Epson V850 Pro 120 Negative Holder

_T_ · Sep 6, 2023

I think the fiddly work of modifying the thin plastic of the epson holders would end up being as difficult as having a made to spec holder printed.

Also I don’t own a v850 but the depth of focus on my v600 is deep enough that the micro adjustments of the better scanning holders are massive overkill. The reorientable inserts for adjusting depth included on the epson holders are more than good enough.

Alan Edward Klein · Sep 6, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
I will pass too. Besides Espon somehow send me not one but two complete sets of negative and slide holders. More I do not need. Better is what I would like.

V850 comes with two sets of holders.

mshchem · Sep 6, 2023

More than ever I'm convinced that an old fashioned negative carrier, a decent copy stand and a DSLR are the way to go for medium format film. I have a baby Nikon Coolscan V for 35mm slides. A friend abandoned a Nikon Coolscan 9000 in my camera room, but it's firewire apple etc, inscrutable to me.

JWMster · Sep 6, 2023

I have a Nikon Coolscan 8000 that grinds. It works, but alternate options... drove me to the Epson flatbed 850 even after giving some of the new DLSR scanning gear a whirl. That said, I have a killer 4X5 darkroom negative carrier.... so I think you're right... but you need the pixel shift thing to really be worth the squeeze at high quality.. and by that time, first thing you know, you're shooting that camera instead of film. Ask how I know . I have a rockstar copy stand bought used cheaply from Adorama.... it's just the whole dust thing is more difficult to deal with in DSLR scanning (translation: I haven't figured it out).

mshchem · Sep 6, 2023

JWMster said:
I have a Nikon Coolscan 8000 that grinds. It works, but alternate options... drove me to the Epson flatbed 850 even after giving some of the new DLSR scanning gear a whirl. That said, I have a killer 4X5 darkroom negative carrier.... so I think you're right... but you need the pixel shift thing to really be worth the squeeze at high quality.. and by that time, first thing you know, you're shooting that camera instead of film. Ask how I know . I have a rockstar copy stand bought used cheaply from Adorama.... it's just the whole dust thing is more difficult to deal with in DSLR scanning (translation: I haven't figured it out).

I hear you. I have a Canon scanner that I bought on what must have been a closeout from B&H that has cheapo, but quite functional film holders that I have made very usable scans of 6x17 Provia positives, had my, now gone, photo store make some 5' long panoramic prints, looked wonderful, but the days of custom RA4, in town, at old friend prices are long gone.

Sirius Glass · Sep 7, 2023

mshchem said:
More than ever I'm convinced that an old fashioned negative carrier, a decent copy stand and a DSLR are the way to go for medium format film. I have a baby Nikon Coolscan V for 35mm slides. A friend abandoned a Nikon Coolscan 9000 in my camera room, but it's firewire apple etc, inscrutable to me.

You just need to buy and Apple computer. Problem solved.

SodaAnt · Sep 7, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
You just need to buy and Apple computer. Problem solved.

Apple abandoned Firewire over a decade ago. You can get Firewire adapters for a Mac, but you can also get them for a Windows PC.

ant! · Sep 7, 2023

Firewire can be added easily to any desktop with a PCI card. My 2013 Lenovo Thinkpad T540p has a ExpressCard slot, and I found a Firewire card for CAD 20. This Firewire ExpressCard is out of the box supported in all current Ubuntu versions (I use Kubuntu), never tried it in Windows. Vuescan works without problems in Ubuntu, I do the further processing in Darktable/negadoctor.

MTGseattle · Sep 7, 2023

All this talk of Epson 120 holders had me doing a new search for 120 capable scanners.
Alas, there's nothing new.

As to older stuff. I've only done cursory reading on keeping older mac products going. There are tons of people doing it, so the info is readily available. Get it running, make sure it's stable, turn off any/all auto updates, and you should be totally fine. My sister bought a 2013 macbook simply for the various ports that were available compared to whatever the generation was at the time that killed everything minus usb-c and thunderbolt.
I may have the date/year wrong, but you get the idea. Like after iphone 6 nothing had a true headphone jack anymore. Apple loves to do stuff like that.

Where are folks sourcing anr glass these days?

Steven Lee · Sep 7, 2023

MTGseattle said:
Where are folks sourcing anr glass these days?

I got mine from Negative Supply.

blee1996 · Sep 7, 2023

Maybe we should ask Negative Supply to produce some improved V700/800/850 120 negative carriers...

mshchem · Sep 7, 2023

ant! said:
Firewire can be added easily to any desktop with a PCI card. My 2013 Lenovo Thinkpad T540p has a ExpressCard slot, and I found a Firewire card for CAD 20. This Firewire ExpressCard is out of the box supported in all current Ubuntu versions (I use Kubuntu), never tried it in Windows. Vuescan works without problems in Ubuntu, I do the further processing in Darktable/negadoctor.

I think I have a 10 year old PC that........ Nevermind!

Patrick Robert James · Sep 8, 2023

I have my Nikon 4000 connected to a current Silicon Mac with, ready for this, a f400-f800/f800-Thunderbolt2/Thunderbolt2-Thunderbolt4 string of adapters and running it with Vuescan. Can't believe it works. Looks ridiculous, but it works. The peeps at the Apple store looked at me with that dumb dog look when i tried to tell them what I needed. I eventually got someone that understood, but at one point I had four of them staring at me. Lol.

SodaAnt · Sep 8, 2023

Yep, same here. The twenty-somethings working at the local Apple Store were in elementary school when Apple stopped using Firewire.

mshchem · Sep 8, 2023

Sounds like I need to give it back to my friend.

Epson V850 Pro 120 Negative Holder

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency