Why the Essential Film Holder is the best DSLR scanning gear
And outperforms expensive and fancy options in 2026 (and likely 2027, 28, 29...)
Disclaimer: tired of film holders that suck, I bought the EFH with my own money for this review. I value that a lot as an independent photographer and writer reviewing things for you at Camera Clara. That’s what your subscriptions are mainly for --- to finance independent reviews.
Developing and scanning film has been part of my weekly routine for over a year. In 2025 alone, I developed, scanned, and converted more than 150 rolls of film, reviewed my best photos of the year. I’ve written tutorials on Negative Lab Pro, live-streamed a full workflow converting negatives, explored the importance of film borders, compared different scanning workflows (including a PlusTek, Pixel shifting and medium format), approached a Lab approach for home film scanning, along some other negative scanning related topics.
I can tell I’ve built significant experience in this space, enough to do a substantially good review that you’re about to read…
Today I want to share a discovery that changed how I approach DSLR scanning (often called camera scanning or mirrorless scanning). It’s a hardware device that I initially dismissed because it looked too simple to work well.
As I usually tell my wife: I was wrong, she was right.
Why she was right? You might ask. Well, I had to sleep in the couch the day she got the B&H credit card statement and saw how much I paid on “a certain brand’s” Negative scanning rig 😂 .
What is the Essential Film Holder?
The Essential Film Holder (EFH) does exactly what the name suggests: it holds film in place. Combined with a backlight and a tripod or copy stand (sold separately), it lets you capture macro shots of your negatives with the film lying perfectly flat.
I’ve used high-end gear including Negative Supply’s metal and Valoi Easy 35 hardware. After testing the Essential Film Holder extensively, I believe it wins through its simplicity and clever design, BY FAR.
In this review I’ll explain its main strengths and why it outperforms solutions that cost many times more. Expect nice words, because I haven’t seen a simple design flaw with this product yet.
Let me start with what most matter to me: film borders.
To give you an idea on why I value capturing film borders, here is an article I wrote with my opinions on the value of scanning negatives while keeping it.
EFH is the only film holder that captures true full borders (in 2026)
Many film holders claim to capture full borders on 35mm film. Most of them lie to you, they don’t. I tested both the Valoi Easy 35 and the Negative Supply film carrier, and they failed to give me complete border scans.
When I say full borders, I mean the complete lettering on the film rebate. Look at how the Negative Supply full border masks and cassettes perform:
The holder cuts off part of the lettering because it needs that space to grip the film. A tiny portion of the emulsion gets sacrificed.
This matters because I developed a software to create virtual contact sheets, which look kinda fake with incomplete borders. Now look at what the Essential Film Holder full border masks greatly produce:
Can you read it? KODAK PORTRA 400. Frame 00A. That’s the kind of detail every other film holder miss.
And look at how much better a virtual contact sheet looks with proper full borders, it looks like a professionally scanned contact sheet from a Lab.
The EFH has a flat top surface makes alignment simple
Sandwiches are always good, and with the EFH, this is no different. Due to the fact it gently compresses the film between two surfaces, it is very easy to position a mirror on top that will reflect the correct camera angle. This makes measuring the angle with a mirror straightforward. What you see is what you get, with no extended mechanisms for the film insert. Placing a mirror (or bubble level) on top means you know the film will follow that exact angle for the negative.
This was always a concern on more complex film holders, because I never knew if the top of the holder was in fact parallel to the area where the film is actuall placed.
“Another one bites the dust”
I have to praise English engineering and simplicity here again (thanks, Andrew!).
The EFH stands as the Queen (pun very intended) of the film holders also because it’s so simple to clean with the pump. Again, due to its simplicity and an embedded difuser, it hardly collects dust. All thanks to well-thought and engineered sandwich of plastic pieces meticulously cut to fit every film format.
With other over-engineered film holders, you have multiple layers where dust can get in, masks that get underneath, Newton-whatever glass, it’s full of bullshit that complicate something that should be simple and effective.
Where to buy the Essential Film Holder?
The Essential Film Holder is sold online by Andrew Clifforth and ships from the UK. You can order through clifforth.co.uk. Shipping may take some time because Andrew has to assemble the units by himself, I recommend ordering the self-assembly unit if you want faster delivery. The assembly process is trivial and takes just a few minutes, there are tons of videos on the internet showing how to assemble, and it’s funnier than LEGO.
If you have any questions along the way, Andrew’s support is fantastic, he will follow-up with you via e-mail with the nicest patience ever.
Thank you, Andrew, for invent and simplifying.
