General
Why are the delivery estimates so long?
Nearly everything I offer (with the exception of films) are made to order and have varying shipping times. This is the only way I can offer so many items and variations (currently over 550!) and at the current prices. In the worst case you should expect your order to arrive based on the shipping estimates. I’m usually faster than this but the long estimate accounts for cases where I have a lot of orders at once, one of my 3D printers requires maintenance, a print doesn’t pass QC, assembly, etc.
How do you handle VAT for purchases within the EU?
We currently do not handle VAT on our direct store. This means you will have to pay VAT when the package arrives in your country. Sorry about that! If you prefer to pre-pay VAT, most of our products are also available on our Etsy store!
Do you offer design files (STLs, STEPs, etc.) of your products?
We do indeed offer design files for some of our products. Those products will often have a link to the model in their description and in many cases you can download those for free for personal use.
Many of our product design files are not publicly available. There are a few reasons for this:
Among them is we cannot control the quality of the end product. This is particularly important for our products which touch film, like our carriers. Many of these products need to be opaque. You might be surprised to know that not all black filaments are created equal for instance. The filament we use is regularly tested for its opacity. We also do semi-regular scratch tests along the edges of the gates. We also are constantly adjusting and improving our printers and processes for the best quality. None of this we could control by offering the files and our passion is to help grow analog film and we would not want folks to have a bad experience. In many ways, what you are paying for when you buy many of our products, is the care it took to make the product more than the design of the product itself.
Another big reasons is, in full disclosure, offering physical products is how we stay in business. It is a trade-off in the time it takes to design, test, and provide many of these products and also helps fund future product development. While we continually evaluate the feasibility of offering design files, for many of our products, it just does not make sense from a customer service or operational perspective at present. That may change in the future and you can always check back to see if this changes for our products in the future.
Darkroom Carriers
Will your negative carriers scratch my film?
Under normal usage they will not. Keep the carrier clean and be sure to align the film before placing the top on and avoid moving the film with the top placed onto the table when possible. Do not sand the gate of the carriers as this has been shown to cause significant scratching. The sanding process leaves jagged edges. If you need a custom gate size, let us know and we will likely be able to provide that for you.
What are the differences between the frame sizes?
- Standard: The gate (opening) is the standard size, either from the OEM or based on the measurements of the exposed area, to fully mask the negative
- Bordered: The gate is a little larger than standard to expose part of the rebate of the negative. This is mostly for printing a black border around your image. Note this can impact flaring. Typically for 35mm the gate is +2mm and for 120 it is +3mm.
- Full-Frame (Full-Rebate): The gate goes all the way to the film edge exposing the entire rebate (including frame numbers and, for 35mm, sprockets). Due to potential flatness and flaring issues, this is best used when you want to specifically print the entire rebate. Typically for 35mm the gate is 36mm high and +2mm wide; and and for 120 it is +6mm.
DSLR Scanning Tables
Will your DSLR scanning tables scratch my film?
Similar to above, under normal usage they will not. Keep the table clean and be sure to align the film before placing the top on and avoid moving the film with the top placed onto the table.
BitChrome 100
What is BitChrome 100?
BitChrome 100 is Kodak 5294 (E100D, the movie version of Ektachrome 100) respooled into 100 foot rolls for loading into 100 ft bulk loaders (such as the Lloyd, Watson, Bobinquick, etc.). The intent is for you to be able to roll your own slide film into your own 35mm canisters for still film applications.