Digital BW, The Print

My Polaroid 120 glass carrier arrived today.  I promised a quick assessment
to the list, so here it is.

First, the holder requires Insight 5.5.1, and firmware 1.33 or later (both
available for download at the Polaroid web site).  I ran most my tests using
Insight.  I did like its new ability to prescan an entire strip of 120
negatives, although it was rather slow at it.  After running my initial
tests, I also (with little hope) tried Silverfast, as it is what I'm
accustomed to using.  It turns out the holder works with Silverfast, save
two minor problems.  First, the scanned image is horizontally flipped
compared to the Insight scans.  Second, frame positioning is a bit off (the
holder has none of the standard 120 holder's film positioning markings), so
film may need to be jockeyed about in the holder to line up properly.  It
works well enough that I'll draw some alignment marks on my holder and
continue using only Silverfast with it.

Physically, the holder is quite similar to the standard 120 holder.  The
holder base is plastic (not aluminum, unfortunately), with an opening about
the length of the standard 120 holder, but clearly wider.  Glass is fixed in
both the hinged lid (hinged and latched just as in the standard 120 holder)
and the base.  The upper glass is anti-newton, and the lower glass appears
to be a more ordinary glass.  This should be adequate to prevent newton
rings (and worked flawlessly for my tests using TMAX 100 negs, the most
newton ring prone film I use).

The holder comes with a mask for 35mm panorama scanning, and a strange
"mask" that is nothing more than a thin strip notched every 1/2 cm or so.
An instruction sheet shows using this strip along the edge of 120 film, and
leaving it out for 35mm or 70mm.  The instruction sheet states that although
the software doesn't exist yet, the holder can be used to scan 35mm panorama
up to 65mm long (I don't see why someone would wait for software support for
this when it can be done using this holder and scanning 6x7 frame size) and
up to 6x17 (this, on the other hand, would be great).  I expect the notched
strip would be used to (hopefully automatically) align two scans for
stitching, where sprocket holes would suffice for 70mm and 35mm.  I didn't
use this strip for any of my tests.

So, what about performance?  I have run numerous 6x7 scans.  No newton
rings, and no problem getting out into the film margins and scanning well
into the frame numbers and film type letters.  No image area light falloff
or image cutoff whatsoever.  Scans appear tack sharp out to the corners
(although I have to say that my glassless carrier is impressively sharp,
even in its corners---I got this carrier mainly to avoid the standard holder
edge cutoff).  Excellent results, exactly what I hoped for.

Two (minor) gripes.  One, the carrier opening is a fair bit wider than the
120 film (to accomodate 70mm).  The film can slip out of square when locking
the carrier.  This doesn't always happen, and I'm confident I'll figure out
a way to keep it from happening (a tiny bit of tape, or maybe that goofy 120
mask strip, or maybe just work with it a bit and learn how to prevent
movement---it seems less of a problem as I use the carrier more).  Second
gripe, the holder provides six surfaces to collect dust rather than two.
That, of course, is a feature of all glass holders.  A good cleaning has
already taken care of much of the dust.  I expect antistatic brushes and
antistaticum cloth should take care of the rest (at least they did for my
wet darkroom).

I consider the gripes minor, and the results look great.  Having used it (at
least a bit), I'd certainly buy it again, and expect it to use it for all my
future 120 scanning.

--clyde