Wet mount for Nikon 9000 ED

<p>After an ungodly wait, my new Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED has been shipped. All along, I had expected to buy a wet mount device to mount and scan my black and white negatives. I tried to buy one today from Aztec, who said the one they advertise is no longer made, and another maker said the same thing. I do not want to spend my life clearing up dust and the like, and wet mounting my 5 X 7 negatives on the Epson Perfection Pro 750 has been very successful (less so for my 120 negatives). Does anyone know of any scource for a wet mount device for the Coolscan? Can I make one? Would any of the dry mount devices (glass carriers) sold by Nikon give me acceptable results?<br>

Thank you<br>

David</p>

<p>FreestylePhoto.biz sells the Better Scanning device. Looks pretty good.</p>

<p>Michael,<br>

I went to the Freestyle site and did several searches, but no luck finding the "Better Scanning device". Could you give us any more clues?<br>

Thanks - Greg</p>

 

<p>Check out <a href="http://www.scanscience.com">www.<strong>scanscience</strong>.com</a><br>

 

<p>I bought one kit but have not used it yet. I like the idea of the scanning fluid being non or at least less toxic. The aztec fluid is somewhat toxic and needs to be used with a lot of ventilation. So I could never get myself to use it.</p>

<p>The problem you will run into with MF is that even with the glass carrier will get newton rings when the film contacts the glass. I've had problems with MF flatness with the standard carrier. I'm hoping the fluid mounting will resolve the issues and give me more sucessfull scans. The scan science uses the Nikon glass carrier I thing, so you may need to buy one of those. </p>

<p>You will love the 9000, it can get nearly all the detail out of the film and the tools work well. IMO a large step up from Epson.</p>

</p>

<p>I've been using a Minolta MultiPro to scan my 6x7 transparencies and 100 TMax film. I recently experimented with oil-immersion (wet scanning) because I was interested in the scanscience kit for the MultiPro.<br>

You can check out my results at:<br>

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/multipro/message/3187<br>

Short summary... I was NOT impressed with the results of my oil immersion experiment with the B/W TMAX image I processed.<br>

Ken</p>

 

<p>I highly recommend the scanscience fluid and mount. It's the only thing I will use for 4x5" and can't imagine why it would be any different for a Nikon 9000. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Would any of the dry mount devices (glass carriers) sold by Nikon give me acceptable results?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not for dust, but it will provide across the frame sharp scans for really curvy film. If you want to save a couple of bucks, <a href="008Jf3">this thread describes how to build one easily</a> .</p>

<p>Personally, I have found neither glass carrier nor wet mount necessary with the 9000. I develop my own B&W. 98% of the time no spotting at all has been necessary. The Nikonscan ICE takes care of the odd, occasional C41 or E6.</p>

<p>With very curved film, it is the case that the entire frame may not be sharply focused. This has been fortunately, the exception rather than the norm. </p>

<p>In these cases, make multiple scans of the same frame, but manually focus the scanner on the trouble areas. The open source Enfuse program does a good job then of automatically stacking the multiple frames into a single, across the board grain sharp image.</p>

<p>I've been using the Coolscan 9000 for scanning B&W medium format for about six months now. I have no Newton ring issues with the glass carrier from Nikon. And for many scans, the standard carrier (the one that comes with the scanner, the one without the newton glass) works fine.</p>

<p>You can get completely carried away and spend an eternity trying to get this "perfect dustless scan", or you can use the tools readily available, spot the files where needed, and spend your time taking great images.</p>

<p>Best,<br /> -Tim</p>

<p>PS: Before I got my Coolscan 9000, I too waited many months. And I too worried about what mount to use, concerned that I would have a dust storm with each scan, or the images would be sharp in the middle and blurry as heck on the edges. It was all worry for nothing. Use the scanner with the carrier that comes with it. You will be amazed at the results. If they aren't good enough, pick up one of the Nikon newton glass carriers. I'd be willing to bet you won't need anything more.</p>

<p>Unless you are dealing with scratched film, I would say pass on the wet mount kits. I use a 9000 ED with both the glass holder and wet mount kit. I never use the wet mount, could have saved time and hassle by not buying it. I did day after day of side by side scans and found that my Kodachrome / Xpan slides actually looked better without. <br>

Save your self the hassle and money and just get the glass holder and be done with it. And I never get newton rings by the way.</p>

<p>Wet mounting is the way to go...<br>

http://www.weaved.net/wet.htm</p>