Coolscan glass holder question

[anorak]

Hello everyone,

I just bought a Coolscan 8000ED (yay!) and it comes with the glass holder FH-869G and that's it. I primarily shoot medium format, so this is all that I need.

But I'm wondering if it's possible to scan 35mm strips using the glass holder without the masks, making a sandwich like that:

ANR glass
------------
35mm film strip
------------
clean glass

Anyone here already tried this method? I could do a test but I'm on vacantion.

 

[mfogiel]

It is possible to do that, but I would only do it in one of these cases:
1- your film is not flat, and you want a perfectly sharp scan across the frame
2- you are scanning odd length negatives ( panoramic, etc)
Coming back to your first point, also for medium format the glass carrier is not mandatory, if you know how to tension the film correctly in the glassless one. Make sure, the rubber edges are cleaned with clear acohol every now and then, and this should be enough to tension the film flat.
The glass holder adds hassles with dust, and reduces the scan sharpness somewhat, so use it only if you have to.

 

[anorak]

It is possible to do that, but I would only do it in one of these cases:
1- your film is not flat, and you want a perfectly sharp scan across the frame
2- you are scanning odd length negatives ( panoramic, etc)
Coming back to your first point, also for medium format the glass carrier is not mandatory, if you know how to tension the film correctly in the glassless one. Make sure, the rubber edges are cleaned with clear acohol every now and then, and this should be enough to tension the film flat.
The glass holder adds hassles with dust, and reduces the scan sharpness somewhat, so use it only if you have to.

Thanks for the quick reply, mfogiel!

I think I didn't explain my problem very well: the scanner comes with JUST the glass holder and nothing else. Since I don't have the money now to buy a new 35mm holder (very expensive), I'll probably use the glass holder to scan my 35mm strips.

But thanks for the tips, anyway! 🙂

 

[mfogiel]

Just make sure, you put the strips parallel to the axis, so that you will be able to select precisely only the exposed area for scanning. Otherwise, the scan will not come out properly unless you manually set the black and white points. I would recommend getting the Vuescan software too.