Hi : )!!! - Please suggest me GPC flatbed scanner

[Darren Kruger]

Hi,

I would like to share my 4x5" images with friends, and also for critique here in the forum.

I want to get enough resolution to print my negs up to 5x7", or perhaps to a maximum of 8x10"

I'm going to go a different tack here based on these requirements. For sharing, have you thought of just using a digital camera (like from a cell phone) to take a pick of the film? You could use the light from a monitor with a white background as a light source. It wouldn't be all that precise but be good enough for sharing.

As far as printing, you could do the same idea but with a higher quality light source like a decent quality light box. 5x7" and 8x10" prints are not that big and most of the modern cameras should have enough resolution to make prints at this size. You would be able to have more control and get much better quality with a flatbed scanner but at the cost of the upfront purchase price and the ongoing cost of operating it (driver update, speeds to scan, and the space that it would take up.)

-Darren

[_tf_]

Mine came without the mounts, I was hoping someone could tell me what the height of the negative above the scanner glass is with these mounts (the V850 wet mount glass fits on perfectly, just want to make sure it's not too off distance wise).

Just to answer my own question, in case someone else stumbles on this, the wet mounting accessory for the V850 can't be used with the 4990, focusing distance of the V series is significantly greater than that of the 4990 series, so the scans are out of focus. Officially the 4990 focus distance from the flatbed glass is 1mm (in my case the optimal distance seems somewhere around 1.1-1.2mm), the wet mount accessory surface is 3.2mm above the flatbed. For the same reason wet mounting directly on the 4990 flatbed also produces suboptimal results — as someone else already mentioned, if buying one of these bargains, best to make sure the original film mounts are included.

[Ari]

Just to answer my own question, in case someone else stumbles on this, the wet mounting accessory for the V850 can't be used with the 4990, focusing distance of the V series is significantly greater than that of the 4990 series, so the scans are out of focus. Officially the 4990 focus distance from the flatbed glass is 1mm (in my case the optimal distance seems somewhere around 1.1-1.2mm), the wet mount accessory surface is 3.2mm above the flatbed. For the same reason wet mounting directly on the 4990 flatbed also produces suboptimal results — as someone else already mentioned, if buying one of these bargains, best to make sure the original film mounts are included.

Epson scanners are a pain to deal with, fussy and finicky, and each one is slightly different. Like they were assembled in the Soviet Union on a Monday or Friday.
Case in point: my current 4990 scans perfectly well directly off the glass.
My 4870 from a few years back couldn't get a sharp scan done no matter what. Scans always came out mushy.
A v750 I had did very well only if I used the Betterscanning station.