Better Scanning

Finally I received Doug Fisher's film holders and anti-newtonring glasses for my Epson V700 scanner (www.betterscanning.com). I ordered them long ago but a hickup at the Belgian postal services made that they were sent back to Doug. They crossed the ocean three times to get on my desk. The holders and glasses are a huge improvement. This is not difficult as the holders that come with the scanner are plain rubbish. It's remarkable that Epson persists in this annoying malpractice of shipping very good scanners with useless holders. Doug's products are very well made and the ANR glasses are very easy to use. In fact, they work so well that I'm tempted to use them all the time to keep my film flat (as opposed to the fairly small and delicate t-locks that come with the holder). Some may object to having an additional glass surface in between the lens and the neg, but I honestly can't see any detrimental effects. The scans are very clean and crisp. I have rescanned some negatives that gave me trouble and some are much easier to scan, some aren't. In the latter case I think it is just a particular kind of microdetail in the picture (ripples on waves, for example) that the scanner is not able to resolve. I have no other explanation for the phenomenon. Above is an example of a negative that was easy to scan as opposed to earlier trials. It was taken in 2005 during a few days in the Wildstrubel area, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland (Voigtlander Bessa L, Heliar 15mm). The pebbles in the foreground are well rendered. There is plenty of crisp detail that I didn't have before. I am happy to be finally up to speed with my scanner. It is absolutely key if one wants to hold on to film and develop a solid hybrid workflow.