4 size) and cut on top of it with a sharp cutter and a metal rule. It works very well for me.

This was the way I learned to cut leather past year but it does apply successfully to other materials, as the film.

Regards.

Jes.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

How about a rotary guillotine?

patrickh

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Sevo · Expire: 2012-12-03

What film do you want to cut to which dimensions? For cutting developed film to enlarger, scanner and archive friendly strip length, any quality scissors will do, and will indeed do better than cutters and cutting mats or even the slide cutters of old, as scissors don't need any contact with the image area, while the mentioned methods press the picture onto some cutting mat or rail or even drag it across the same.

You'll need dedicated machinery if you want to cut unexposed film to some other format, as you'll have to cut in complete darkness and achieve tolerances in the order of 0.1mm over the full length of the film (while cutting to strips is done in broad daylight with a tolerance of 3mm over 35mm length).

For cutting sheet film down to another size (e.g. 4x5" to 9x12cm), I've had good results with a professional grade guillotine cutter where I screwed alignment rails for either dimension onto the base plate (i.e. you'll need one cutter per target size). For cutting 135mm down to 110 or Minox there are special cutters - some companies still make them (often distributed though Japanese Minox and Pocket fan sites), and there are recipes for DIY ones (usually involving parts from daylight loaders) on the net.

Xpres · Expire: 2014-10-28

I've always used scissors, I keep a small sharp pair for cutting negs.

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 767 Location: Italy

I cut my 135 or 120 rolls with a Dahle branded guillotine paper cutter. I align the film border with the guide positioned on the side of the cutter plane and carefully aim at the middle of the space between two frames. The result are perfectly clean 90 degrees cuts.
Marty.

alex · Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 561 Location: UK

I use small sharp straight fabric scissors. For 35mm I look at how the frame edges line up with the nearest sprocket holes, make the line-up as close as I can to the centre, and snip cleanly. As I've been doing it for a very long time now, I've finally got the hang of it. Rollfilm is much easier. I don't like pressing a film against any surface such as a cutting mat, so I rely on a steady hand, fingers perpendicular on the edges, and cut in mid-air. I've never yet had a mis-cut. I usually scan rollfilm (on an Epson 4990) before cutting it, as I find it easier. I line up one edge of the frame with a little datum mark on the film holder so that I know the first frame 'marquee' will always be in the right place for all subsequent frames.

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

hexi · Expire: 2011-11-18

Small russian made scisors. i mean they could have been from any country on the world but hey Cool

i never cut a frame, there is a 2mm space between each which is enough for me.

GrahamNR17 · Expire: 2012-09-06

Tiny very sharp scissors for me.

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 767 Location: Italy