Flat Film in Epson V750 Pro? No!

<p>I shot some 120 Ilford HP5+ in my studio today and developed it. The negatives looked fine. The scans however did not.<br>

I noticed that the 120 film did not lie flat in the holder and refused to lie flat. It had quite a buckle, in fact. I got soft, fuzzy scans of my sharp negs. Frequently, I exhale very gently onto the emulsion side of my 120 film to get it a little flatter. The emulsion side is up, by the way. This did no good either doing it before I closed the holder or after.<br>

I opened the holder and tried to 'wiggle' the film a little from side to side and noticed that between the film guides inside the 120 holder there was not enough room for the width of my film! The film itself was wider than the space Epson allowed for it. This forced it to buckle.<br>

I clipped the strip of film to just the one frame I wanted to scan and trimmed the width of it by a millimeter or two and then it fit and lay flat. This is a solution that works but it is disconcerting. It is a pain in the butt and it seems someone (other than myself) screwed up.<br>

Is my Ilford film a millimeter too wide or is my Epson 750 film holder a millimeter too narrow. It sounds absurd but this is the difference between sharp scans and lousy scans. I do NOT want to have to trim every frame I scan!<br>

Anyone else see this in their film/scanner combination?</p><div></div>

<p>Its a common problem and why drum scanners have, well drums you can wrap the film around tightly. Many such scanners as you're using try to get away by using wider depth of field but as we all know, there's only really one sharp point of focus. That said, I believe you can get a gel mounting kit that will solve this and a host of other problems like dust, newton rings etc. A bit messy but the results are vastly superior scans. </p>

<p>You could try tapping the film down on the glass but now newton rings, which are basically impossible to retouch out result. </p>

<p>Peter, I have the same scanner. The Epson holders not only don't hold the film flat, they rarely can be adjusted to the exact focus point of the scanner. Solution: Doug Fishers ajustable film holder found here: <a href="http://www.betterscanning.com/">http://www.betterscanning.com/</a><br>

They will turn your good scanner into a great film scanner. I'm not affiliated with them, just a happy customer.</p>

<p>I've used betterscanning.com's 35mm glass inserts and been very happy with them. I recently got a medium format camera and I'm going to get a MF holder as well. Highly recommended. In addition to improving the scan quality I find using glass instead of snap-together holders make loading and unloading film much faster.</p>

<p>I've never had a film that didn't fit in the holders. I have had some that is very curly though. One solution is to get the betterscanning holders. If you want something cheaper, get a piece of anti-reflective glass cut to fit into the film holder channels.</p>

<p>Lay the film in the channel, then lay the glass on top, "rough" side down. Alternatively, tape the ends of the film to the glass strip, and lay that in the film holder. Experiment with which side of the film to lay the glass on, I have found emulsion side to the glass works well (no newton rings)</p>

<p>I second the experience of Ilford film being slightly wide - I had to trim one to get it into the holder of my Epson 2450. It took me a while to work out why I couldn't get the film into the holder, I thought it was me at first.</p>

<p>The adjustable focus Betterscanning.com film holder holds 120 film flat, as well as in focus: two related challenges. It's fussy labor to get it initially focused (myriad tiny allen-wrench screws, counting turns, lots of test scans) but it's stable once done. The clip-in film-holding bars are also fussy, but they do their job as well as anything short of glass. I've also used Betterscanning's AN glass carrier (non-focusing) ... it's a distinct improvement over Epson's, but not quite as good as the adjustable. This is with an old 3200 scanner.</p>

<p>I use the Betterscanning holder and a AN glass to fit the channels, also from them, so my scans are generally speaking pretty good. The Betterscanning holder is a significant improvement. But I need to temper all this with realism. I use my scans for the web of occasionally for small prints. I don't expect to make big prints from them and if I did I would not use this scanner. You are not going to get, for example scans as good as you can get from a Nikon 9000, or an Imacon, or a drum scan. </p>

<p>Here's another plug for the adjustable betterscanning MF holder with the AN glass. It's not hard to dial in the proper height, maybe 30-60 minutes of test scans and adjustments. And then you're set. My scans have been exhibited at A2 size, but that's the absolute limit on sharpness with them I believe. I've compared my scans to a Nikon 8000, and they're comparable. I've also had identical negtatives scanned on an Imacon at my lab, and the difference is there, but negligible. This surprised both me and the Imacon operator. Now I'm talking B&W negatives, not colour transparencies, whose black density might be too much for the Epson.</p>

<p>OK guys, I went ahead and bought the BetterScanning holder. It's on its way. Now, while I wait, I am trimming 1mm off the edge of the film strips and finding they lie perfectly flat. How stupid is that? Blame Ilford or blame Epson?</p>

<p>I look forward to my new film holder and thank you all for your input. You guys are great. I will follow-up post when I have scanned with the new holder.</p>