in praise of 8x10 on epson v700

[Chris Strobel]

I have this too, even more so with Pyro processed negs.

Hmmm.... Interesting.All my negs are Pyro processed.The interesting thing is, most of the residue with Lumina fluid I see is on the glass mounting plate, the film backing, and the transcan overlay that I use to place over the film backing overlay for squeegeeing out the air bubbles (the squeegee Scanscience supplied works very well for getting rid of air bubbles).Experimenting just two days ago, I was playing with a wet mounted 4x5, but this time not placing an overlay or fluid on the film backing, only the emulsion.Afterward disassembling the whole thing, I hung the transcan overlay on a film clip and propped the glass up on its side for drying.I then held the 4x5 neg between my fingers and with the other hand directed a stream of gentle cool blow dryer air at both sides of of the neg.After about 30-45 sec. the whole thing was dry, and I really couldn't see any residue.However on the other two pieces allowed to air dry there was residue as usual.The thing that really ticks me though is on the manufacturers site, they show before and after scans with a sharper scan and more dmax on the fluid mounted neg.I have not been able to reproduce those results at all, and felt kind of ripped off.The only thing that made me feel better was that I would on occasion get newton rings laying an 8x10 directly on the platen with the Epson film area guide, not every single time, but more times than I was comfortable with, and the fluid 8x10 kit does away with those every time.Has anyone else tried a cool blowdryer on gentle on their negs after dis-assembly?

[Peter De Smidt]

I use film cleaner to clean the film right after wet-mounting. I then hang the film to dry.

[Thalmees]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Frank Petronio]

I never got Newton's Rings taping to real Anti-Newton Ring glass (not just non-reflective). I used the four pennies dry on my 4990 and got fine results.

Just waiting for Lenny Eiger to pop up next ;-)

[David de Gruyl]

I never got Newton's Rings taping to real Anti-Newton Ring glass (not just non-reflective). I used the four pennies dry on my 4990 and got fine results.

Can you elaborate on this?

Is it: Tape film flat to the underside of glass (film to ANR side) and suspend the film over the scanning plane using pennies.

That is fine, I suspect.

What I don't follow is how you set the scanner to focus on the film. (I have a 750, but in principle it should be the same). Is this meant to be the proper height of a film holder's film? Did you adjust the height, the first time?

[Peter De Smidt]

It's best to test for the plane of sharpest focus.

I used to use Frank's technique, although I used pieces of tape instead of pennies.

[Ken Allen]

Thoughts on adjusting density range using the scanner software: When I worked at Leaf on the Leaf scanners, I learned that any adjustment you make in the scanner software in brightness, contrast, exposure, color balance, all happens after the image is digitized. Meaning that if you adjust exposure in the scanner software nothing happens in the amount of light or length of exposure in the actual hardware. I believe this holds true to most of today's CCD scanners. All of the adjustments are made in software after the digital processor. Therefore I recommend not making any exposure/color adjustments in the scanner. Instead make a flat scan into 48 bit RGB and save that unadjusted file as an archive file or "RAW file". Then use Photoshop or some other editing program to adjust the color/contrast/density to meet your needs for today and save that as a new version.
The big benefit of this is that you get the most accurate (if not pleasing) and consistent scans. Also, the scanning process will likely go faster when you're not worrying about adjustments.
Museums use this process so they can accurately render originals whether they are light, dark, off color or faded. And they can rescan after displaying the image to determine if there has been degradation.

Best,
Ken Allen

[Lenny Eiger]

Just waiting for Lenny Eiger to pop up next

I'm a photographer, too. And just like the rest of you I'm a tinkerer. I celebrate it any time someone can get duct tape to work for them, or any other less expensive technique.

The only time I get riled is when someone tries to tell me that a workaround is the same as a professional solution... If it works, great, if its all you need, terrific. Just don't tell me a ccd is the same as a pmt scan. Just don't tell me a digital camera can outdo a 4x5. Not for what I want to do anyway...

Lenny

[sanking]

Just waiting for Lenny Eiger to pop up next ;-)

He's back!!

Sandy King

[urs0polar]

What glass are people buying for "the pennies method"? I'm just getting into 8x10 and I'm not into spending $250 on a scanscience kit quite yet. A betterscanning mounting station is what I use for 4x5, and my optimal focus plane is around ~1.8 mm. I'm fine with dry mounting to a piece of ANR glass...

What would everyone recommend on the cheap?