Actually I have seen the FH-3 on an internet store somewhere and they
had in stock too. I was just about to press the button to order and
changed my mind. I just could'nt justify 30GBP and 6GBP postage. Total
rip-off. 6GBP postage within the UK for an item that weighs a few
grams.
Anyway I have been trying to cut one of the negatives and enclosing it
a slide mount to scan it as a negative slide. Its a messy process. The
first few that I have done look fairly good considering that the
photos were taken on an instamatic camera in the 70s. I think I might
just stick with this and save myself some money.
Results look good so far.
If you have a lot of 126 strips then see my comment on making your own
"FH-3 substitute" from card. You can easily make a 4 or 6 strip holder
from card based on the slide mount dimensions which positions the 28mm
image central in the scanner.
Cut two strips of card 44mm wide and about 200mm long. In the centre of
these strips cut out a 26mm wide strip as long as the negative strip
that you intend to use. Place a 2mm wide strip of double sided sticky
tape along one edge of one of these strips and then attach a 5-6mm wide
length of thick paper or thin card onto this. This will serve to secure
the negative strip in place, simply putting the edge with the
perforations and exposure number under the paper edge. Check that a
film strip placed under this clip arrangement has its frames central in
the aperture and adjust if necessary. Now tape two strips of card
together down one edge to form a hinge along the other side from the
film strip securing edge. This will form the inner part of the strip
holder.
The outer section can be created either from the two halves of a slide
mount with appropriate card padding between them, or from two 50mm wide
card strips with a 28x28mm central aperture cut at one side, 10-11mm
from the end. Now stick a couple of 3mm wide card strips down the outer
edge of each of these card strips (4 in all) and then tape them together
down one side to form a hinge, just like the inner strip holder.
The inner strip holder can now be sandwiched between the outer section
and be free enough to slide between it. The 28mm negative image should
be central in the outer section aperture - adjust the width of the
padding strips to achieve this if necessary.
The end result should enable you to place a strip of negatives in the
inner strip holder and then slide them back and forth within the outer
section to get the appropriate frame in the aperture. The entire
assembly should be no more than 4mm thick, which is the thickness of the
FH-3 holder.
Once you have the appropriate frame in the outer aperture, simply push
the closed assembly into the individual slide adapter in the scanner and
start the preview scan. Adjust the crop to the area of the image and
proceed as if scanning a normal 35mm image. When you want to scan the
next frame in the strip, just remove the FH-3 substitute from the scan
adapter and slide the inner section within the outer until the required
frame appears in the aperture, the return the FH-3 to the scan adapter
and repeat.
Its a lot easier than cutting individual frames (which won't be accepted
by printing houses) if you have more than a dozen or so images to scan.
I actually found my home made card 126 format FH-3 substitute easier to
use than the proper 35mm FH-3, because the two halves of the inner
section couldn't slide out of alignment with each other, as the original
regularly does.
