6×7 negative scanned on an Epson V700 with what people shorten to ANR – anti newton ring glass. Without the anti newton ring glass I had scanned this neg previously (with the V700) and it was newton ring heaven, or hell for that matter. Newton rings are very irritating patterns that appear on glass scanners. It’s very hard to hold the negative completely flat without glass with big negatives, so ANR glass slightly fuzzes the image eliminating the rings. The glass is shiny on one side, and appears matte on the other. ANR is a little bit similar in concept to AA (anti aliasing) filters on the majority of digital cameras, but to eliminate a different pattern being ‘moiré’ in that case. Both moiré and newton rings bring a pattern and rainbow colors. I’d love to have a look inside a professional high output scanner like the Noritsu and see exactly how it manages to hold the negative so flat as I assume it is glass-less. Readers if you have had first hand experience with one of these high end scanners please fill us in in the comment section below.
More information and ability to purchase ANR glass here.
In case you hadn’t heard, I love the Pentax 67II. The shot above was taken on expired TMAX 100 (mid 90’s) just after severe bush-fires had come through, leaving everything charred and black. The depth of the 105 f/2.4 is just so fun to capture with too. I like to take off the top prism and let people look into the prism – with people being so used to digital screens it is always a sight that is met with sighs and excited use of ‘it’s 3D!’. Even people who aren’t interested in technical things are amazed.
Hey great article. Wondering though with this image you have the film borders included. Was this scanned flat on the scanner glass (i.e. no holder)? I’m using an ANR glass sheet but still getting NRs all over the place. Driving me crazy!
Yeah that sounds frustrating. Yes this was scanned with no holder, just the negative and the ANR glass. Have you made sure the matt side of the glass is against the film? Have you tried scanning more that one resolution? If you’re scanning 8×10 it’s tempting to ramp up the resolution a long way but I don’t think these flatbeds can give all that much resolution so going to the extreme resolutions just give a huge file size with no added detail.