Scanning medium format

January 15, 2006 10:56 AM

Scanning Medium Format : Help Me !

I bought an Epson 3490 , i thought it would scan medium format , i think i'm wrong.
I've lost the receipt , i dont have a credit card or anything , surely there's a hack or a mod or something to make this stupid goddam scanner work with medium format slide film ?
It scans them partially , and there's a scanner at college but everyone fights over it and it's very stressful.
You get tutors throwong you out the room , students in the year above you telling you they have priority etc etc

posted by sgt.serenity to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

I think all you need is some back-lighting. I looked into this same problem after I bought a scanner and wanted to scan some negatives. Depending on your budget you could buy a light table and turn it upside down on the scanner or hack something together with rice paper and a desk lamp. The attachments that come with scanners for transparencies are nothing more that a light, diffusing panel and a holder.
posted by Mr T at 11:34 AM on January 15, 2006

This or this might help -- it's a kind of 'tent' that reflects the light back behind the slide so that the CCD can catch it.
posted by provolot at 11:56 AM on January 15, 2006

Also, it seems that the 3490 can scan strips of 35mm slides/negatives -- you might want to try scanning long lengthwise strips of your medium format slides in the 35mm negative scanning mode, then combining them in photoshop..
posted by provolot at 12:01 PM on January 15, 2006

3490 manual here.. am looking through it right now.
posted by By The Grace of God at 12:06 PM on January 15, 2006

Don't know anything about that scanner, but there are only two things that would give you problems.

1) Lighting. Slide film should have light passed through it, not reflected off of it.

2) Focus. A slide is going to sit a little bit up off the glass, and thus the default focal plane is going to be wrong, and your scanned slides might be slightly soft.

it sounds like what provolot suggests might fix #1. You can only fix #2 by taking the slides out of their carrier and putting them right on the scanner glass.

Does your scanner scan 35mm slides? If so, is there any way to get it to go into 35mm slide scanning mode, but not use the slide carrier? For instance, if your scanner does have a slide scanning mode, with a program like Vuescan you can get it to use the backlight and slide focal point, but not actually use the slide carrier. I think.
posted by teece at 2:04 PM on January 15, 2006

I'm sorry, I used the term "carrier" in an ambiguous, dual role in my previous post. In my third paragraph, I mean the plastic, cardboard, or glass slide holder that the actual strip of slide film is put in (do medium format slides even have such a thing? I dunno. If not, never mind. I've never actually seen a medium format slide).

In the fourth paragraph, I meant the little caddy that came with the scanner to make scanning a couple slides at a time possible (if your scanner came with such a beast).
posted by teece at 2:07 PM on January 15, 2006

Response by poster: Keep that help coming guys ........
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:37 PM on January 15, 2006

This is a MF film holder designed for use with flat bed scanners. The 3490 is not listed as compatible, but that doesn't mean it's not.
posted by sennoma at 7:19 PM on January 15, 2006