Negative Supply Pro Riser MK 2

I love my Negative Supply gear! It's well made and for the most part, well designed. The Pro Riser MK 2 was an early product with a few flaws. First, the adjustable feet are optional and fairly expensive for what you get. Also, if you are using one of the Lightsource Pro's, there is a plastic bulb on the cord from the power supply that is about two inches from the plug end. With the regular feet, it's too big to slide under the leg. I fixed that with a trip to the hardware store and longer bolts. Secondly, there is no real base. The two legs and a crossbar that holds the riser. Our house is small and space is at a premium so everything is assembled and stored on the desk with an old pillow case as a dust cover. When I'm ready to scan, the assembly is pulled a short distance to the front of the desk. The problem being the light source and carrier our one unit separate from the stand. This lead to making adjustment for the borders and centering the image each time. Today, my spouse and I were in a kitchen store when I had an idea:

So far, it seems to work!

I have a piece of wood on mine, too. I thought that was what you were supposed to do!

This copy stand is by far the worst thing about the Negative Supply gear aside form their shitty customer service. The other stuff has flaws (the first frames on 120 film are really difficult to get started. the light source mask doesn't match the leveling adjusters for the plate, etc...) but the film carriers are built solidly.

The copy stand is stock aluminum parts screwed together, it uses a junk threaded rod as opposed to a proper screw so it doesn't stay at 90 degrees, has a lot of backlash, and changes from when you adjust height to when you lock it down (because of the aforementioned sag) and even the adjusters are just cheap aluminum knobs on a set screw. I had to fuss with it to get it right, and I have an adjustable leveling base on mine so I can get the camera parallel to the film plane more easily.

If you want one more trick, now that you've got it on a piece of wood, place a mirror across the top of the film holder when you adjust the camera. If it's dead level in both directions, the center of the lens will appear dead center in the mirror. If it's not parallel it will be off center and you can easily adjust it to match. Someone here taught me that trick and it makes ALL the difference.

Thanks for the tip! I always figured the hipsters that designed this stuff assumed you had a dedicated work area next to the computer to leave everything set up. When I bought it, I was flipping a coin between supporting Negative Supply or buying a Kaiser.