The Epson 1200 'focuses' at the surface of its glass platen, so the film should be placed emulsion down, directly onto the glass.I put the word 'focuses' in parentheses, because IMHO this model of scanner has such fuzzy optics that nothing you do will really improve the sharpness of the scanned image. A contact oil might help, but I doubt it.
With my 1200 I put the film emulsion-side down on the scanner bed with a piece of anti-newton glass on top of it to hold it flat. With films that have a very smooth emulsion side - like Tmax and Portra - you get Newton's rings on the emulsion side, so I make a sandwich of two pieces of AN glass with the film between them and raise the whole sandwich off the scanner bed with a piece of scrap film.
As Pete said, the resolution of the 1200 is meagre by the standards of more expensive scanners (but then again, they cost more). The 'advantage' of the poor resolution is that you can do all the jiggery-pokery above without noticeably degrading the quality of the scan.
re: "Where might one procure Kami oil? Can't find it on B&H's site."
As mentioned, the importer will sell directly, but I believe he wants you to buy a case of his products (you can mix and match) which is 8 (?) bottles. Because of Kami's properties, it requires special packaging, marking and handling when shipped via UPS. I found a relatively local source for Kami in the Boston area, and they wanted $20 to ship a single $15 bottle of KMF because of the shipping regulations. A single bottle of KMF will go a very long way, so unless you have a production shop, one bottle will be more than enough and will probably last for years.
I didn't have luck searching the normal photography stores so it's not suprising B&H doesn't carry it either. In your local area, try calling around to industrial suppliers to the printing and lithography trades. If that doesn't work, try calling some of the local service bureaus and ask them where they get their mounting fluids. Good luck.
In addition to Kami you can use Prazio Anti-Newton Oil. The Prazio version is a bit thicker (not as messy as it does not run as much) and evaporates just a bit slower. The upside is that it leaves absolutely no residue. Kami 2001 will sometimes leave a bit of residue.
We use the Prazio produuct on our drum scanner and get great scan with no cleanup of the negative required.
Try www.prazio.com
Mike
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