DIY glass film holder for Nikon 8/9000

After seeing many questions recently about getting film flat with the

non glass holder, the unreasonable expense of the 2 nikon glass

holders and the problems with Newtons rings and mask sizes with odd

film sizes i thought I would provide my solution which costs peanuts.

A picture as they say is worth a 1000 words so see the attachment.

Basicaly you remove the clamping mechanism from the standard film

holder and get 2 plates of 2mm (or less if you can get it) non

reflective glass cut to fit the space (make sure this is only

textured on 1 side and some glass is more frosted than others -get

the least textured you can find) You may need to put some tape on the

ends to stop the top glass sliding off. As you see here my glass is

too short - I used what I had lying around. As I have the rotating

holder and don't do much scnning these days i never got round to

doing it properly. Ah I hear you protesting that the textured glass

surface will make the scans soft and grainy - not true - and actualy

if you look very carfully the standard glass holders reduce sharpness

very slightly at 4000dpi

Do you use glass with the textured surface for both top and bottom glass? I assume you put the textured surface in contact with the film. What is driving the maximum 2mm glass thickness?

 

I have the Nikon FH-869G, but I get newton rings on some images and would like to solve this problem. I constructed two glassless strip holders for 6x6 (3 images) and 6 x 4.5 (4 images) that have support on all sided of the image, which gives me film flatness almost as good as the Nikon glass holder and no newton rings since there is no glass. My film is also cut in strips of 4 6x6 and 5 6x4.5 images, so I made the holder to accommodate the longer strips - I have to rotate the film to scan the additional frame.

FWIW, you can buy photographic quality anti-newton ring glass from Michael Sparks at Focal Point down in Florida (fpointinc.com?).

<p> Doug<p>

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mainintro.html">Dougs

MF Film Holder for batch scanning of 120/220 medium format film with flatbeds</a>

This tip was provided a few years ago in this forum, and I also had success. I simply brought the Nikon holder to a local art frame shop so they were able to custome cut the glass. The best $10 I've ever spent.

I find two types of glass - 1. anti-reflective, and 2. non-glare.

 

The anti-reflective has a coating evaporated on the glass and the non-glare is etched. Which of these are you using?

 

Did you find this glass at a picture framing shop?

Yes - anti glare (etched on 1 side) from a framing shop.

I've just purchased a 9000 scanner and was thinking of buying the 869M for

120 film mounted in slide holders. Has ANYONE tried this idea? I can't seem

to find anyone who has tried it.

Why not try it - it will cost you next to nothing and if I'm full of BS and it doesn't work you can spend the cost of a descent 35mm filmscanner to get the Nikon glass holder.

Okay John, I'll be the (maybe only?) person to try the slide mount holder for

the 9000, and Ill report back. And if it doesn't measure up, I'll give a go to your

"costs peanuts" solution.

Thanks!

I tried the non-glare glass (etched on one side) and put the etched side in contact with the film (top and bottom) and it works great. I get the best edge to edge sharpness using this techinque. I was concerned that this would affect image quality, but if it does it's very small. I am now going to install the glass in the FH-869S carrier and hindge the top glass to make it easy to use. I will probably make this my standard carrier for medium format rather than the Nikon FH-869G which I own since I get newton rings on some images with the Nikon glass carrier.