Contacts from scanners?

[remegius]

Anyone had success making contacts with a flatbed? I have an Epson V500, and have attempted to make contacts by laying the negatives on the scanner glass and operating in flatbed mode. The results were just passable. While not absolutely necessary I love having a contact sheet to work from, and while I do all of my own developing, I don't have a wet darkroom to work with, so have to look at other options for contacts.

Cheers...

 

[ibcrewin]

Anyone had success making contacts with a flatbed? I have an Epson V500, and have attempted to make contacts by laying the negatives on the scanner glass and operating in flatbed mode. The results were just passable. While not absolutely necessary I love having a contact sheet to work from, and while I do all of my own developing, I don't have a wet darkroom to work with, so have to look at other options for contacts.

Cheers...

How about this for a makeshift solution. If you could find some white plexiglass, you could lay it on top of the scanner and shine the light on it while it scans.

Or

Cut some white kitchen garbage bags in to sections that fit your scanner. Put the negs on the scanner, put 2 or 3 plys of garbagebags, and a sheet of glass from a picture frame to keep it all flat. Then shine a light on it as it scans on Film mode.

OR

Take said 3 plys of garbage bags and sandwich them between 2 large sheets of wax paper. Take your iron and the sandwich. You should now have 1 sheet with no wrinkles!

Anyway you go.. Good luck!