Sorry, I only remember doing it once, and that on an old Canoscan 8000F directly on the glass, though I think I put down a piece of saran-wrap between the bed and film, thereby making cleaning the bed unnecessary. The film wasn't difficult to clean, but I used either dish detergent or some film wash, I don't remember which. In weak dilution I really don't think dish detergent is going to harm your film, but maybe I'm wrong on that.Originally Posted by NicolasArg
Well, thank you gentlemen for all the input,
I bought some lighter fluid and mineral spirits, mixed them in a 9 to 1 proportion and wet mounted a neg directly to the glass bed of my V700- it really works! Absolutely no NR and I did notice enhanced sharpness. The mix just evaporated from the glass after the use leaving almost no residual marks.
I'll definitely try to buy some Kami in Aztek and clear mylar for mounting but untill I have these items here, homemade "kami" should do the trick I think.
Thanks again!
Just a couple of crops- on standard holder and mounted on the glass bed. No PS sharpening applied.
The naptha and mineral spirits can be obtained in a can in the US at hardware stores.
But that is commercial grade and not very high purity. It will leave a hefty residue on evaporation depending on how the evaporation takes place. Analytical grade solvent will evaporate with almost no residue but may be hard for individuals to order. Some Pharmacists will oblige with a signature.
If you opt for the commercial grade mix use an air or nitrogen blow off for removing the fluid from the surface of the emulsion. That will avoid evaporation to completion. It won't leave an atomically clean surface but so little residue remains as to be invisible in future scans.
Nate Potter, Austin TX.
what scanner are you using btw, was the film wet-mounted in the 2nd crop shot?
I've got an Epson 1680 staring me in the face right now, and if I could just caulk up the seams around where the glass meets the plastic paneling, it might work nicely for wet-mounting. Especially since this scanner is rated for 16-bit too!
just wondering
-Dan
I think I can get it in analytical grade, but I still hope to buy Kami. Thanks for the nitrogen tip Nate, very usefull!
Daniel, both scans were done on my Epson V700 (at 2400 dpi using the Epson scan soft), the top one using the holder set at 3.5mm and the second one wet mounted on the bed of the scanner.what scanner are you using btw, was the film wet-mounted in the 2nd crop shot?
I've got an Epson 1680 staring me in the face right now, and if I could just caulk up the seams around where the glass meets the plastic paneling, it might work nicely for wet-mounting
just wondering
-Dan
The shot is this, the crop is from the center of the 5th tree from the left (counting the cropped one):
NicolasArg - I am not trying to flame you, but are you sure you had the appropriate settings in the software for "film with film holder" and "film with film area guide" in the software and/or sharpening turned on in the second but not the first? That amount of difference between those two scans on a properly set up scanner just isn't normal in my experience. Additionally, the lower picture looks like it has had sharpening applied.
Fluid mounting can provide some improvement but I am just not sure we are seeing an apples to apples comparison with your two images.
Doug
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www.BetterScanning.com
Hello Doug, both images were scanned with the autosharpening feature of the Epson soft activated, but were not sharpened in PS, I'm 110% sure about it. So the sharpening settings are EXACTLY the same
Before trying the glass bed mounting I tried all the 3 positions on my holder -0+ and had the best results with the + height. I always scanned with the "film with holder option activated" until tried the glass mounting.
What could happen and I will check it is that while doing the fluid mounting tests, I somehow forgot to switch the scanner from film with guide to film with support. There is a slight chance of that. So, I guess I'll run the "film with holder" scan once again tonight and post the results.
But, please notice that this was not intended as some sort of test, I just need a mounting fluid for a drum scanner I purchased and decided to test the fluid on my V700. Once I have the drum unit running (hopefully), I plan to use the epson for previews and will continue using the factory holders, it's really faster.
P.S. Like I said above, this is not a test, but given the possible mistake with the scanner settings, if someone wish to take it as a test, let's just name it "well mounted slide vs possibly wrong configured holder" test
I agree with Doug. That difference between the two details above is too great for wet vs dry mount to be wholly believable unless the sharpening during the scan did something unusual between the first and second scan.
BTW, what is the size of the original, 4X5, 5X7, 8X10?
Nate Potter, Austin TX.
Nate,
I insist, If there is any flaw, I think it's a matter of "film with holder" setting not being activated. I'd dismiss the Epson software sharpening. I'm totally sure it was used in both scans with the same setting and besides, you can try and sharp the first sample in PS to make it look like the second one and it's just not possible.
Now that it was mentioned I'm interested too, I'll run the scan again in a few hours and post the crops here.
The original is 4x5, Kodak E100VS
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