Hey all. I’m assembling my DSLR scanning rig and would like some advice.
I want to have the option of including film borders in my scans, and I don’t know of any film holders that allow this for medium format (Digitaliza holder does this only for 35mm), so I was thinking of sandwiching the film (emulsion side up) between two sheets of anti-newton ring glass. Is this a viable option? Will scanning through the ANR glass affect image quality since it is technically etched on one side? Should I instead use only one sheet of ANR glass to separate the film base from the light pad and then use a piece of regular or anti-reflective glass on top of the emulsion layer?
If anyone has any advice on this or suggestions on how I can otherwise have the option to include the borders for medium format please let me know! Thank you.
Hi! Here are few methods I’ve tried and my general takeaway:
Sandwiching the film between two pieces of ANR glass --> you don’t want to do this. Shooting through the glass gives an unwanted texture to the final result.
Taping the film directly to a light table --> not completely flat (but closer). Also prone to newton rings. Also, you will have a small piece of tape visible if you try to include the entirety of the film border.
Taping the film to a piece of ANR glass that is resting on the light table --> similar to #2, but slightly better because less likely to produce newton rings.
Wet-mounting the film using Epson Wet-mounting tray with kami fluid and optical mylar on top, then placing the wet-mounting tray a few inches above light tab --> Perfect flatness, perfect film borders, zero dust when done correctly.
If you have the time and patience, option #4 above really is the best. I’ve been using the Epson Fluid Mount Accessory and a kit from Aztec with the kami fluid and optical mylar. Happy with the results!
(Note that this was two shots, stitched together using Lightroom’s panoramic photo merge feature, which introduced a bit of skew unfortunately! Still working on a better way to deal with that!)
A sheet of ANR glass with vinyl dots in the corners to separate it from the light panel, and lightly tape the film on flat on the glass. I think the guy uses too much tape; I’d just tape the film at the very corners to make the film taut.
@nate Thank you for the breakdown! #4 does look great. I’d be inclined to give #3 a try first to see if the results are satisfactory. Maybe if I can get the film taut on the ANR glass, it’ll be flat enough like in the example @Skippy shared. In that thread as well, a user also showed this set up which I had a similar idea for just last night:
Two pieces of card stock/mount board with holes cut out for different formats, taped together like a book to separate the film from the light source. This should also hold the film flat on either side of the frame, and it exposes the border. I think this may also be a good option. I’m going to try this one first. I might even be able to get away with using only one piece of card stock on top since my light source has a textured, diffused surface which might not be prone to Newton Rings.
I had one other idea as well, where the base side of the film could lay on a piece of ANR glass, and instead of being sandwiched by ANR glass on top to keep it flat, it could be sandwiched on top by a photographic clear glass square filter or a piece of replacement lower glass from a flatbed scanner.
@asyoubreak this is an interesting idea. I’d imagine you’d have to apply some weight on it too. Did it work out? I’m thinking to try something similar…
I ended up just cutting a mask out with room for the entire frame, placing that on top of my light table, placing my negatives on top of that, and putting a piece of museum glass on top of my negatives to keep them flat. Not an ideal solution, but it’s simple and works for now. However dust is a bit of an issue since there are many surfaces to keep clean.
I have 3d printed borderless holders for 35mm and 120 film - the two part film holder is held together with magnets, and slides into a copy system I 3d printed to hold the light and film parallel to the camera. There is a small amount of bow to the 120 film, but the lens depth of field covers this without any issues.
Thank you for your tips! I scanned a small batch of negatives by sandwiching them between two sheets of ANR acrylic from Negative Supply. I do see the texture now that I look at the scans, but it sure made a nice easy way to scan odd size/single medium format negatives. Would true ANR glass still give a texture?
