# Homemade Wet Film Scan?



## eric-holmes (May 24, 2011)

Let's say I have a Epson V500 and I want to perform a wet film scan. Is it possible to buy and cut 2 pieces of glass to the size of a piece of paper, place one on the scanner bed, place the negative and proper liquid, place the second glass on top of it then scan the image. 

I am looking for a better image quality scan of my negatives as opposed to the typical negative holder. I was also hoping that this way I would be able to capture the border of the film negatives in the scan. I love seeing the border of the film.

Discuss...


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## eric-holmes (May 24, 2011)

Ps. Idea is based on Microbiology wet mounts.


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## KVRNut (May 24, 2011)

You might try looking at Wet Mounting & Fluid Scanning for some answers.  They may have the items you need.


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## eric-holmes (May 24, 2011)

I have ran across that site and that is why I was wondering if anyone has ever tried a homemade version. They don't have a kit for the V500 and although I could order a la carte from them I would rather try myself before I spend a lot of money on it.


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## molested_cow (May 24, 2011)

Never tried home made or any wet scan, but I can imagine what you are trying to do.

The think you should watch out for is, any layer of material between the film and the scanner bed may offset the focus. I think you can experiment with just sandwiching the film with single piece of thin glass or acrylic sheet. Basically, all you are trying to do is to have no air gap between the film and the scan bed, so it doesn't really matter how high quality the back piece is, as long as it lets light through well enough. Just apply a few drops of the fluid between the film and the scanner bed and the plastic sheet on top and close the bed. The only thing you will have to do by trial and error is bubbles.

Just make sure you don't let any moisture find its way into the scanner, otherwise I can imagine water vapors condensing on the other side of the glass.


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## eric-holmes (May 24, 2011)

I am afraid of putting the liquid directly on the scan glass for that exact reason. I found some glass that is 1/16" thick and that is probably no more think than what the film holder has between the glass and the negative.


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## Pgeobc (May 24, 2011)

Eric,

I have an Epson V750 and do liquid scanning. I think that placing a sheet of glass on the scanner bed would, in itself, produce Newton rings. You could just tape, using that green label Scotch Tape, the negative to the bed of the scanner and then add liquid. You'd have to find some way to get liquid under the negative and on the negative, plus you's still have to cover that with a mylar sheet and then get the air bubbles out. Epson does not recommend this method, but some have found it useful. Epson's recommendation is probably based on getting the scanning fluid into the scanner mechnism.

The Epson fluid scanning tray consists of a base that holds the scanning tray itself and that base has an alignment grid on it. The scanning tray is, I believe, sealed at the edges to prevent rundown of fluid onto the bed and into the scanner. In addition, it sits just a little ways off the bed and that prevents the Newton rings.

I really do not know what one would do for a home-grown scanning fluid. The commercial fluid is a medium molecular weight hydrocarbon of some sort. I wets the negative to provide initmate contact, but does not dissolve or soften the negative in any way. When done scanning, it dries in seconds. I don't think that you will get by without the fluid, but you can try it and see what happens.

Dust, hairs, dirt, and fingerprints are the bane and dispair of this process. Get some cheap, white, lintless cotton gloves and one of those lintless negative cleaning cloths, or some such other method for dealing with it.

Hope that helps.


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## Mike_E (May 25, 2011)

Home grown fluid = Ronsonal (a bit dangerous), dry cleaning fluid or pure mineral oil.  Don't use water.

From the Large Format Photography Forum:  There is one fairly easy way to scan a full 8X10 with fluid mount, without risking getting fluid on the scanner glass. Buy a piece of glass of the same size as the framing glass. It should just fit in the frame. Put very thin (abotu 1mm thick) shims on the four corners of the glass so that it floats just above the scanner glass. Test for best plane of focus with shims of different thickness, but best range should be between about 0.5mm and 2.0mm. 

Now flud mount your 8X10 negative to the under side of the glass (side with the shims), and tape the edges. Blue masking tape works fine for this. Be sure to clean the glass and negative well before mounting, and make sure you push out all of the bubbles between the mylar and negative. You may also fluid mount by sandwiching a thin sheet of mylar over the negative. However, I believe you will get just as good results by just fluid mounting the negative to glass (base side of film facing glass) with the emulsion facing the CCD. This is opposite orientation of what Epson recommends but it is consistent with what is recommended with high end desk top scanners. 

The above method has described before on this forum. It is very easy to implement this type of fluid mounting for 8X10 negatives.

Sandy

8x10 inch scanning with V700/750 - Large Format Photography Forum
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also:  I don't have a diagram, but the order of surfaces is, CCD>base glass of scanner>air space created by shims>emulsion side of negative>shiny base side of negative fluid mounted to glass, tape around edges>glass>light.


This is from research so YMMV    BTW  Scotch 600 tape is 0.058mm thick


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