ABOUT

Hello, and welcome to CUTASUNDA (pronounced /kʌtəˈsʌndə/, or "cut asunder").

My name is Michael Swift, and I'm a keen amateur photographer based in the North East of England.

I've always loved the appealing tones and organic grain structure in film photography, and in late 2021, after years of using digital gear, I started shooting 35mm and medium-format film. I developed my B&W films at home and used labs for colour, then digitised the negatives with my DSLR, macro lens, copy stand, light panel, and film holder.

My early attempts at digitising were quite promising, but the commercial film holder I used didn't play well with curved films. They were tricky to insert and feed, and it didn't hold them flat enough, which caused softness and lack of detail in the the borders and corners of my images. It also suffered from light fall-off and slid around on my Kaiser light panel, needing frequent re-alignment and causing permanent scratches to the panel's surface. Plus, I had to buy additional components for other film sizes and formats I was experimenting with.

I wanted something better.

So, I replaced it with another model that handled several film sizes as standard, flattened them well, didn't slide around during use, and didn't suffer from light fall-off. However, it was fiddly to set up, film insertion and alignment was frustratingly awkward and time-consuming, and the poorly finished injection-moulded frame scratched a few of my prized films.

Determined to find a solution, in the coming months I bought, borrowed, and even 3D-printed a variety of film holders... but each one lacked versatility, refinement, or build quality, impacting my workflow or results, and sometimes damaging my films.

With all the experience I'd gained, I felt certain I could design a much better film holder, and in the summer of 2022, I set out to do just that... but I didn't realise how challenging and time-consuming it would be, involving countless hours and many iterations of design, prototyping, testing, and refinement. Furthermore, my ideas kept evolving throughout, stretching the design way beyond my original objectives to create something much more capable and truly unique.

In August 2024, more than two years later, I finally completed development. The end product is an incredibly versatile, high quality film holder that's easy to use, does everything I want and more, complements my workflow, and delivers excellent results. I call it Myriad, and now use it exclusively for all my film digitising.

Knowing other film photographers must face similar frustrations, I decided to turn my innovation into a small business - and CUTASUNDA was born!

Myriad is probably the only film holder you'll ever need. Try it, and I think you'll agree.

For details, please visit the PRODUCTS page - and feel free to e-mail me via the CONTACT page if you have any questions or need advice!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your visit.

With warmest regards,

Mike