Focal Point AN Glass for Coolscan 9000 35mm negative holder

silentworld · Mar 2, 2010

I have a Coolscan 9000 and the MF glass holder. It was an amazing how well the holder works for holding the film flat.

However, using the stock 35mm holder from Nikon has been a hit or miss. For some frames, I feel that the edges are not as sharp as the center, probably due to the film flatness problem. After doing some research, I found that Focal Point provides some AN glasses for the Nikon 35mm holder. I am wondering if anyone would have some experience with the AN Glass + Nikon holder combo. Do you like the result? Would the additional glass tend to cause the holder to pop within the scanner and therefore jam the scanner? I would also appreciate any other tips that could be used to get most out of a 35mm negative using a Coolscan 9000.

By the way, I heard that the Nikon 35mm holder's locking system could be worn out after about 500 times of opening and closing. I am wondering if anyone has experienced this problem. If that is the case, I may need to order another holder just for backup.

Thanks!

nsouto · Mar 2, 2010

I use the Focalpoint AN glass in my 35mm 9000 holder.

Initially, I used it with the flap cover in the original hlder. It promptly jammed in the scanner.

So, I proceeded to remove the flap cover and just sticky-tape the ANglass on top of the film strips. That worked really well, until the multiple sticky-tape applications created a mess.

I then arrived at my current solution: I've made a rectangular frame out of brass rod from a model shop, which is hinged in the original flap cover holes and is held in place with four small tabs made out of electronic connectors, held in place by self-tapping screws.

The film goes in first, emulsion side down, then the AN glass strips, then the frame goes over and the tabs are rotated to hold the frame in place and tight against the holder.

This takes care of most curled film, with only nutcase exceptions still being a problem. And it easily clears the entrance gate of the 9000, without any jamming.

If you want I can take some snaps of my setup and post them here. I got the inspiration from a similar frame shown in photo archive of the yahoo 9000 scanner group.

One word of warning: the AN glass is fairly fragile and it is easy to break off the edges of the film strips. Get a few extra spares just in case.
Also, check the width of the strips: sometimes they need a little bit of a trim as they may not match your holder exactly. The holders vary in width of the strip channel.

Don't know of any wear problems of the holder. But I do know that an overly firm entrance door cover spring in the 9000 can bend the 35mm holder out of horizontal while it is still half hanging out, with detrimental results in the focus point. Ie: the ideal focus point will change drastically as the holder is pulled in, which destroys the ability to batch scan. I've replaced the spring in my 9000 door with a weaker one, which doesn't cause the problem.

pschwart · Mar 3, 2010

nsouto said:
I use the Focalpoint AN glass in my 35mm 9000 holder.

Initially, I used it with the flap cover in the original hlder. It promptly jammed in the scanner.

So, I proceeded to remove the flap cover and just sticky-tape the ANglass on top of the film strips. That worked really well, until the multiple sticky-tape applications created a mess.

I then arrived at my current solution: I've made a rectangular frame out of brass rod from a model shop, which is hinged in the original flap cover holes and is held in place with four small tabs made out of electronic connectors, held in place by self-tapping screws.

The film goes in first, emulsion side down, then the AN glass strips, then the frame goes over and the tabs are rotated to hold the frame in place and tight against the holder.

This takes care of most curled film, with only nutcase exceptions still being a problem. And it easily clears the entrance gate of the 9000, without any jamming.

If you want I can take some snaps of my setup and post them here. I got the inspiration from a similar frame shown in photo archive of the yahoo 9000 scanner group.

One word of warning: the AN glass is fairly fragile and it is easy to break off the edges of the film strips. Get a few extra spares just in case.
Also, check the width of the strips: sometimes they need a little bit of a trim as they may not match your holder exactly. The holders vary in width of the strip channel.

Don't know of any wear problems of the holder. But I do know that an overly firm entrance door cover spring in the 9000 can bend the 35mm holder out of horizontal while it is still half hanging out, with detrimental results in the focus point. Ie: the ideal focus point will change drastically as the holder is pulled in, which destroys the ability to batch scan. I've replaced the spring in my 9000 door with a weaker one, which doesn't cause the problem.

I also removed the stock top flap, but I use 2 pieces of ANR glass from FocalPoint to sandwich the negative. I use this arrangement with both the 35mm and medium format Nikon film holders. My scans are sharp edge-to-edge.

silentworld · Mar 3, 2010

nsouto/pschwart,

Many thanks for your comments!

nsouto, if you don't mind, could you post a few pics of your modified holder? Hopefully it is not very complicated as I don't think I am handy enough to do a big tooling job. Regarding using the tape to hold the glass in place, could you let me know what tape you use? Is it the strong one like a duct tape or just a simple scotch tape. I am not sure if the scotch tape could become loose and get the holder to get stuck in the scanner.

pschwart, I am wondering how you would secure the AN glass in the holder. Do you use sticky tape as well? In addition, I noticed that Focal Point also offers clear glass for the nikon 35mm holder. is it worth trying? When you use two AN glasses, is there any image degradation because of the glass between the film and the scanner lens?

pschwart · Mar 3, 2010

silentworld said:
nsouto/pschwart,

Many thanks for your comments!

nsouto, if you don't mind, could you post a few pics of your modified holder? Hopefully it is not very complicated as I don't think I am handy enough to do a big tooling job. Regarding using the tape to hold the glass in place, could you let me know what tape you use? Is it the strong one like a duct tape or just a simple scotch tape. I am not sure if the scotch tape could become loose and get the holder to get stuck in the scanner.

pschwart, I am wondering how you would secure the AN glass in the holder. Do you use sticky tape as well? In addition, I noticed that Focal Point also offers clear glass for the nikon 35mm holder. is it worth trying? When you use two AN glasses, is there any image degradation because of the glass between the film and the scanner lens?

sorry, I misspoke. I use one piece of ANR and one piece of clear glass for each film holder (not 2 pieces of ANR). I hinge them together with some heavy clear tape. The FocalPoint glass is cut so that it just drops into the Nikon holder after removing the top flap of the film holder.

silentworld · Mar 3, 2010

pschwart said:
sorry, I misspoke. I use one piece of ANR and one piece of clear glass for each film holder (not 2 pieces of ANR). I hinge them together with some heavy clear tape. The FocalPoint glass is cut so that it just drops into the Nikon holder after removing the top flap of the film holder.

Thanks! i just got home and pull out my film holder to envision how it would work. I would appreciate it if you could help me with a few more specific questions:

1. Can the top flap of the holder be put back on after I remove it? Would be permanently damaged during the removal?
2. Would the two pieces of the glasses be heavy enough to hold the film flat without the need of pressure from the top flap?
3. Is there any special way to fix the glass position in the holder once the top flap is off? Since Coolscan 9000 moves the holder to scan, is it possible that the two pieces of glasses would move forward or back when the holder moves?

I got a lot of 35mm film sitting in my freezer right now. If this work out well, I would be in heaven. Thanks again for your advice!

pschwart · Mar 3, 2010

comments inline

silentworld said:
Thanks! i just got home and pull out my film holder to envision how it would work. I would appreciate it if you could help me with a few more specific questions:

1. Can the top flap of the holder be put back on after I remove it? Would be permanently damaged during the removal?
I have never put mine back on, but if you are careful when removing it, this should not be a problem.

2. Would the two pieces of the glasses be heavy enough to hold the film flat without the need of pressure from the top flap?
You can't use the flap with glass. If you have a severely curled neg you could just use a couple of pieces of tape to secure the sandwich or use a thicker piece of glass on top.

3. Is there any special way to fix the glass position in the holder once the top flap is off? Since Coolscan 9000 moves the holder to scan, is it possible that the two pieces of glasses would move forward or back when the holder moves?
I just use a small piece of tape to make sure the glass stays put.

I got a lot of 35mm film sitting in my freezer right now. If this work out well, I would be in heaven. Thanks again for your advice!

silentworld · Mar 3, 2010

Great! I will try to order some focal point glass and give it a try as well. Thanks!

i40west · Mar 4, 2010

I have a Nikon 5000, and I'm not aware of a glass holder for that scanner. What I did was buy a box of Gepe glass slide mounts, and when I have a frame that won't behave, I put it in one of those.

It works great, but the problem is that I have to cut the frame out of the film to do it. If there exists a glass holder for film strips for the Nikon 5000 I'd love to know about it...

silentworld · Mar 4, 2010

i40west, I hate to cut the strip to single frames as well. that is why I want to find some alternative solution. There is not ready to use glass holder available. What we are talking about is the focal point AN glasses.

http://www.fpointinc.com/glass.htm

It makes AN glasses for certain Nikon Coolscan 9000 film holders. Unfortunately, I don't think it offers another for Coolscan 5000. Maybe you could order a custom made glass from it for FH-3 holder?

nsouto · Mar 7, 2010

Sorry for the late reply, been busy as heck.

Here is a view of the hinge method for the brass frame, I just re-use the prior holes for the original flap:
View attachment 447
And this is the frame in place, with the glass under it, but not locked by the tabs:
View attachment 448
Sorry for the handheld fuzz, didn't have my tripod on hand. Hopefully this will give you a general idea of what/how this thing works.
Anything not clear, just holler.

silentworld · Mar 8, 2010

nsouto, thanks! it is a really simple and good design. Unfortunately I don't have the tools to put the frame together myself. I wish someone could have a commercialize version of a similar design, which could be used for both the standard 35mm and MF holders of Coolscan 9000. However, I guess the market could be too small to make the effort worthwhile. I have to try the rudimentary tape thing first to see if it works for me or not.

nsouto · Mar 8, 2010

Part of the problem is the large variation in dimensions between the same type of holder.
I've got two 35mm holders and the channel width dimensions are quite different, by more than a millimeter.
Makes it impossible to do anything else than a custom job for each case.
This one had to be adjusted a few times before I got it to "slot-in".

Focal Point AN Glass for Coolscan 9000 35mm negative holder

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