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Folks

Any help on an annoying scanning issue would be appreciated. I recently replaced the film holder for my V750 - as often happens, apparently, the little plastic pieces holding the top of the film holder to the bottom broke. Rather than going the better scanning route (I know, I know), I got a replacement holder. It looks identical to the old one. The small pieces which determine the height it sits over the scanner glass are in the same position. Yet the scans it produces are significantly less sharp. This is reproducible: the old holder despite being broken gives scans close those it used to; the new one using the same settings, well, sucks.

Has anyone else ever had this issue? Do I need to adjust the holder somehow, perhaps moving the feet away from their default position? Or should I just abandon the standard holder and try to find the extra time needed to use a better scanning mount?

Kind regards

David.

Acheron Photography wrote:This is reproducible: the old holder despite being broken gives scans close those it used to; the new one using the same settings, well, sucks.

Actually, you were fortunate to get good scans from the first holder

Acheron Photography wrote:Do I need to adjust the holder somehow, perhaps moving the feet away from their default position?

You can certainly change the orientation of the feet, or even try packing under the feet with shims of gash film/paper or similar.

Acheron Photography wrote:Or should I just abandon the standard holder and try to find the extra time needed to use a better scanning mount?

From my experience, it's worth the effort

You can certainly change the orientation of the feet, or even try packing under the feet with shims of gash film/paper or similar.

Thanks. I might try some of this first. I find it hard to believe that Epsom have compromised the performance of a £500 scanner by spending 10p too little on plastic, but it seems that they have. I'll let the group know if I find something that works.

My issue, BTW, with the better scanning stuff is not the cost but the time it will take to mount given the need to precision position the neg vs. the hole in the mask. Rather than slap in neg and go, it seems as it will take quite a while to get the neg in the right place. Or does your mileage differ?

Kind regards

David.

Acheron Photography wrote:My issue, BTW, with the better scanning stuff is not the cost but the time it will take to mount given the need to precision position the neg vs. the hole in the mask. Rather than slap in neg and go, it seems as it will take quite a while to get the neg in the right place. Or does your mileage differ?

You can always setup a sheet of film, perfectly aligned, then tape marker corners to the underside of the glass for the next time. If you only ever scan one sheet of 4x5 or a strip of 120, then the markers shouldn't get in each other's way.

I'm scanning some 5x4 negs now, doesn't take that long to mount the negs, once you get the hang of it.

The Better Scanning route is best! I think it would be better if Epson came to a commercial agreement with Better Scanning (BS) and shipped out their V750 scanner with the BS holder as standard, or alternatively as an optional add on.

Acheron Photography wrote:I find it hard to believe that Epsom have compromised the performance of a £500 scanner by spending 10p too little on plastic, but it seems that they have.

I think its a common mistake (or ploy?) that scanner manufacturers make. Take the Nikon 8000 or 9000 - you spend a grand or two on a scanner then have to still spend another couple of hundred quid to get a glass holder to get your film flat - although to their credit (or shame) nikon do supply it themselves.

If you want to trial how annoying you'll find having to tape film to glass in your epson before ordering a BS mount from the US you could always get a sheet of 10x8 nonreflective glass from a picture framers for a few quid and use that and see how you get on. I don't find it as inconvenient as you'd first imagine. You could always still use your original epson golder for quick scans for web use etc.

Thank you all - I appreciate the advice.

David

An update on this just in case it helps anyone else...

It turned out to be multiscan.

First I turned everything off - digital ICE, multiscan, the lot. Scans with old and new holders were indistinguishable, and those from the new holder were much sharper than before. That clearly indicated (to my surprise) that it was not exclusively a holder issue.

Second it seemed unlikely ICE was to blame, so I turned that back on. Everything fine.

Third I turned multiscan back on 2x was fine, mostly, but 4x gave horrid, unsharp scans. Perhaps the new holder was moving between passes? That is the only explanation I can come to.

Now you didn't tell us you were multi-scanning That is not something I would ever consider doing without a very solid and inflexible holder. The heat of the scanner lamp can be enough to warp the film if it is not completely nailed and glued down; The Better Scanning holder might cope but I would certainly never have considered using the default Epson holder.

I use the betterscanning holder on my v700 and had ghosting problems with a 3 pass scan.
2 seems to be OK, never realised why so thanks Joanna, that probably explains it.

Now you didn't tell us you were multi-scanning That is not something I would ever consider doing without a very solid and inflexible holder. The heat of the scanner lamp can be enough to warp the film if it is not completely nailed and glued down; The Better Scanning holder might cope but I would certainly never have considered using the default Epson holder.

Ha, thank you Joanna. The thing is, it worked fine with the old holder. Ah well, chalk one more up to experience.

Acheron Photography wrote:Ha, thank you Joanna. The thing is, it worked fine with the old holder. Ah well, chalk one more up to experience.

Possibly because the old holder had somewhat hardened with age, or the new holder was made from an even cheaper (flimsier) plastic

Hi Folks - I've tried the multiscan route too - its either the film warming and expanding and/or the holder and/or the linear stepper accuracy that never quite lines up so you get ghosting etc. I first saw it on the writing on a headstone image I was scanning with multi scan (via vuescan) to try and get more shadow detail.
I had quite an interesting email conversation with Ed Hamrick about it. I said had he thought of doing a shadow 'read' of the sensor and then a highlight 'read' of the sensor BEFORE advancing the read head on the V700. This would give you multiscan with no registration errors.
He said he'd spoken to Epson at length about it and they said they werent interested in modifying the api that Ed (and others) use in order to achieve that sorta function so he's never implemented it in Vuescan which is a shame...
Meanwhile I'm taping film to the back of a sheet of non-reflective glass (that I've shimmed to the right height with plastic strip) as mentioned elsewhere - suits me..

regards Tim..........

TimH wrote:Hi Folks - I've tried the multiscan route too - its either the film warming and expanding and/or the holder and/or the linear stepper accuracy that never quite lines up so you get ghosting etc. I first saw it on the writing on a headstone image I was scanning with multi scan (via vuescan) to try and get more shadow detail.
I had quite an interesting email conversation with Ed Hamrick about it. I said had he thought of doing a shadow 'read' of the sensor and then a highlight 'read' of the sensor BEFORE advancing the read head on the V700. This would give you multiscan with no registration errors.
He said he'd spoken to Epson at length about it and they said they werent interested in modifying the api that Ed (and others) use in order to achieve that sorta function so he's never implemented it in Vuescan which is a shame...
Meanwhile I'm taping film to the back of a sheet of non-reflective glass (that I've shimmed to the right height with plastic strip) as mentioned elsewhere - suits me..

regards Tim..........

Hi,

I've been wetmounting my slides and multi pass scanning and acheiving very high resolution (difficult to see if it's less than just a single pass). So maybe it depends on your scanner? I am not using the holder, just using four spacers, one at each corner of my glass.

Tim