5x7 Film Holder for Epson 4870

[Janean]

I have seen in several places that it is easy to make film holders for the Epson 4870 scanner from mat board. I have traced the template exactly and cut a hole in the center for a 5x7 (I am working with old glass plates). For some reason the scanner is not recognizing the film. I keep getting an error message saying it cannot locate the film. I have no problem doing 4x7 glass plates with the manufacturer's holder, so I assume it is with my holder.

I didn't put the white/silver lines on my DIY holder. Are these necessary? Anyone have any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong?

Thanks.

[Gem Singer]

Is your holder covering the slot where the scanner calibrates the size of the negative?

[jnantz]

gem,

you mean the slot / notch at the top right ?
janean, the slot / notch gem is referring to needs to be cut out, like
on the other film holders, or the lid won' t know to turn on its light.

good luck!

john

[Gem Singer]

That's the slot (notch) I'm referring to, John.

Made the same mistake myself. Accidentally covered it with a mask that I made for 5X7.

Eventually found that all I needed to do was tape the negatives onto the glass, emulsion side down, with small strips of blue painters masking tape and forget about using the mask.

I rotate and flip the negative image in Photoshop and invert it into a positive. Works for me.

[Janean]

:D Thanks for all the suggestions! I did finally get it to work. THe "notch" was cut out. I don't know what I did differently, but I came back to it after a day or two and it just worked. Maybe I didn't have something set right. I had been trying to get it to work for so long, I think I was getting frustrated and missed some setting.

Thanks!

[D. Bryant]

I have seen in several places that it is easy to make film holders for the Epson 4870 scanner from mat board. I have traced the template exactly and cut a hole in the center for a 5x7 (I am working with old glass plates). For some reason the scanner is not recognizing the film. I keep getting an error message saying it cannot locate the film. I have no problem doing 4x7 glass plates with the manufacturer's holder, so I assume it is with my holder.

I didn't put the white/silver lines on my DIY holder. Are these necessary? Anyone have any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong?

Thanks.

Film holders from BetterScanning.com are hard to beat even if you make them yourself.

http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/models/4870.html

Don Bryant