The Betterscanning.com film holder review by stockholmviews.com

A better film-holder for the Epson V7xx and V8xx series of scanners

The first impression I got when I opened up the package was wow!
This is the way the new Epson V850 holders should have felt like then the "Pro" branding would have been more easy to absorb.

The Betterscanning holder doesn't flex or warp when I hold it in my hand it feels stiff enough to make me confident that it will stay in the shape it is even under the weight of the scanner lid.

My unit was delivered with a set of two 3mm thick AN glass inserts. (Real AN glass unlike the V850 holders that uses a polymer AN sheet).

The thickness of the glass adds enough weight to keep most curled film flat. It also makes them feel tough enough to be handled and used for a long time without fear of breaking them. The AN or ANR (Anti Newton ring) surface on one side of the glass ensure that no such thing as Newton rings would show up in your scanned photos.

It is incredibly easy to load the film-holder, just place the film in the holder and put the AN glass on top (the slightly glossy side against the film). I load my film either emulsion up or down all depends on how curled/bowed my film is.

Use a piece of scrap film or thin stif black plastic sheet to support the edge
      of your filmstrip In case the strip is shorter than the film gate.

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Step-less precise height adjustment

The design of the Betterscanning film holders will allow you to make a precise height adjustment by turning the 12 nylon grub set screws in full or parts of a turn.

My only two complaints is the twelve (12) set screw heights to keep track off, and that the setscrews have a bit to low friction to make me confident that my settings don't drift over a time in use!

Well this is not a big issue since the Epson V700/750 and V800/V850 are fixed focus designs and the adjustment of the holder should be a one time set and forget operation. When you found the optimum height for focus I suggest that a small amount of silicone or similar to be applied on each set screw to prevent it to drift.

Readjustment of the film-holder will only be necessary if you replace or repair your scanner.

 

For even more precision try this.

A dirt cheap (About 12usd) Digital Depth Gauge can make it even easier to do the adjustments and can help you to keep track of your trial and error "set-scan-exam" procedure until you have found the optimum focus height.

 

How to find optimum focus.

My method is to start coarse and then as I get closer I try some smaller adjustments until I find the best height. In case you own several film-holders then you can use the measurements to set them all to the same focal plane The focal plane is the distance at which the sharpest focus is attained.

 

Above: This is the pre-scann. The red left square is the part that I will scan repetitively after each adjustment until I find the sharpest scan height for the film-holder. The crop to the right of the overview/pre-scann is a crop form a Canon FS4000US slide scanner.

The film used here is a single 24X35 slide frame so I had to tape it to the AN glass to be able to use it for this purpose. I could have used one of my 6x17 Velvia frames but the chosen one is an old trusty friend for this type of work :-)

OK lets start with the fun!

Sharpening used for the crops below are: First A400 R1.0 T1 then A300 R0,3 T1 (Amount, Radius Threshold). Put your mouse pointer on the image to see the straight unsharpened scan.

Look at the man in the basket, the small yellow reflex in one of the cross bars and the step pins of the ladder at the back of the elevator structure.

Below my 2nd series of scans to sett the Betterscanning.com film holder to the best possible focus height. All scans are sharpened to emphasize the difference between the different height settings. The Epson V700 (Virtually the same as V750/V800/V850) is used in all scans except the first one.

I find it hard to find an exact candidate for best focus here but by looking at the third smallest bars I give the victory to 2 turns. (I didn't try 2 1/4 in this series of scans).

 

Final verdict

This is a great product that is a stable platform that will help you to get the best possible result form your scanner.

If you scan a lot I suggest you get two units to maximize the productivity.

For us others a single unit with the AN glass inserts will be good enough, after all the handling and loading of filmstrips is much faster than the original Epson V7xx and V8xx holders.

The BS holder can also be used glassless and with the use of the T-locks* that can be placed anywhere along the holders film channel the individual film frames can be hold flat as long as the film frames doesn't get too wide (I suggest AN glass for frames larger than 6x6 and whenever the best flatness control is desired).

It is also worth to mention that the new Epson V800 and V850 holders for 120 film is a single strip design while the V700/750 and the Betterscanning.com have dual film strip capacity.

*Note from Doug Fisher at Betterscanning.com
"We are having problems supplying T-locks. T-locks are very difficult to produce in a way that allows them to perform well. My supply has been sporadic over the last couple of years. I have kept the T-lock configuration/option up on the website because I have been able to provide them occasionally from time to time. Also, I still hope that I might be able to provide T-locks more consistently in the future."