Epson V850 For Wet Plate Scans???

[Joseph Kayne]

Hi. Do any of you scan 8x10 aluminum wet plates on the V850. Basically, using the scanner as a flat bed, what scanning specs do you use?

[jp]

I have scanned plates with the v700 which should be similar. I put a coin under each corner of the metal plate and scan it as a reflective object. The slight spacing prevents moire or damage to the emulsion or finish. If your plates are consistently the same size, you could also make a holder out of thin matboard or plastic to position the plates.

[Pere Casals]

Well, it would be good something thinner than a coin, I guess reflective scanning uses the lower res lens, that may have focus in the bed surface, so it may be good to separate the plate, but IMHO the smaller is the separation the better.

[williaty]

I scan mine that way. Works fine. I just lay them on the glass and the focus is spot on (test to confirm that yours is the same). I scan them as a 48 bit reflective (which uses the less-good lens with the plane of focus at the surface of the bed glass) typically at 720dpi. That sounds silly low but when you get to thinking about how big of a print you can make from a 720dpi scan of an 8x10, it's more than enough.

[Bill L.]

I use a v750 for scanning my plates prior to varnishing, set at 600 dpi (figure my plates don't have any greater resolution than a standard print). It takes some fairly subtle editing to reproduce the look of a sandarac varnished plate particularly in the lighter areas of the images. I've once or twice seen newton rings in my scans, but it's quite rare. Might be more of an issue if I did glass plates. I'm looking into using a good copy stand instead of the scanner, as I think it doesn't handle the reflectivity really well.

Cheers!
Bill