5x7 negative carrier with an epson 4870

[jnantz]

hi ...

i have had an epson 4870 and i am looking forward to scanning some of my
5x7 negatives ... i know with other film formats - 35mm - 4x5, the film does not sit right on
the scanner glass ... seeing that i will be making some sort of a mask so i know where to put my film.

can anyone make suggestions about what i should use ( to make the mask ) and if my film should not sit right on the glass.

thanks in advance!

john

[paulr]

if newton's rings don't turn out to be a problem, the only drawback to setting the film on the glass is the very slight loss of sharpness from the film being below the focal plane. This isn't as bad as it sounds, because that scanner has a pretty impressive depth of field. But for the maximum in sharpness, you'd want to find the focal plane, and hold the negative flat at that point. the Scanmax group on yahoo has a lot of information about doing this.

[Eric Woodbury]

I just tried one this morning. I used my glassless negative holder from my enlarger to hold the neg in the scanner. It is about 0.1" thick. Works fine. If you neg holder doesn't work, try cutting a matt.

[Brian Ellis]

I use the Epson 4990 (successor to your 4870). It can scan 8x10 film but Epson doesn't supply a carrier for 8x10. I just put my 8x10 negatives on the glass and that works fine. Of course now I can't remember which side of the film I put face down on the glass, one way (e.g. emulsion side down) will avoid Newton rings, the other way (e.g. base side down) won't but I forget which is which. Try it one way, then when the image is in Photoshop view it at actual pixels (View > Actual Pixels). If you have Newton rings they'll show up quickly, especially in even toned areas such as the sky, then you'll know it's the opposite side you should have put down.

[QT Luong]

I cut a piece of matboard of the appropriate thickness with a 5x7 opening, and then tape the four edges of the trany with tension to help with film flatness. Some 4x5 users have found that this method gives them better film flatness than the stock holders. There was a test posted on the internet that showed the effect of using different heights above the glass (I think it was referenced on normankoren.com) and you could see a visible difference in sharpness. Interestingly, the optimal height was very close to the height provided by the stock holder, but not identical.

[Clayton Tume]

I've got the 4990 and made my own holders for 617 and longer. I tested various heights from straight on top of the glass to above the stock holders, all in .005 inch increments. On the glass is the worst by far, definitely out of focus but possibly ok for an 8x10 scan at low res. As stated above the stock holders are very close but not exact to the optimum.

I also tape and stretch the negs, this does a much better job of keeping them flat than stock holders.

Clayton

[jnantz]

thank you for your suggestions -

i was going to get some matboard and cut a window in it, but i wasn't sure if there was a better solution.
i imagine 2ply or 4 ply might be the right thickness, but i guess i will experiment a little bit.

thanks again!

john

[Clayton Tume]

John

I tried matboard and it was too thick, I ended up using a thin sheet of black plastic from a clear book folder. Don't know what you guys call them but stationery shops have them.

Clayton

[jnantz]

thanks again clayton

i think i know what you are talking about ... i will go to a stationary store and poke around a bit