Nikon 9000 glass holder mask??

[Jamie123]

A while ago I got some glass plates (1x plain and 2x ANR) in order to turn the Coolscan's regular holder for 120 film into a glass holder. So far everything seems to be working ok.
However, I seem to get a lot of newton rings. I tried both combinations (plain & ANR, ANR & ANR) but haven't been able to really avoid the problem.

I read numerous times that there's a plastic mask that's provided with the genuine glass carrier. Anyone care to post a photo of it so I can see what it looks like? How thick is it?

 

[CorreCaminos]

The masks ( one for each conceivable format) are paper-thin and are coded (via holes on the end closest to the scanner) to help the scanner identify each one. Each mask has an opening, centered, just large enough to accommodate that negative size.

I think the main purpose of the masks is to prevent stray LED light from reaching the sensor and throwing auto white balance off. If you don't use the masks, or use the regular holders w/ o filling all the slots, the scan will most likely have a heavy cyan cast that will be difficult to fix post-processing.

The masks are a pain to use and hard to keep clean. The worst problem I have with them is that they hold grease from your fingers and transfer it to the glass, so I try to handle them only by the edges.

 

[Jamie123]

Thanks for the explanation. Are they flexible or solid? I reckon they're black, right?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

They're thin flexible plastic, paper thin as Miguel said. They raise the film slightly above the bottom glass, so the film only touches the top glass, which is anti-newton glass on the nikon carriers. Film usually bows upwards, if it bows downward, you'll still get newton rings even with the masks! The masks also prevent FLARE, which is a MAJOR problem with these scanners.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Yes, they're black

 

[Jamie123]

Thanks! I'll try to find an adequate material to make a couple of masks. Probably shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[dcsang]

I haven't had any issues using a single piece of ANR glass on the top of the carrier.
I know that this could be an issue if the film curls severely but I haven't had issue yet.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Jamie123]

I haven't had any issues using a single piece of ANR glass on the top of the carrier.
I know that this could be an issue if the film curls severely but I haven't had issue yet.

Haven't had any newton rings either with only one ANR plate on the top. However, I also haven't achieved ''maximum flatness'' with this method. Even though my film usually is not badly curled it's not quite flush with the glass. Also, using only a plate on top usually requires some adhesive tape to stick the neg to the glass.

I think I'll give the plastic mask a shot. Should be fairly cheap and easy to do. Besides, I did notice being unhappy with the white balance on my last scans so hopefully a mask will improve this a bit.

By the way, before I decided to make my own glass carrier I had the idea of taking two plates of some thin but heavy metal, cut out windows for 6x6 and 6x7 (the two formats I use) and sandwich the film between the two plates. Theoretically this should result in close to perfect flatness (as there's tension on all sides) while not introducing any additional glass surfaces, thus retaining the possibility of using ICE. All just in theory, of course.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You can use ICE with the Nikon glass carriers, I do it all the time when scanning C-41 and E-6 films. ICE never works with traditional black & white films no matter what carrier you use.