Wet Mount Scanning - Fluid lines?

[FourXFive]

Folks,

After owning a 4X5 for eight years and only ever having shot it once, I thought it was time to be kind to it and put it to some use.
Taken a couple of rough test shots, trying to find my ways around it again. Scanned on an Epson V750 with fluid mount and Kami fluid and acetate.
I'm getting some weird marks that look similar to watermarks but I did not get these when scanning dry in a holder.
Has anyone ever had this with Kami or other similar fluid?

Also... Sharpness with the standard 4x5 Epson holder seems very very close (on top height setting) to fluid mount, is this similar to others' experience?

Be interested in your thoughts.
C.

[fiddle]

Make sure you get all the air out before scanning. First time I tried wet mount I thought I had and after close inspection, noticed there was still some air under the acetate causing these liquid marks. As far as sharpness, I did notice this as well, since there is no way to control the height on the mount, I have some 1mm thick washers Im going to attempt to shim and test. I think the spacing is the issue with sharpness. hopefully it needs to stand further away and not closer..
Hope this helps.

[Peter De Smidt]

In my experience, fluid mounting on a flat bed mostly impacts how grain is rendered, and it's a good way to keep film flat. But.....I no longer wet-mount on a flatbed. With my equipment, any improvement is not worth the hassle, cost, and possible damaging of the film.

[FourXFive]

Thanks so much for the reply. I was only looking for obvious visible air bubbles and not separation as such so will keep an eye on it.
I've got a micrometer so will measure the standard mount at the sharpest setting and then if different will shim the wet mount to similar.

[FourXFive]

I'll see what difference I see once I've checked/adjusted focus height but I get your point. I've got a tub of 120 film which I purchased around 2013 which seems to curl quite badly so it seems wet mount is a solution to getting a reasonable scan. I can't even get the 120 negs to stay in the standard holders.

[FourXFive]

In case anyone is interested...
My heights were measured as follows (Scanner glass to the bottom of negative for each type of mount):

Epson 4x5 standard mount with the feet adjusted to the highest (+) position (which is where I see very fractionally better sharpness than the standard height (but much better than the low position)):
3.8mm

Wet Mount (Epson):
3.8/3.9mm

Measured with calibrated micrometer/calibrated ruler as accurately as my eyes will allow!

All on Epson Perfection V750

[fiddle]

Hm. So technically they seem like they are the same height, so they should be focused the same..