Need some advice regarding film scanning via flatbed or DSLR

So I have a Epson V600 that I used to scan photos for my big genealogical project. It hasn't done a bad job and I can live with that. Now I have a different project that I need some advice on. As you know, the V600 scan transparencies and negative, but just has the light coming down the middle and not the entire lid. I've been scanning negatives in via a DSLR on a copy stand that has worked well. What I want to do is to scan contact sheets (negatives contained in Print File Archival Preservers) in just to help locate the individual negs I want to scan or print. I saw it done on a YouTube video with a different scanner and it worked great. Is there any way I can used my existing V600 to scan a sheet at a time in using the light off the flatbed rather than the lid? If I absolutely can't use my v600 scanner for this then the only alternative as I see it is to put an appropriate focal length lens that would cover a full 8x10 on my camera mounted on the copy stand, lay the sheet of negs on the light table and then cover it with a piece of ANR glass and scan it that way. Thanks for your help. If I hadn't bought the V600 months ago I would have just purchased a scanner that has light in the entire lid, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Also, if the only way is to use the copy stand......for a low res scan of a contact sheet....is there any way I could get by with ordinary glass?

You could just make actual contact sheets on 8x10 silver gelatin paper. A box of 8x10x100 Arista.EDU can be had for less than $100. A gallon of Dektol and Kodak fixer will process a lot of paper. From there, you just need a safe light, a sheet of glass, a couple trays, a room that you can make reasonably dark after the sun goes down, and a halogen work light that you can point up at the ceiling and turn on and off easily. If you want to, you can hook it up to a cheap eBay enlarger timer. From there, just work out a rough exposure time and blast through it. You'd be amazed how much you can get through in a couple evenings. Then if you really want it digital, just scan the paper in as a reflective photo that the scanner can handle just fine.

Adrian Bacon said:

You could just make actual contact sheets on 8x10 silver gelatin paper. A box of 8x10x100 Arista.EDU can be had for less than $100. A gallon of Dektol and Kodak fixer will process a lot of paper. From there, you just need a safe light, a sheet of glass, a couple trays, a room that you can make reasonably dark after the sun goes down, and a halogen work light that you can point up at the ceiling and turn on and off easily. If you want to, you can hook it up to a cheap eBay enlarger timer. From there, just work out a rough exposure time and blast through it. You'd be amazed how much you can get through in a couple evenings. Then if you really want it digital, just scan the paper in as a reflective photo that the scanner can handle just fine.

Click to expand...

Yes, Adrian, that is always an option. Reminds me of the old days when I spent all night long with my Beseler 23C. Those where fun times! About 48 years ago!

If the contact sheets are really just for image location purposes, the easiest for you with your current setup might be to just use the DSLR. You don’t even need glass. Just put the negatives on your light table and use a wider angle lens and have at it. They won’t be perfect contact sheets, but it’ll be quick and you’ll be able to locate your images.

Using the V600, I suppose you can scan negatives contained in Print File Archival Preservers as strips and join them together as one.
If you mean strips of 35mm film in those plastic holders, even a scanner capable of 8X10 film cannot fully scan them while in the holder as they exceed the size limitation. as shown below.

Untitled by Les DMess, on Flickr


However, if you take them out of the holders, you can bunch them up even tighter then I did below - overlap some even, and you can get them in one scan.

Untitled by Les DMess, on Flickr


At 600dpi, they are useful in size and only takes about a minute to scan.