Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Having scanned a lot of extremely uncooperative film lately I've made a lot of personal observations and discoveries along the way. Mainly related to the Epson V700 of course but I'm sure some of this applies to many other scanners in the lower price range.
When using the standard V700 film holders for 35mm it is extremely advantageous to tape the edges of the retainers down ... especially around the areas where the little hooked lugs lock them in place. As the scanner heats up during the scanning process and the holders warm up the film will apply more upwards tension and the edges of these retainers will move inwards away from the locating lugs and rise slightly allowing the film to move during scanning ... not good! I tape the areas around these lugs with 3M magic tape as I apply outward pressure to them ... they don't budge during scanning even when the scaner gets quite warm and the tape is very easily removed after each scan. I hadn't noticed this until I started looking closely at the holder and film after removing it from the scanner after a particularly long scan of negatives that had very high density and had scanned very slowly ... these lugs had popped out in several locations and the film had risen noticably!
Reverse roll your film (emulsion side out) and place it in a film container and leave it overnight if possible ... this really reduces bow which is far more destructive than the natural curl that film generally has.
Pick your days to scan if possible. The ideal time is early in the morning on a rainy day when the humidity is as high as possible and the temperature is at it's lowest for the day. (seriously) This has two advantages ... the higher the moisture content of the film the less it bows or curls and the emulsion also appears to benefit from this higher moisture content by expanding slightly and closing up so to speak. What grain there is will be noticably smoother when it's in this state. In a perfect world I would have a room that I could hose down with water before scanning and then shut all doors and windows while I scanned ... not an ideal environment for the scanner itself admittedly but I do believe this would have definite benefits for the afore mentioned reasons.
Air conditioning when scanning is your enemy! It removes all moisture from the air ... ask any contact lens wearer!
These are purely mechanical recommendations for scanning aimed at keeping the film in it's optimum state during the scan. Software choice and methods of use are an entirely different ball game and each person familiar with scanning seems to have there own preferences regarding Silverfast, Vuscan etc. I hope my ramble has been of some help. 🙂
When using the standard V700 film holders for 35mm it is extremely advantageous to tape the edges of the retainers down ... especially around the areas where the little hooked lugs lock them in place. As the scanner heats up during the scanning process and the holders warm up the film will apply more upwards tension and the edges of these retainers will move inwards away from the locating lugs and rise slightly allowing the film to move during scanning ... not good! I tape the areas around these lugs with 3M magic tape as I apply outward pressure to them ... they don't budge during scanning even when the scaner gets quite warm and the tape is very easily removed after each scan. I hadn't noticed this until I started looking closely at the holder and film after removing it from the scanner after a particularly long scan of negatives that had very high density and had scanned very slowly ... these lugs had popped out in several locations and the film had risen noticably!
Reverse roll your film (emulsion side out) and place it in a film container and leave it overnight if possible ... this really reduces bow which is far more destructive than the natural curl that film generally has.
Pick your days to scan if possible. The ideal time is early in the morning on a rainy day when the humidity is as high as possible and the temperature is at it's lowest for the day. (seriously) This has two advantages ... the higher the moisture content of the film the less it bows or curls and the emulsion also appears to benefit from this higher moisture content by expanding slightly and closing up so to speak. What grain there is will be noticably smoother when it's in this state. In a perfect world I would have a room that I could hose down with water before scanning and then shut all doors and windows while I scanned ... not an ideal environment for the scanner itself admittedly but I do believe this would have definite benefits for the afore mentioned reasons.
Air conditioning when scanning is your enemy! It removes all moisture from the air ... ask any contact lens wearer!
These are purely mechanical recommendations for scanning aimed at keeping the film in it's optimum state during the scan. Software choice and methods of use are an entirely different ball game and each person familiar with scanning seems to have there own preferences regarding Silverfast, Vuscan etc. I hope my ramble has been of some help. 🙂
