pixl-latr film holder is an effective solution for holding your film and diffusing a backlight for digitisation with a digital camera.
Available now!
Unsure where to start? Have a read of our product guide
“The pixl-latr is an excellent tool for quick and easy digitising, directly from my smartphone, with surprisingly good results!”
– Alecia | Lensfayre
“I just want something easy, low-cost, and that will work with lots of different formats of film without any fuss. And that’s exactly what I get!”
– Holly | Analogue Holly
“I love the way I can digitise my negatives so quickly with my pixl-latr. I can’t see myself needing any other solution.”
– Helen | hhpinhole
The problem we solve for the price we solve it
pixl-latr is a film holder for digitisation of photographic film with a digital camera – often known as ‘DSLR scanning’, ‘mirrorless camera scanning’ or ‘smartphone scanning’.
pixl-latr was created to solve the problem of how to effectively keep multiple film formats flat whilst diffusing a backlight. By effectively solving both of these problems, pixl-latr makes digitising film with a digital camera or smartphone a lot easier, as well as ensuring higher quality results.
With digital cameras now being such high quality devices, camera scanning has become the fastest growing solution for creating high quality digital conversions of your photographic negative and positive film.
Many photographers already own a lot of the equipment needed to get started with digital camera scanning. All that is needed is a digital camera or smartphone, a stand to hold your camera in place, such as a copy stand or tripod and a light source. With something as simple as the screen of a tablet being adequate to backlight the film, the final piece of the puzzle is a pixl-latr film holder.
Pixl-latr film format compatibility
Here at pixl-latr we’re proud to offer the most cost-effective film holder on the market.
As well as being the lowest priced film holder, pixl-latr is also the most flexible film holder. Out of the box, pixl-latr can accommodate 35mm & 120 roll film as well as 5×4 sheet film without the need for any other add-on accessories.
And if you’re looking to digitise other non-standard formats, pixl-latr is still the stand-out film holder solution.
We offer 3D printed drop-in gates available for a wide and growing range of film formats starting at £5.99. And if you have a 3D printer, you can even print them yourself!
Design your own gates
Do you have access to a 3D printer? Then why not make your own pixl-latr compatible parts via our ‘Open Gate Platform’?
Alongside the 3D printed drop-in gates we have already made available for a wide and growing range of film formats, we have also made available the design file for the front part of our frame so you can design your own parts to fit into it.
Furthermore, if you design a part that we like the look of, then as long as you’re happy to list it on Thingiverse we might also sell your gates through our shop.
In short, if you’re looking to digitise a format that we don’t already support, then maybe you could be the person to help bring support for that film format to our platform!
The story so far
When Hamish Gill (our founder) first came up with the idea for pixl-latr, he had bought himself a 5×4 camera and was struggling to find a way to easily digitise the resulting negatives without spending a fortune on a high quality flatbed scanner. There were a few workable DIY methods but ultimately these felt time consuming and didn’t provide optimal results.
Frustrated by there not being a cost effective solution on the market, Hamish was spurred on to create pixl-latr. After some thinking and prototyping he had created something that worked for 5×4 film, but had also discovered that by adding friction fitted ‘gates’ into the aperture of the frame, pixl-latr could also be used for the purpose of masking multiple smaller formats.
pixl-latr film holder was launched on Kickstarter with great success. It was 100% funded in 3 hours and reached 780% of it’s goal. Based on the huge response from the campaign Hamish opted to give pixl-latr a further product development cycle and create the version of pixl-latr you can buy today.
pixl-latr has now sold thousands of units worldwide, and we continue to innovate bringing new accessories and complementary products to our product range. Our ethos to democratize and simplify camera scanning guides us to keep our products low cost whilst not sacrificing ease of use and quality.
Introducing Mask-A4
When photographing your film a light source needs to be used to effectively illuminate the image area, this however can cause problems. Extraneous light can cause areas of the resulting image to be lower in contrast or even change colour.
To solve this issue, many of our users were finding it beneficial to cut a hole in a sheet of card to surround pixl-latr film holder and block any of this extraneous light. It worked ok, but we thought there had to be a better way.
Mask-A4 was initially designed to be an accessory to mask the light around the edge of pixl-latr for better quality results. But, through researching materials, we discovered we could create a mask that would also improve the workflow of those using pixl-latr
As well as masking light, Mask A4 keeps pixl-latr steady on top of light sources. It also gives a non-abrasive yet textured surface for film to be transported across during digitisation which helps keep roll film in place and makes it less fiddly to handle.
DSLR Scanning Guide
There is a massive and growing wealth of content online about how to scan film with a DSLR or mirrorless camera. But a great deal of it assumes a lot of prior knowledge and/or expensive equipment.
To remedy that, Sroyon has been tasked with squeezing every bit of potential from pixl-latr film holder using a range of equipment and software. This series is the perfect entry into the world of digital camera scanning. It is a must read after purchasing pixl-latr to help you get to grips with how to get the most out of your new film holder.
Whether it’s alignment and focusing, finding the right settings ready for digitisation or the post production or negative conversion you’re struggling with, Sroyon has you covered with his article series. This should save you at least some of the trials and tribulations of having to figure out the problems you can encounter when getting started.
pixl-latr X Valoi collaboration
We are huge believers in the power of the film photography community, and so we were really pleased when the opportunity arose to work with one of our competitors, VALOI.
pixl-latr offers cost effective multi-format scanning out of the box, and also comes with a built in diffuser, and offers compatibility with our range of accessories. VALOI’s film holders, with their ingenious method of feeding the film through a curved channel, offer their users a faster way to digitise larger amounts of roll film with less fuss whilst still holding the film flat.
By combining the two platforms with the new pixl-latr x VALOI adapter, users will find themselves with increased versatility and speed as well as a built in diffuser and compatibility with accessories for greater quality digitisation and still at a highly cost effective price point.
Latest News
Josh Murfitt’s Professional Digitisation Standards at Home
Every pixl-latr based digitisation rig seems to be different - I love this, it's exactly how I hoped pixl-latr would be used by people. It's a small tool within a wider collection of tools that people bring together to make a rig that works for them. The wide range of...
Featured Photographer: Gabriele Lopez
Another response to my call out for folks using pixl-latr to share their experiences came from Gabriele Lopez. Gabriele is a professional photographer who shoots film within his work and personal photography and uses pixl-latr to digitise. I will let him tell his...
Dave’s 35mm Ultra-Panoramic pixl-latr Rig
One of the fringe features that pixl-latr offers is the ability to digitise up to 24mm x 120mm frames of 35mm/135 format film. Now, admittedly, most 35mm format cameras are 24mm x 36mm. Some - including the new Pentax 17 - are as small as 24mm x 17mm, and some are...
How pixl-latr works
What is pixl-latr and how does it work?
The pixl-latr Story
What is pixl-latr and how did it come to life?
“Scanned a roll in just a few minutes, its a game changer I’m telling you! It takes me longer to cut and sleeve the negatives.”
– Neil Piper
“I am very happy with how it has worked so far and it is definitely easier and more effective to use than any of the methods I’ve tried previously“
– Alex Relton