Scanning medium format with flatbeds

[fredus]

i there,

I'm scanning for the first time some medium format negatives on my Epson 4490 flatbed. If I use the guide provided, I can scan 2 negs at a time but if I just lay the negatives on the glass, I can scan 3 (I have strips of 3 negatives). What is the advantages of using the provided guide ? Looks like it does some kind of autoexposure but I guess I can do that in photoshop after the scan. So is there really benefits ? Do you think the negs is that much flatter on the glass with the guide ?

Thanks for your help !

Fred

 

[kaiyen]

Do you mean the film holder? it's not there for autoexposure, but rather for getting the film to the right height. The plane of focus for flatbeds is relatively small.

Or perhaps the "guide" is different on the 4490, and not a holder at all...

regardless, look into Doug Fisher's medium format film holder. Great product.

 

[fredus]

Yes I'm talking about the holder. Do I really gain something by using it ?

 

[kaiyen]

Well, again, you should get slightly better sharpness with the holder since it's held up at the right height from the glass. You also might get newton rings from where the film is touching the glass.

allan

 

[tetrisattack]

The negative holder will also help mitigate film flatness issues, and on some (all?) Epson flatbeds, the rollfilm holders also have a frosted plastic back to better diffuse the light.

 

[Bertram2]

Yes I'm talking about the holder. Do I really gain something by using it ?

Flatness !! The Apha and Omega in MF photography. As Kaiyen points out , the best holder sells Fisher.

Btw if you scan in comparison with a holder and without one you'll find out very soon yourself what it is good for 😉 Didn't you get any Newton rings without the holder ?

bertram

 

[sf]

I wouldn't. The flatbeds deal with negatives best, but can't pull off slides at all. A dedicated scanner is the best choice, if you seek to print larger sizes or care a great deal about density.

 

[Bryan Lee]

Have you considered just making your own frame Some matt board or plastic and just cut the size you need for top and bottem with a little improvising along the way to get it perfectly flat or at least flatter than it was. I looked at all these negative carriers offered with the scanners and they were all crap including the ones with my 4890. I will admit the ones being made independently looked nice. The Epson and HP negative trays are both useable but made of lowbudget flimsy plastic.

 

[allthumbs]

The 35mm negative carrier that came with my Canoscan seems to be designed to spread the film as it clamps down on it, and it does work to flatten out the negatives. I thought it rather clever, and it's reasonably sturdy, too--certainly more than I expected from a cheap flatbed.

 

[Bertram2]

The flatbeds deal with negatives best, but can't pull off slides at all. .

Not true in general. The 4490 scans 35 and MF slides decently for web an small prints, neither 35mm negs nor 35mm slides good enuff for large (> 13X18cm) prints tho.

bertram

 

[luketrash]

I've got the 3170 epson and the results are horrible if I don't use the holders. Each holder has a different sort of cutout at the bottom that apparently tells the scanner what format it's scanning. Someone mentioned the newton circles, and this is what happened when I laid 35mm on the glass and put a piece of glass on top to weight them down.