Better Scanning Film holder for Epson V700

[Demodres]

Hey all Rangefinders,

I have a question about the Better Scanning Film holders for an Epson V700 scanner. I recently bought a second hand Epson V700 including Better Scanning Variable Height Mounting Station with glass for variable light masks - http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/mstation.html. I also got some of the original masking paper to cut out some custom light masks.

Without knowing much about light masks, I thought I was ready to scan my negs, but then I realized that I have to make my own DIY mask. In addition, it seems that DIY light masks are mostly suitable for one (or very few) neg at the time mounted with tape (according to the instructions)..

This is a bit of a set-back for me, as I not that skilled for DIY masks, and more importantly, I will prefer a more systematic workflow with more negs at the same time and not using tape for mounting.

My question is now which other Film Holder I should get? Should I go for the The Variable Height Dual MF Film plus separate glass (app. USD 129) http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/vseries.html or can I save some bucks by getting a separate film holder and combine it with my existing mounting station and glass plate?

Similar, I will like to do some 35mm scans as well (I know that flatbeds scanners and 35mm is not the best combo)..I don´t have the original Epson 35mm film holder hence I have get a new one. I found the original Epson holder on Ebay (USD 29), but I was wondering if there any better options out there?

Many thanks and happy scanning,
Andreas

 

[rickp]

i'll watch and learn here too. i'm also interested in solutions for the v700 and a mask/holder for xpan negatives.

greetings from hamburg

rick

 

[Demodres]

i'll watch and learn here too. i'm also interested in solutions for the v700 and a mask/holder for xpan negatives.

greetings from hamburg

rick

Hi Rick - if you are up for cutting and making your won masks for 35mm Xpan, you can find templates to print at Better Scanning website...http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/mscutmask.html

 

[Demodres]

I just replaced my 35mm holder. Old one wore out after years of use.

http://www.compassmicro.com/parts_d...anners&form.printername=Perfection V700 Photo

Hi Aperture - great and thanks..it is cheaper than the one I found on Ebay...does the original holder work ok for you and/or do you use addtional glass to mount the film?

Cheers, Andreas

 

[BenJT]

For a couple years now I've been using a v700 with the better scanning dual 120 slots with anr glass. It does what its intended to, but its a pain in the ass trying to keep everything clean and dust free. I'm about to sell it all, buy a v600 and scan in a rather crude fashion.

If your trying to get the best possible quality out of a flatbed for largish prints and what not its probably worth the trouble, otherwise its not.

 

[Frankd]

I bought a new v700 about 3 months ago. I had a client that wanted several scans from medium format negs. One needed to be 30 x 30 inches. I scanned it to 7089 x 7089 pixels at 240 pip. It came out a bit soft but good enough. My printer said it did not need sharpening. I thought it could have used a little bit of sharpening. But the scanner did great. I would discount all the internet reports about the severe limitations of this scanner.

I used the Epson holders that came with the scanner. They seem to be improved over the ones I got with my Epson 2400 scanner years ago. As Aperture64 states it helps if your film is flat.

 

[Colin Corneau]

I've got an Epson v700. Only have the included Epson holders.

My experience is 2 main observations:
• the larger the negative the nicer the scans, in terms of sharpness and overall quality. Terrific for 4x5 and 120 negs.

• The flatter your 35mm negs are, the better their quality. Sharpness really falls off if you have even a bit of curl, so the Better Scanning holders may really help with that.

Re: XPan negs -- I've always scanned mine simply with the regular Epson holders. Not sure why you'd need a different one?

 

[rickp]

thank you for the link. i'll be sure to have a look.

regards

rick

Hi Rick - if you are up for cutting and making your won masks for 35mm Xpan, you can find templates to print at Better Scanning website...http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/mscutmask.html

 

[Moto-Uno]

For the fear of repeating myself, I have a V600 and found the oem holders a nuisance
( I'm lazy). I had a glass shop cut me a 4"x 10"piece of their thinnest glass and simply
lay it on the negs,which are easy to align and just scan away. The negs remain very flat
and only on a few occasions have I noticed Newtonian rings. Hey for $5 it's worth a try.
Maybe I'm just lucky,but I can get some very detailed scans with this method.
Peter

 

[Fernando2]

For the fear of repeating myself, I have a V600

You mean, you don't use the film holders at all and just lay the film strips on the glass bed, covered with your custom-cut glass?

If this is the case, it may work well on your V600 because it has no dual-optics system.
So its (fixed) plane of focus is just above the glass bed.

The V700/800 series has two lenses: one for the glass bed (A4 coverage), with plane of focus on the glass bed surface; and another for film (reduced area coverage of about 150x280mm, higher resolving power) with plane of focus quite above the glass bed.
So that method would not work well on a V700/800, because it would mean using the wide-coverage lens (less sharp).

Fernando

 

[BLKRCAT]

I'll pipe in here.

I bought a strip of 35mm ANR glass from eBay. It slows down my scanning process because I only bought one piece so I can only scan 5 images at a time but it does a great job of keeping tri-x flat.

I just lay my neg in the Epson holder, put the glass on top, ditch the Epson clip and use earplugs on either end of the glass to sandwich it down when I close the scanner. The earplugs give the perfect amount of squish without damaging your scanner.

Tri-x right after finishing drying and subsequently curling: