Epson Fluid Mount Holder Height Above Glass

[IanBarber]

After reading about wet scanning using the Epson Fluid mount holder, I started to wonder whether this method could be used for Dry scanning without the liquid.

I place the 4x5 negative emulsion side down in the centre of the holder, place some ANR glass on-top to keep it flat and then use the Transparency option in Vuesscan.

The one thing that struck me was the fact that on the fluid mount holder, there are no provisions for height adjustments. Has anyone tried placing shims under the fluid mount holder to see any improvements can be made or are we safe to assume Epson has designed this for optimal use

[Pere Casals]

After reading about wet scanning using the Epson Fluid mount holder, I started to wonder whether this method could be used for Dry scanning without the liquid.

I place the 4x5 negative emulsion side down in the centre of the holder, place some ANR glass on-top to keep it flat and then use the Transparency option in Vuesscan.

The one thing that struck me was the fact that on the fluid mount holder, there are no provisions for height adjustments. Has anyone tried placing shims under the fluid mount holder to see any improvements can be made or are we safe to assume Epson has designed this for optimal use

IMHO, optimal height adjustment may have some little importance with small formats, 35mm... For 4x5" it has to be very difficult to see any difference if you don't crop a little rectangle and later you enlarge it a lot. At the end light path is very long compared with adjustment.

Of course you can place an spacer or shim to adjust height, if you want to compare it from numbers then just make a film contact copy of an USAF 1951 glass slide pattern to test it, but you can also use a negative with fine detail.

IMHO the result will look sharp depending on your postprocess, this is having good command of PS sharpenning tools, and selecting "bicubic, ideal for reductions" in the "image size" dialog of PS, compression, etc.

A 4x5" sheet can deliver more than 300 MPix (https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2014/1...vs-6x7-velvia/) but a Full HD monitor just can show 2 MPix (1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pix), so perceived sharpness will depend on how you pick 2 MPix from the 300 MPix you have there. ...and also on how you cook a file for the printer: a single file pixel for each single pixel of the printer, and no compression if possible.

[Doug Fisher]

Yes, it can make an appreciable difference. If you had to adjust the height of your other film holders it is highly likely you would benefit from adjusting the height of the mounting station. It most likely won't require the same amount of height adjustment as your film holder due to differences in the starting height/thickness of the Epson holders versus their mounting tray.

If you fluid mount, periodically check your Epson fluid mounting tray for stress cracks caused by incompatibility with mount fluid. I have had some customers tell me about their OEM Epson supplied tray coming apart at an inopportune time. As long as you do a periodic visual check though, you should be alerted well in advance of something catastrophic.

Doug