Betterscanning altternative: Epson V850/800 holders work for V750/700

[biedron]

When I first got the holders that was my impression as well as far as fitting. The same impression applies to 4x5 as well. I will try to post a video of how I load the film under the tabs. The v850pdf instruction pdf shows it incorrectly. The acrylic back doesn't affect optical quality in my opinion compared to my betterscanning holder

I'd be interested in hearing how you managed to get the film under the tabs - I've been unsuccessful so far, and am reluctant to force things too much as I don't want to damage my transparency.

Thanks

Bob

[Moopheus]

Did Epson provide film holders that don't actually hold film? That seems to make not sense.

[biedron]

Did Epson provide film holders that don't actually hold film? That seems to make not sense.

Well, sort of. After posting the question earlier, I googled the Epson instructions for the V800 (I've got a V700), the instructions say the film is to sit on top of the beveled tabs, which isn't very satisfactory at first blush. However when you close the lid, things seem to be held reasonably flat, at least after a bit of time to "settle". When I first closed the lid and looked at how flat the film was (by reflected light), I was not impressed. But I let is sit for a bit and after it was quite flat judging from the reflected surface. I want to do some more tests to confirm this is going to happen consistently. One issue is, with the film on top of the bevels, it is a pain to get the film perfectly square in the holder - the older holders are better in that respect.

I also had some odd behavior when scanning with the V800 holders in my V700. First, the preview in "thumbnail" mode came up as 3 partial slices of my 4x5 transparency - sort of like I had scanned 3 film strips. I never had that happen with my V700 holder. Second, for the first time ever I had to use the "marquee" to isolate the 4x5 image from the black background - without using the marquee the scan included the image and the film holder. I never had to use the marquee before - the software automatically figured out what was the image area and what was part of the holder. Perhaps there will be a software upgrade for the V700 to better handle the new holders at some point.

For me, the jury is still out on whether these are an overall improvement over the old holders. The height adjustment is definitely better.

Bob

[Pali K]

Has anybody received these from compassmicro yet? I placed an order with both 120 and 4x5 carriers and I later found out that one was out of stock and my order has not be processed because of it. Just curious if anyone was able to receive these after Deval posted this thread.

Pali

[biedron]

Has anybody received these from compassmicro yet? I placed an order with both 120 and 4x5 carriers and I later found out that one was out of stock and my order has not be processed because of it. Just curious if anyone was able to receive these after Deval posted this thread.

Pali

Pali,

Yes, I ordered a couple of 4x5 holders from Compass Micro soon after Deval's post and have already received them.

Bob

ps: in my post above, ignore the bit about the film relaxing to a perfectly flat state; I was looking at the anti newton "glass" and not the film - doh!. With the film installed as per Epson's direction, there is some warpage of the film as it is clamped by the holder, and it doesn't go away. Not sure how much effect this has on the scan sharpness though.

[soleh]

Hi everyone, I thought I'd share a "hack" I tried out this weekend. I ordered some spare parts from epson, specifically their MF and 4x5 holder for the new Epson V850 and used them for my Epson V750. They are much cheaper than the betterscanning alternative(BTW I also have the betterscanning holder). It has a pretty easy adjustment mechanism(adjustable thumb tabs in 5 possible positions) for calibrating the optimal height.

Pros:
No taping or creating masks to the glass as compared to the better scanning holder
Much easier to find optimal holder height(only four tabs to adjust) compared to using a mini allen key to make 8 adjustments for the betterscanning holder
Keeps the film much flatter than the V750/700 holder

Cons:
Its a bit tricky to get the film flush into the holder especially for the medium format holder as there are slots to fit the film under. I've found a couple of tricks(which can be googled) but either involves modifying the holder or touching the emulsion side...therefore I would really recommend thin gloves. It would have been such a minor design improvement to rectify this.

Thanks for the tip Deval.

[welly]

Just out of interest, is it possible you can make a scan with the original film holder and the v850 holders as a comparison? I'm keen to see if it'll improve my scan but getting one of these into Australia costs a fair bit more than $15! Thanks!

[Deval]

Bob, I haven't done what is in the following link because I've managed to get the film under the tabs(sorry, still need to record a video for that one). the following would accomplish getting the film in the same plane

http://www.stockholmviews.com/epson_...850tweaks.html

[djdister]

Just out of interest, is it possible you can make a scan with the original film holder and the v850 holders as a comparison? I'm keen to see if it'll improve my scan but getting one of these into Australia costs a fair bit more than $15! Thanks!

Would also definitely like to see comparison scans using the same film in the v750 and v850 holders, with no unsharp masking applied.

[Deval]

Just out of interest, is it possible you can make a scan with the original film holder and the v850 holders as a comparison? I'm keen to see if it'll improve my scan but getting one of these into Australia costs a fair bit more than $15! Thanks!

Welly, The first picture is 6x6 on the default holder, the second one is an optimized height with the v850 holder. same level of unsharp mask. the only difference was the application of a contrast curve on the 750 one. Zoom in and you will see the difference. I can try to do some more as I understand the limitation in the comparison.
Old Scan by DevalJoshi, on Flickr
Hogwarts Express by DevalJoshi, on Flickr