Recent experience with wet mounted scanning and the Nikon Coolscan 9000?

[Tom Kershaw]

Due to frustrations with Newton's rings I've started to consider wet mounting scans with the Coolscan 9000. Does anyone here have recent experience with this process and the various options? I've looked at the scanscience.com site but didn't find the information there particularly clear cut, I'd rather prefer to understand the system(s) or approach before going any further.

Tom

 

[radiant]

Just a check: have you tried scanning emulsion side down directly on scanner glass?

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Just a check: have you tried scanning emulsion side down directly on scanner glass?

I'm using the rotating glass carrier at the moment, which consists of: standard glass - negative mask - film (usual orientation - "shiny side up") - allegedly anti-newton glass. It may be worth trying the film the other way up. A slight complication is that I managed to accidentally remove the adhesive holding the scanner glass to the carrier while cleaning, so that I've currently got the glass taped in. The Newton's rings seem to be much less of a problem with black & white film.

I would assume a wet-mounted system would mean installing a piece of suitable glass inside the standard "wobbly film" medium format carrier and then mount the film to the glass.

 

[Neil Grant]

...wasn't there a dedicated wet-mount carrier for the 9000 ED? The non-rotating carrier has AN glass but can occasionally gives NR's - sometimes slipping a piece of thin card into the carrier preventing it from closing really tight on the film can help. To make wet-mounting feasible you really need some spare space around the film for taping down.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

...wasn't there a dedicated wet-mount carrier for the 9000 ED? The non-rotating carrier has AN glass but can occasionally gives NR's - sometimes slipping a piece of thin card into the carrier preventing it from closing really tight on the film can help. To make wet-mounting feasible you really need some spare space around the film for taping down.

That is what I would have thought (the spare space) - most of the 9000 ED discussions I've seen online are from 10+ years ago and have some outdated information. I can't be the only person still using the scanner and having trouble with Newton's rings.

 

[Neil Grant]

..what exactly are 'sciencescan.com' selling for the 9000 ED? I think it would need to be a dedicated carrier with a piece of glass about 3in wide. I don't really understand how the film would be kept flat unless another piece of glass was used ontop

to form a sandwich. It's different on a drum scanner, where the film is pulled tight as it is wrapped around the curved glass surface.

 

[Ellis Au]

That is what I would have thought (the spare space) - most of the 9000 ED discussions I've seen online are from 10+ years ago and have some outdated information. I can't be the only person still using the scanner and having trouble with Newton's rings.

I acquired my Coolscan 9000 two years ago and tried the following methods:
-Taping to AN glass ala this article, but had issues if the film curved convex away from the glass.
-Using TWO pieces of AN glass, but theoretically adds texture since you're scanning through AN media
-Using AN glass above, and a 3D printed multi-frame mask (a different one for 6x6 and 645) below the film to press the film flat. Works, but cumbersome to line up.

I just mentioned in another thread that I bought the Media Sync/Stephen Scharf 3D printed scanner trays, and I'm super happy how easy it is to get individual frames flat (since it's clamped down on 4 sides) and clean (able to dust negatives directly as there's not glass sandwich).

Since you're already used to scanning frame by frame, I urge you to give his trays a whirl:

 

[Tom Kershaw]

I just mentioned in another thread that I bought the Media Sync/Stephen Scharf 3D printed scanner trays, and I'm super happy how easy it is to get individual frames flat (since it's clamped down on 4 sides) and clean (able to dust negatives directly as there's not glass sandwich).

- this sounds like a good approach, are you using the fully glassless option here?

 

[Ellis Au]

- this sounds like a good approach, are you using the fully glassless option here?

Yes, I do it glassless. He’s added a lot more options since like an optional AN top piece to further flatten film, as well as a Wet Mount tray capable of mounting strips (check out the rest of his videos on the channel). Though, I haven’t had the urge to explore wet mounting since I feel my glassless results are excellent.

When ordering, he’ll ask you which cameras/masks you want. So far I only have 6x6, 6x4.5, and 35mm.