[www.betterscanning.com] Film scanning mounts, any good? Your experience and advice??

[l2oBiN]

How about the issue of holding film flat? Epson holders do not have any backing for the film. They simply clip the edges holding the film within the holder. Don't the betterscan holders back the film onto the glass so in theory at least should hold the film flatter ?

[sully75]

Yes they help align the film in the center of the scan area and help reduce flare.

Don Bryant

Damn. I never used them. Hope I haven't been making terrible scans in the meantime. They look ok. I'll have to try them though.

[D. Bryant]

How about the issue of holding film flat? Epson holders do not have any backing for the film. They simply clip the edges holding the film within the holder. Don't the betterscan holders back the film onto the glass so in theory at least should hold the film flatter ?

You probably want to visit the better scanning site for complete operating instructions. All of your questions are discussed there last time I looked.

Don

[sully75]

I feel (without ever trying wet mounting) that taping negs provides pretty decent flatness. Sometimes not totally perfect but pretty darn good.

The trick is to have a system...I tape one side securely, then tape the other side. Once the tape is attached to the far side, I slowly lift the tape from the glass, and pull the film tight with the tape, than I put it down again.

Seems to work for me.

[nonuniform]

I tried the Betterscanning mount with Epson V750, and compared it with the Epson fluid mount. I decided to do this because my original Epson fluid mount had broken, and in looking at replacements it seemed like the right time to test out the various theories.

Long story short, I ended up deciding the Epson fluid mount for the v750 was the better choice for a sharp, wet mount 4x5 scan.

The Betterscanning mount worked, but the Epson mount worked better with *my* scanner. Your mileage may vary.

[domaz]

I feel (without ever trying wet mounting) that taping negs provides pretty decent flatness. Sometimes not totally perfect but pretty darn good.

The trick is to have a system...I tape one side securely, then tape the other side. Once the tape is attached to the far side, I slowly lift the tape from the glass, and pull the film tight with the tape, than I put it down again.

Seems to work for me.

Taping negatives to the glass has resulted in Newton's rings for me. Did you replace the scanner glass with ANR glass or something?

[PenGun]

Largly because the actual focus point of the V700/V750 is somewhere around a half millimeter thick, give or take, a lot of us get good results with the regular non glass holders. The little bit of curvature can be almost mitigated by the wide focus area.

[sully75]

Taping negatives to the glass has resulted in Newton's rings for me. Did you replace the scanner glass with ANR glass or something?

I thought the scanner glass was ANR glass? I believe it is in mine. No rings that I know of.

[D. Bryant]

The little bit of curvature can be almost mitigated by the wide focus area.

Almost? I guess it depends upon ones standards.

Don Bryant

[sully75]

Now I'm looking on the site and I don't see that the large format holder specifically says that it's ANR glass. I think the wet mount holder is regular glass and the wet/dry mount holder is ANR glass (more expensive). But I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the one I have (wet/dry) is ANR glass.