V700 or other scanner for medium and larger format?

[tjh]

My wife has old negatives from her grandfather, who was quite a good photographer. She would like a scanner that would handle 2 1/4 inch and larger individual (not roll) negatives, up to maybe 5 x 7 in.

I see that lots of posts about the Epson v700 and v750 scanners but I'm still not quite sure how individual negatives in various sizes are handled. Does one put the negatives on top of the scanner glass and lower the illuminated top onto the negative? Does the Betterscanning holder introduce two sheets of anti-Newton ring glass into the space between the scanner's top and bottom?

I want to make sure that I don't wind up with just a holder to take 120 or other roll film. Some of the negatives are from really odd sheet film sizes or cut out of old roll film - maybe 122 or 116 sizes and others are about 5 x 7 in.

Thanks for any advice.

Tom

 

[f16sunshine]

Speaking to the V700

It's difficult but not impossible to do odd sizes using a holder. I do 6x12 in the epson holder with glass on top. You must scan the entire bed and then, use the marquee tool to highlight and zoom the area you wish to scan.
For 66,67,69 there is a setting to do "bulk" scanning. For 4x5 there is a negative holder that holds 2 frames. Search for info at the epson site.
I have never tried or requested but, I bet betterscanning.com would make you a 5x7 holder if you have many to do. Mind you it would hold only one sheet but, at least you could easily adjust focus with his holder.
You also can quite easily make a mask guide on a piece of glass and scan off the bed using the film area guide setting. I used this to scan some glass plates for a friend. They came out great and she is happy with them.
I'm happy with the epsonscan software. Others prefer third party scanning software.. It just never seemed worth the effort. Epson does a much better job keeping the drivers updated so I stick with epsonscan.

Sounds like a really fun project. Best of luck!

Cheers!

 

[Colin Corneau]

I have an Epson v700 and can only agree with f16sinshine's advice.

The trick with making your own holders is to get the height right, so the negs will be in focus...may require doing a number of test scans and adjusting as needed.
But, if you nail it, the scans on MF and larger negatives are really good. I"ve been really pleased with the sharpness and tonal range of my scans.

 

[thegman]

Maybe a BetterScanning LF holder would be good for you, no reason you can't use smaller negs in it.

The V700 is awesome for 120 and up.

 

[Frank Petronio]

For slightly compromised results you can lay the film down on the platen and surround it with black paper (if needed, try without). Simple as that. Works just fine for online posting and cheap drugstore reprints.

For the best results from an Epson, you can get the larger BetterScanning holder or simply get one piece of Anti-Newton glass an inch larger than your largest film. Tape the film, safely taunt, emulsion side down against the rougher surface of the glass, then invert the glass and use pennies on each corner to keep the film/glass assembly from touching the platen. The order should be platen - pennies - film base - film emulsion - rough Anti-Newton glass. By testing you can determine whether you get better results from one or two pennies, layers of tape, voodoo chants, etc.

 

[keytarjunkie]

I use a V700 without the betterscan stuff (it's not my scanner, otherwise I would probably buy nicer holders). It's a good scanner. I agree with everything that's been said. For medium format and 4x5 you really can't go wrong. I'm sure you can easily scan up to 8x10 too, with some glass holders. It comes with 4x5, medium format, 35mm, and 35mm slide holders.

 

[d_ross]

Hi, if you read this you will learn pretty much everything you need to know about the V700, which is a great scanner, most important is to change the supports that hold the film holders up off the glass to face to the + setting not - this gives a much sharper scan!

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson V750/page_1.htm

 

[rickp]

thanks

thanks

for the link to the 700 and 750 scanner reviews.

greetings from hamburg

rick

 

[tjh]

Many thanks for replying! Now I understand that the film must be separated from the scanner glass. The Betterscanning "Variable Height Mounting Station" sounds good.

The only additional question is whether to go "up" from the V700 to the V750. Is there a quality improvement other than using Epson's fluid mount holder? Or possibly I should consider the Epson 4990.

 

[Sanders McNew]

For slightly compromised results you can lay the film down on the platen and surround it with black paper (if needed, try without). Simple as that. Works just fine for online posting and cheap drugstore reprints.

My experience is that you can just lay the negative on
the glass, emulsion-side down, and scan -- no need to
cover the rest of the glass or use a holder. (You have to
lay the emulsion side down to avoid Newton rings.) I
weight the negatives down with quarters, or pesos --
pennies aren't heavy enough to hold Tri-X flat against
the glass.

You are not likely to see a difference in result from
scanning with a holder. The Epson flatbeds have a lot
of DOF -- they are forgiving. I've been scanning film
like this for nearly a decade and have been pleased
with the results.

I use the 4990. I do not believe the 700/750 behave
any differently.

 

[Frontman]

I use an Epson 750, mainly because it scans larger formats. I use it mainly for 4x5, and it does an excellent job. For 8x10, the negatives are simply laid on the glass. I have also scanned 6x6 and 6x7 with great results.

 

[tjh]

I use an Epson 750, mainly because it scans larger formats. I use it mainly for 4x5, and it does an excellent job. For 8x10, the negatives are simply laid on the glass. I have also scanned 6x6 and 6x7 with great results.

Thanks - So we can buy the scanner and most likely we will get good results. If not, we can buy a betterscanning holder.

 

[tjh]

Just looked at B&H - The V700 is $519.95 and the V750 is $729.95. These seem to be lower prices than I remember, especially for the V700. Is there any reason I should go for the V750? I wonder if new models are coming out? Any suggestions?

 

[charjohncarter]

It's a lot more work but I had Tap Plastic make some pieces that align my 4x5s and then I use the V500 glass on the glass deck on top of the negative to scan about 2/3s of the image then turn it 180 degrees and to the other 2/3s and stitch with Microsoft ICE. It works very well, I'm sure it would work with most flat bed scanners that has transparency capability:

 

[Frank Petronio]

My experience is that you can just lay the negative on
the glass, emulsion-side down, and scan -- no need to
cover the rest of the glass or use a holder. (You have to
lay the emulsion side down to avoid Newton rings.) I
weight the negatives down with quarters, or pesos --
pennies aren't heavy enough to hold Tri-X flat against
the glass.

You are not likely to see a difference in result from
scanning with a holder. The Epson flatbeds have a lot
of DOF -- they are forgiving. I've been scanning film
like this for nearly a decade and have been pleased
with the results.

I use the 4990. I do not believe the 700/750 behave
any differently.

Well... you might try it at different heights. I could see a difference from just a couple of simple tests.

I used to get Newtons Rings either way I flopped the film when I scanned it flat on the platen with my 4990 so I went to the raised glass and the sharpness improved as well.

The Epson 700 and 750 are the same hardware, the 750 has profiling software (that you probably don't need). The 4990 is the previous model that will scan 8x10 and it is fine, perhaps one tiny notch less resolving power than the 700 series.

All the Epsons off gas and cloud the platen. I used to scoff at the people who cleaned them thinking that it didn't matter but once I took the scanner apart and cleaned it, it made better scans.

I doubt they will make any significant improvements to new scanners, unfortunately, they are mature products and Epson is the last semi-pro scanner manufacturer left. I wish they made one "last" serious model with better build quality....

 

[tjh]

All the Epsons off gas and cloud the platen. I used to scoff at the people who cleaned them thinking that it didn't matter but once I took the scanner apart and cleaned it, it made better scans. .

I read about the clouding and need for cleaning the glass. I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks again for all the advice.

Tom

 

[d_ross]

Well... you might try it at different heights. I could see a difference from just a couple of simple tests.

I used to get Newtons Rings either way I flopped the film when I scanned it flat on the platen with my 4990 so I went to the raised glass and the sharpness improved as well.

The Epson 700 and 750 are the same hardware, the 750 has profiling software (that you probably don't need). The 4990 is the previous model that will scan 8x10 and it is fine, perhaps one tiny notch less resolving power than the 700 series.

All the Epsons off gas and cloud the platen. I used to scoff at the people who cleaned them thinking that it didn't matter but once I took the scanner apart and cleaned it, it made better scans.

I doubt they will make any significant improvements to new scanners, unfortunately, they are mature products and Epson is the last semi-pro scanner manufacturer left. I wish they made one "last" serious model with better build quality....

I went from a 4990 to a V700 the 700 has a much better dmax than the 4990 which means it penetrates dens image areas better, and to my mind gives much better results especially at larger print sizes. The way I have mine set up and use it is much sharper as well. Also remember scanning is a craft in itself, you can't just plug and go and expect great results!

 

[d_ross]

All the Epsons off gas and cloud the platen. I used to scoff at the people who cleaned them thinking that it didn't matter but once I took the scanner apart and cleaned it, it made better scans.

.

Ive often thought about this myself, was it an easy do Frank?