A question about the film holders provided with the Epson V700 scanner.

[Leonard Evens]

The Epson V700 scanner comes with several film holders, each of which contains plugins which seem to be intended to adjust the height of the film over the scanner glass.

I recently got a Betterscanning film holder, and using it I determined that the optimal height of the negative image over the scanner glass is approximately 3.5 mm. But to use that film holder I have to tape the film to the glass. For many purposes, it will suffice for me to use the 4 x 5 film holder provided with the scanner. Using a digital dial caliper, I can set the height of the film in such a holder to what I want it to be and I can get it pretty close to that measurment. But I don't see how to adjust the positions of the plugins. They seem to go into the holder in only one position.

Can anyone tell me how they are supposed to be used?

[Jon Shiu]

Three positions: 1) take them all out; 2) facing one way ie "0"; 3) facing the other way "+".

Jon

[Leonard Evens]

Three positions: 1) take them all out; 2) facing one way ie "0"; 3) facing the other way "+".

Jon

I've checked my measurements again. I think the optimal position for me is somewhere between the 0 and + position. But either would probably be close enough for routine scans. The reason I wanted to know was that the central spacer didn't protrude as far as the others in the 0 position, but I see now that putting it in the + position resolves that problem.

I don't see much point in worrying about trying to set the height for the supplied 4 x 5 film holder at the optimal position. I think t here is enough film curl in a glassless holder to make that not worth the trouble. But if I feel the need to do better, I can tape shims to the film holder.

In critical cases, I will use the betterscanning film holder. The main problem with using it is that it is hard to get the film is perfect alignment. I am always careful about leveling the camera, and it it silly to lose that in scanning. Of course, I can rotate the image in a photo editor such as gimp, but that degrades the image slightly. But I can tape a spacer to one side of the glass to help me place the film edge parallel to the side of the glass.

[SergeiR]

Of course, I can rotate the image in a photo editor such as gimp, but that degrades the image slightly. But I can tape a spacer to one side of the glass to help me place the film edge parallel to the side of the glass.

Thats what masking is for. Put mask on glass and you got yourself perfectly aligned window to stick film in. And degradation of image quality from rotation is merely on antialiasing scale, so you loose few pixels , if any. Chances of actually seeing it - are virtually none.