Jazz & Silver

If you happen to own a dedicated film scanner, you might have experienced what happens when your film isn't absolutely flat. What happens is what would happen in an enlarger; the edges of the frame lose sharpness.

     I scan my film in a second hand Minolta dimage scan elite 5400 (original version), and I am quite happy with the results. The dynamic range is noticably better compared to the minolta dual scan III I used previously. If you have ever attempted to scan black and white film, you know you need that dynamic range! The scan elite has very nice optics and a high resolution sensor. I think the entire package compares favourably with the more expensive nikon coolscan 35mm models.

     One of the things that improved the quality of my scans was switching to Vuescan (www.hamrick.com). Vuescan allows for multi sampling and multiple passes. This multi exposure mode works like a HDR (High Dynamic Range) capable digital camera. It makes one scan with a short exposure time for the shadow detail, the least dense parts of the negative, and one scan with a longer exposure time for the highlights, the area of the negative with the highest density. The multi exposure mode is a really neat feature for black and white enthusiasts. Film scanners have always had trouble burning through dense negatives, because its basically solid silver!

    To further improve your scan, you can add a piece of glass to the negative carrier to keep your negative flat and improve edge sharpness. The glass needs to be treated to prevent the formation of Newton rings. (an optical effect that occurs when light passes the interface of two very smooth surfaces such as regular glass and your film base material.) Because there is no glass negative carrier for the Minolta I build my own from a broken piece of anti-newton ring glass and a negative carrier for mounted slides. It isn't pretty, but I do get uniform sharpness now.

Durst Sivogla AN glass for Durst enlargers.

The glass I used was a broken piece of anti-newton glass for a Durst m605 enlarger. The part is called Sivogla AN and you should be able to find it on auction sites or in a darkroom.

     Since I do not shoot any slide film, I modified the carrier for mounted slides to take a film strip and the anti-newton ring glass. The only thing I had to do was to cut away some plastic ribs on the base of the carrier and to cut theglass to size. I used a very sharp hobby knife and some waterproof sandpaper for the carrier, and a regular glass cutter for the glass.

Just add film.

Intructions for use: First put the film in the carrier, emulsion side down. The emulsion side is facing away from you when you can read the frame numbers. Next, put the anti-newton ring glass on top of the frame you want to scan. The shiny side goes up. Finally, close the carrier and scan your frame as usual.