Betterscan negative holder

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Does anyone have one of these and does it make that much difference?

Im using the standard holder that came with my v750 for my 120 negatives and it doesnt seem too bad, but im always on the look out for a better sharper scan if poss :)

Just looking at the betterscan website however doesnt fill me with a lot of confidence. Just the general cheapness of the site puts me off a bit, if they couldnt put much effort into that just how is the quality of the final product?

It going to work out to about £70 so was just wondering if people who did order one noticed that much difference and also delivery times etc. And is this the only place to get one? would be nice if there was a uk supplier.

http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/vseries.html
 
Yes, and I think so. I use it with the V500 and the biggest difference over the standard holder thet ships with the V500 is that it keeps the negative flatter whilst scanning. If it really made that much difference, I couldn't be entirely sure as I also researched and adjusted my scanning workflow around the same time.

One thing you need to factor into the price, BetterScanning are honest sellers. Therefore the declared value on the package will be the actual value. Therefore expect VAT plus the Post Office handling fee on top of the retail price. Delivery was very quick, it shipped the day after ordering and was with me inside of a week. There is no other source for these, unless you find one secondhand.
 
Make your own! I did and it works better than the Epson holders.

I made up holders for my scanners (epson 3200 and v500). I spent quite a bit of time doing multiple scans on tilted metal rulers to work out a good focus height (you can remember some trigonometry from school here!). Ended up about 2.2mm for the 3200 and 1.9mm for the v500. I then got a selection of thicknesses of black polystyrene (it's not foam, but solid plastic, hobby shops here call it plasticard) and cut out a channel suitable for my medium format film in each one and layered them together with plastic glue. I also used the film holder from the scanner as a template to work out where I needed to remove a rectangle for the printer to calibrate itself. As a glass holder I got some acid-etched non-reflective glass from a local framing shop cut to 22x10cm. I then got some 5mm thick black foamboard and cut it to shape over the plasticard with a larger cutout area for the glass holder. Mount the negative with the curl away from the bed of the scanner and then put the glass in place, acid etched side against the negative. It sounds involved, but it only took a few hours, with the longest time being the calibration of focus height (since I did not include a way to change it easily, I wanted it right first time). Total cost was about £11. The negs are flat, and from my height calibration scans, should definitely be in a plane that is noticeably sharper.
 
thanks for that peeps, gives me a little more confidence with them. I didnt think about the VAT though! thats a bit annoying.

Im hopeless with anything involving craft skills! But i like the idea of scanning in a tilted ruler to work out the best height. Top idea!
 
essexash said:
It going to work out to about £70 so was just wondering if people who did order one noticed that much difference and also delivery times etc. And is this the only place to get one? would be nice if there was a uk supplier.
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There is no need to splash out that amount to test the idea. The Scanassist is a lot cheaper (though it is not a holder just a glass cut out for your Epson standard holder size). I found it on MFLenses forum and it had good feedback there. Bought two glass inserts from them for MF and 35mm and all cost me about 17 pounds with delivery.

It works quite nicely to keep film flat so my scans are a lot better now. I would not use it with ICE though - the glass edges can cause some strange reflections on the scan when ICE uses infrared.
 
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Cuchulainn said:
Make your own! I did and it works better than the Epson holders.

I made up holders for my scanners (epson 3200 and v500). I spent quite a bit of time doing multiple scans on tilted metal rulers to work out a good focus height (you can remember some trigonometry from school here!). Ended up about 2.2mm for the 3200 and 1.9mm for the v500.
Click to expand...

Could you perhaps share some details of that - I am not sure I understood how you did it? The photos would be fantastic (of the setup and possibly of the finished item) and of immense help.

I have pondered the height adjustment for V500 but my experiments show that it does not have a significant gain - this scanner has a wide DOF area and film seem to be scanned pretty much the same whether it is lying on a glass of the scanner bed directly or 5mm above it (for me at least). I'd love to do more precise testing of this hence the questions above.
 
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I've not got photos of the calibration setup, but here's my calculations from my calibration session:
Sin is Opposite/Hypotenuse



Definitions:Object: the ruler/marked slide/other thing used to estimate the focus position. Checking, I actually used regular marks on thin masking tape on a piece of glass, Focus: the (z) focal plane, position: the location of focal plane on object's length, height: the height of the shim that raises the object, run: the total length of object

Angle object is resting as is arcsin(Height/run)

-> Focus = position*sin(arcsin(Height/run))
(I know this is redundant, but like to have things explicitly written out for sanity checks)

Height = 19.7mm
Run = 220mm
sin(arcsin(height/run) = 19.7/220 = 0.0895
Measured position = 21.6mm
-> Actual Focus = 1.93mm

Hope this helps. I'll take a picture of the final holder over the next day or two and post it up here.
 
yeah thats pretty interesting. It would also be good to see a before and after if you had one? As Dalex mentioned, i always assumes a quite large dof on the scanners and a mm or 2 closer or further away from the scan surface wouldnt make a lot of difference. I also like the idea of that scan assist thing :) seems a bit more near my budget. Although it doesnt look that clear in the pdf on the website. Surely you'd want a crystal clear peice of glass to hold the negative down.
 
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essexash said:
Although it doesnt look that clear in the pdf on the website. Surely you'd want a crystal clear peice of glass to hold the negative down.
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Nop - quite the opposite. You want one side of the glass touching the film to be matte (the betterscanning one is also like that). If you use just plain glass it can cause newton rings where the glass touches the film. remember the glass covers the side of the film where the backlight is and that does not have to be transparent - the scanning sensor is underneath.
 
That ScanAssist looks interesting, and I've been looking for an alternative to the woefully overpriced BetterScan holders. Shame they don't list the Epson 4180 as a compatible model, because I think the design of the film inserts is different to the newer models, but might fire them an email asking...
 
freecom2 said:
That ScanAssist looks interesting, and I've been looking for an alternative to the woefully overpriced BetterScan holders. Shame they don't list the Epson 4180 as a compatible model, because I think the design of the film inserts is different to the newer models, but might fire them an email asking...
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You can mail him - I believe he also does custom cut outs. The guy name is Mikołaj.
 
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well its just a strip of plastic/glass , im sure all he does is chop out a strip off a sheet for orders anyway :) Got one on order so will see how it goes. Im pretty impressed with those sample images, although my negs arent as curly as the one he's showing!
 
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essexash said:
well its just a strip of plastic/glass , im sure all he does is chop out a strip off a sheet for orders anyway :) Got one on order so will see how it goes. Im pretty impressed with those sample images, although my negs arent as curly as the one he's showing!
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The difference for me was less dramatic for the negatives that curl only slightly but it is *a lot* easier to load any film with this - just place it in a holder slots and put the glass onto the slot from the end of it. It really hard to get misaligned film like that unlike with Epson own holder clip.

The difference was quite substantial for MF films that I had developed in one lab that didn't cut it and gave it back to me in a roll (it's very curly).
 
Right, here are a couple of pics of my homemade holder! The stuff on the edges of the glass is just thin tape so I don't cut my fingers! It's thinner than film, so the plate ends up resting on the film properly to keep it flat. And the foamboard is just there to protect the lid of the scanner from the glass, so it's put somewhat randomly in place! The length of the cut in the base allows me to scan 4 6x4.5 images at a time.

ScannerHolder.jpg


ScannerHolder2.jpg
 
From what I have seen both ScanAssist and Better Scanning use glass which is exactly the same as Skan Glareguard non reflective 2mm picture framing glass, this is glass that has been lightly etched on one side to break up light reflections. I bought a 20x30 inch sheet from Lion picture frames in Birmingham for around a fiver and cut a piece from that to fit into the medium format film holder for my Polaroid Sprintscan 120, works very well. I think a lot of picture framers around the country should be able to supply a suitable piece of cut glass if you ask for above type.
 
thats cool, just a shame they dont deliver! Theres a picture framer in my local market though so i'll have a word with im at the weekend to see if he uses the stuff.
 
Did anyone get a ScanAssist in the end? It's been on my to-do list for a long time.
 
I got two as I said before - what do you wanted to know? Any details - just let me know and I'll try to answer the questions. I have been using them with my films for a few months now.
 
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dalex_257 said:
I got two as I said before - what do you wanted to know? Any details - just let me know and I'll try to answer the questions. I have been using them with my films for a few months now.
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In general, were they worth the money, any noticeable difference?
 
freecom2 said:
In general, were they worth the money, any noticeable difference?
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Yes - for me the sharpness is improved a lot. I actually went through my films and re-scanned what I did before even though it took a lot of time. IMO for the money it is a bargain.

The only thing it didn't improve was some of my 35mm films that were very flat already (used to store them under a pile of books so over the years they got really flat). But for me was definitely worth it for MF films as none of mine wants to stay flat enough without Scanassist.
 
That sounds fantastic - I've ordered one for 120, even my beloved T-Max 400 seems to be curling on me more and more these days!
 
Have you noticed an improvement on films that already sit relatively flat? Or just films that curl like a monster...?
 
It's a good question - the guy who cuts these down recommends on his website just to use the stock holder for flat films. Would be interesting to test any difference though.
 
Haha - to be honest, pretty much all of my 120 seems to curl. I don't know if I don't weigh them down enough when I dry them, but a flat negative sheet is rarer and rarer...
 
I find that none of my 120 films can be held perfectly flat by standard holder alone. But the I did order 120 holder glass and 35 film glass and most of my 35 films are quite flat so to me the glass didn't make a lot of difference.
 
dalex_257 said:
There is no need to splash out that amount to test the idea. The Scanassist is a lot cheaper (though it is not a holder just a glass cut out for your Epson standard holder size). I found it on MFLenses forum and it had good feedback there. Bought two glass inserts from them for MF and 35mm and all cost me about 17 pounds with delivery.

It works quite nicely to keep film flat so my scans are a lot better now. I would not use it with ICE though - the glass edges can cause some strange reflections on the scan when ICE uses infrared.
Click to expand...

I think I will look at getting one of these in the new year, I am sure my scanning can be improved with a better holder...
 
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