Review of Betterscanning ANR glass?

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sper

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I'm thinking about getting inserts for 120, and 35mm. Have these made a real impact in your scans?

I notice that when I nail the flatness I'm quite impressed with what the V700 can do with a 160 ISO piece of 35mm color film, but nailing that flatness is a pain, and god forbid the frame is at the end of a strip.

Anybody using these? Have they improved your scans?
 
Hi,
I can speak for the ANR glass/holder on my V500. So far I have not seen any benefits of sharpness, even with deliberate side-by-side tests. It seems the Epson lens has a good depth of field. If you negs are severely curled, such as just after development, it probably does help a little. Be aware the ANR glass interferes with digital ICE.
 
I'm very interested to know as well. AFAIK ANR glass is glass with a fine texture surface, one of my friend who sandblasted his own said the texture is visible when scanned so I'd love to know if Betterscanning glass is better.
 
I'm using a betterscanner holder with an AN glass. I'm using it for MF negs with my Canon 8800f scanner. The Betterscanning holder has two major advantages compared to a normal neg holder:
-you can adjust the distance from scanner glass to negative very precisely. Each scanner model has a very precise height from above the scanner glass where it produces the sharpest scan.
-your negs are always straight under the AN glass.

Does it produce better scans? I'd say in my case yes it does. My scanner is of low quality but I assume that with a better scanner the difference of IQ between original neg holders and betterscanning.com holders will be much larger.
 
sper said:
I'm thinking about getting inserts for 120, and 35mm. Have these made a real impact in your scans?

I notice that when I nail the flatness I'm quite impressed with what the V700 can do with a 160 ISO piece of 35mm color film, but nailing that flatness is a pain, and god forbid the frame is at the end of a strip.

Anybody using these? Have they improved your scans?
Click to expand...

Hell yes. My V700 was decent before, but now it's brilliant. The resolution it can get out of 120 film is incredible.
 
the 120 holder is fantastic, and the glass works well. The holder without the glass works well.

The 35mm glass inserts are (for me) a problem solver. I find that the curl (arch) of 35mm film is way too great for the lens on the V750. Simply put, I can't get both the edges and the center in focus unless you have weight on the film. Oddly, this is not a serious problem: I rarely shoot 35mm.
 
I have used, both, ANR glass, and regular "non-reflective" glass (commonly used to frame wall artwork). I have noticed no difference between the two, and the latter is much cheaper, and easily obtained at any crafts shop.
 
I did not notice any improved sharpness with the Betterscanning holder. I would say that unsharp mask is a much more powerful tool. Also, the glass holder attracts dust and made a lot more work for me in cleanup. I sold mine to a fellow RFF member.
 
sper said:
I'm thinking about getting inserts for 120, and 35mm. Have these made a real impact in your scans?

I notice that when I nail the flatness I'm quite impressed with what the V700 can do with a 160 ISO piece of 35mm color film, but nailing that flatness is a pain, and god forbid the frame is at the end of a strip.

Anybody using these? Have they improved your scans?
Click to expand...

I used a 135 anr glass
the result are nice but I broke the glass
I use now slide mounts from GEPE and it is the same result, much much sharper than without anything

Here my review, in french but you can see the crops sowing the difference between different system (epson mount, slide mount and anr from betterscanning )

http://rabillercyrille.blogspot.com/2011/02/le-scan-de-negatifs-argentiques.html
 
I have an epson v700 and got both the 35mm and 120 format ANR glass w/holder. I see a bigger difference with the 120 in terms of flatness and sharpness. My side by side comparisons show that my scans with the glass are slightly better (sharper and more detail) than without, though I'd have to think hard about whether the difference is substantial enough to justify getting the 35mm glass if I were to make the purchase decision all over again.
 
One thing I've found is that the 35mm glass is too light to keep Tri-X flat (120 is fine). I ended up having to add a couple of strips of light-sealing foam at each end so that the scanner lid could press the glass down.
 
Seems like a lot of mixed feelings here. Damn, I was hoping for a night and day fix.

Also I didn't realize the 120 ANR insterts have to be used with their viarable height holders. I'm not sure I'm ready to invest that much money in something that 'might' make a difference...
 
ruby.monkey said:
One thing I've found is that the 35mm glass is too light to keep Tri-X flat (120 is fine). I ended up having to add a couple of strips of light-sealing foam at each end so that the scanner lid could press the glass down.
Click to expand...

Brilliant. I've been struggling with this. Thanks for the tip.
 
sper said:
I'm thinking about getting inserts for 120, and 35mm. Have these made a real impact in your scans?

I notice that when I nail the flatness I'm quite impressed with what the V700 can do with a 160 ISO piece of 35mm color film, but nailing that flatness is a pain, and god forbid the frame is at the end of a strip.

Anybody using these? Have they improved your scans?
Click to expand...

I use the 120 holder with anr glass on my v500 and the difference I got was amazing. The ability to adjust the height of the holder to get perfect focus really made the difference.

The stock Epson 35mm holder for the v500 is flimsy and really problematic. I still find it difficult to handle even with the glass inserts. If betterscanning were to come up with an adjustable height 35mm holder for the Epson, I'd buy it in an instant.
 
I didn't test that ANR glass and holder enough to see, but from what i get i prefer that normal included Epson holder, i scan only 120, and all my films i develop are flat and no problem at all, i am so happy without ANR holder/glass and i have it just in case i will have a bad curled film one day.

First time i used the scanner i didn't like the results, but after a while, it turns brilliant and i am ready to scan all 120 films, and soon i want to shoot LF sheets and can't wait to scan them with my V750 and see the results.
 
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