Better Scanning ANR 35mm glass

[ChrisP]

Just wondering if there's a general consensus on the betterscanning 35mm glass insets and also wondering exactly how they work. I have an Epson 4490.

From what I understand you put the film emulsion side up into the base of the film holders (so that it curls up) and than stick the glass on top of that and don't use the OEM top piece when you scan and just rely on the weight of the film to get everything flat is this correct?

Second when you order do you only get one piece of glass? (so I would need to order 2 to cover both sides of the film holder?)

Third what is the consensus on the glass? Is it worth it? I understand if you have really bad curling than it won't solve that, but I shoot lots of hp5 and delta 3200, neither of which seem especially curly. Do most people see a difference in regards to edge to edge sharpness with the glass?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[maddoc]

I can`t speak about the 4990 but have and use the V700. Initially, the ANR glass inserts were a big help when scanning curled film. Unfortunately, the weight of the glass (only one piece of glass per film stripe 135 is used) is not sufficient to press the film flat. I used small pieces of elastic rubber band squeezed between glass and plastic frame to keep the ANR plates down and the film flat.

Here two photos to illustrate myformer set-up:

without the holder:

With the "fixed" ANR plates:

After discovering that keeping the film tightly rolled against the natural curl (that is emulsion side facing outwards) over at least one night results in perfect flat film, I stopped using the ANR inserts since mounting the ANR parts is really a hassle and time consuming.

 

[Rogier]

It made a huge difference on my Canon 8800F for scanning 120 size!

 

[jan normandale]

After discovering that keeping the film tightly rolled against the natural curl (that is emulsion side facing outwards) over at least one night results in perfect flat film, I stopped using the ANR inserts since mounting the ANR parts is really a hassle and time consuming.
__________________
- Gabor

.................

I'm with Gabor on the rolled film. I always roll the 35mm and place it in a 35mm cannister emulsion side out and leave it for about 12 hours sometimes more. Then cut and sleeve it. I find this deals with most of the curl issue in film. Some need more time than others.

Regarding 120 I do use a better scanning holder and it's fine except the holder slot doesn't accomodate some of my 120 formats when removed from the 120 / 3 ring sleeves. The slot is slightly too short and the opening often will only accommodate two 6/7 exposures on a strip of 3 exposures. Something to think about when ordering the 120 holder. Whereas the Epson holder does hold strips without some bending under the glass of the better scanning holder.. what's better ... you tell me.

 

[250swb]

After moving to Ilford HP5 and FP4 to avoid the curl problem I decided to try ANR glass and see if it could further improve the scans from my V700.

I think that apart from holding your film very flat the ANR glass does improve the scan, it seems to have better micro contrast and therefore looks sharper. I never really thought about how the ANR glass does that, perhaps it helps condense the light from the diffused overhead source, discouraging it from coming in at all angles? Anyway it was well worth the money and works great.

Steve

 

[taylan]

After discovering that keeping the film tightly rolled against the natural curl (that is emulsion side facing outwards) over at least one night results in perfect flat film, I stopped using the ANR inserts since mounting the ANR parts is really a hassle and time consuming.
__________________
- Gabor

.................

I'm with Gabor on the rolled film. I always roll the 35mm and place it in a 35mm cannister emulsion side out and leave it for about 12 hours sometimes more. Then cut and sleeve it. I find this deals with most of the curl issue in film. Some need more time than others.

Regarding 120 I do use a better scanning holder and it's fine except the holder slot doesn't accomodate some of my 120 formats when removed from the 120 / 3 ring sleeves. The slot is slightly too short and the opening often will only accommodate two 6/7 exposures on a strip of 3 exposures. Something to think about when ordering the 120 holder. Whereas the Epson holder does hold strips without some bending under the glass of the better scanning holder.. what's better ... you tell me.

I have some doubt about scratching the film when rolling it. Do you face with any problem such this?

 

[maddoc]

The film should be initially dried in a close to dust-free environment (bath room) and after having dried, very carefully (using gloves !!) and slowly but tight rolled against its natural curl.

I think that I get more scratches from the metal reels / film loading since I have never observed any scratches using this procedure on lab developed E6 or C-41 film but sometimes on my self-developed BW films.

 

[thegman]

I only used the BetterScanning holders and ANR glass for 120 film, and it was a *big* improvement. Much easier to load the film into the scanner, and results much better too.

 

[Mablo]

It made a huge difference on my Canon 8800F for scanning 120 size!

This is my experience as well.

 

[Bobfrance]

No tried the ANR but I've had some anti-reflective glass cut at a picture framers. It seems to work well enough and didn't cost a penny as was made from off-cuts.

 

[SeanEsopenko]

I ordered the 120 holders & 120 ANR glass for my V700 and threw in a 135 ANR sheet for curiosity's sake. The 135 ANR sheet helped a lot but even with the ANR glass it couldn't quite match my old LS-2000 for sharpness & colour fidelity. The inability to fine-tune the height of the holder is the achiles heel but the glass does help a fair bit.

One thing the ANR glass does well is speed up the workflow almost to the same speed as a dedicated film scanner. You just put the film in, drop in the glass and scan. No screwing with plastic holders for 3-4 minutes trying to stretch out the film. No digital ICE though but that's up to you whether it's important.

For the $30 or so it's a great buy. If you're planning on buying enough for the entire holder than that's up to you.

 

[ianstamatic]

No tried the ANR but I've had some anti-reflective glass cut at a picture framers. It seems to work well enough and didn't cost a penny as was made from off-cuts.

same here. was cheaper and seems to work just as well

 

[marduk]

I did a comparison and ANR glass does improve sharpness on my V700. If it also possible to
lose sharpness if the film is not pressed flat. Will try maddoc's idea with rubber band next time.
I would like to buy the BetterScanning holders and ANR glass for 120 film as well.
ChrisP, you need only one piece of glass per strip of film to put on the top.

 

[sevo]

No tried the ANR but I've had some anti-reflective glass cut at a picture framers. It seems to work well enough and didn't cost a penny as was made from off-cuts.

YMMV, though. As Newton rings are also an issue in picture display, there are varieties of anti-reflective picture framing glass that are effectively the same as (or even better than plain) ANR glass. But there also are others which don't improve matters, or have a surface structure that may become visible in the scans.

 

[jan normandale]

I have some doubt about scratching the film when rolling it. Do you face with any problem such this?

Hi Taylan, I've not experienced any scratching inserting a roll of developed film into a plastic film cannister / holder. I use the ones with an outer lip so the inside is an uninterrupted smooth finish. The film slides in and out easily. Obviously I keep the interior of these plastic cannister / holders clean. I also use gloves when rolling the film up prior to inserting it into the holder. To scratch the surface something must be 'harder' than the film itself and these cannisters are pretty soft plastic.