Digital BW, The Print

Nancy Wilson wrote:
> I have access to about 200 glass negatives, many of which are 5 x 7 
> and some of which are cut in half on the long side at 4 x 5 size.  I 
> have an Epson 2450 scanner. Although it comes with a 4x5 film scanner, 
> the 4x5 glass negative does not fit in it, and I have no carrier for 
> the 5x7.
> 
> Has anyone ever scanned these negatives?  Any suggestions?  Should I 
> try to make a cardboard holder?
> 
> Can the glass set right on the glass on the scanner?  Emulsion side 
> up?  Down?
> 
> Any resolution suggestions.
> 
> Nancy

The 2450 will not have a backlight area large enough to cover 
5x7 size.If I recall it correctly the film scan width or lamp 
width is 110 mm, approximately 4.3 inch.The next problem will 
be that most old glass negatives have a thick emulsion-high 
fog level so need a lot of light to get a good scan. The 2450 
and 3200 lamphouses are made with two stationary  fluorescent 
tubes that lit the overall filmscan area by a diffused sheet 
of plastic that gives a quite even level of light but not much 
of it + the space between lamp house and scanbed can get quite 
hot as a result of that design. For both a wider filmscan area 
and more light by a synced moving scan light you better get 
one of the later models 4990 or the V700/V750. The last two 
have an extra lens with more resolution that will cover a 150 
x 247 filmscan area, large enough for 5x7.

Make two black cardboard holders portrait mode in the scan 
direction and with a thickness that is close to the focus of 
the scanners mentioned. The windows to cut should be cropped 
as much as possible and the mask cover the entire scan bed to 
keep flare low. There has to be a calibration slit at the 
start like on the normal holders. You may add a grey strip of 
film there on that slit that comes close in density to the 
base glass negative emulsion.  Put the glass negative with the 
emulsion under on the mask/holder. That way the optical path 
is best, the emulsion is in focus and heat is kept away from 
the emulsion itself.

You better get Vuescan to drive the scanner as there's more 
control on the custom window size you work with and it has 
different modes for longer exposures which you will need on 
glass negatives.

www.hamrick.com

for finding the focus see:

http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/Epson_flatbeds.html

To stay on topic it would be better to subscribe to one or 
more of the Epson Scanner mailing lists at Yahoo :-)


Met vriendelijke groeten,  Ernst


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