Dear Group,

Yesterday I sold my Epson 4990 Pro, and I purchased an Epson V750 Pro.

Unfortunately, in my haste to acquire a scanner that can retrieve a larger file, I neglected to see that the 750 scanner can not wet mount 8X10 negatives within the supplied wet mount apparatus. The wet mounting device is beautiful crafted and well made. Interestingly enough though, Epson indicates on the fluid mount alignment guide, an area recommended as the optimum scanning area. This marked optimum scanning area is definitely less that the width of the scanning bed. This guide is visible, below your negative, while you center your negative on the fluid mounting glass.

Envision a nicely centered typed text on an 8.5X11 piece of paper, with a border that approximates one inch, left, right and bottom, and the top border having about one half inch of clearance. This text area represents the optimum area indicated on the Epson mounting guide. Great idea, but this optimum area is certainly narrower than I would have hoped for. I might be incorrect here with a guess, but this narrower optimum area might be a function of the CCD's.

That said, I am disappointed an 8X10 negative is excluded from the fluid mounting device, and I need to find a solution to reduce the curl of large format negatives, while they are scanned.

To alleviate this 8X10 negative problem, I would like to find a piece of glass that will fit the cavity on the scanning bed. I would like to know if anyone could recommend a type of glass or specific type of plastic that I could use as a substitute, to keep the negative flat on the scanning bed? I have a problem with Delta 100 8X10 film remaining flat enough to scan properly. It loves to curl on me...

With a bit of ingenuity, maybe I could replicate the fluid mounting device, and make the interior mounting area a bit wider to accommodate an 8X10 negative.

If someone has a moment, could you possibly provide a few suggstions, specifically on the proper type of glass and, or a type of quality plastic or acrylic to flatten the negative, that I might be able to experiment with, and if possible, a source for the materials?

Thank you in advance,

jim k