How to scan 645 negatives on an Epson V550?

FishyFish

FishyFish

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I've got a load of old 645 negatives from when my dad was doing his national service in Cologne at the end of the 50s that I want to scan. However my V550 doesn't have a holder for these medium format 6 x 4.5cm negatives.

Is it just a case of laying them straight on the glass, or do they need to be on a holder (which holds them a mm or so above the glass)?

Thanks.
 
Are you sure they're 645 and not 4x3(127)? That's a 120 holder (or should be) and they should fit nicely.
 
Measure the image area size.

If it's 40x28mm then it's probably 828 film.
 
The negs are pretty much 6 x 4.5 cm (the actual images), so in the picture above the strip has three 6 x 4.5cm negatives. As you can see the width of the strip is too narrow to sit in the holder. However, a quick google for 645 negatives shows strips where the images are aligned differently with the strip being the width of the longest side of the images. Not sure why the ones I have are aligned differently?
 
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For my Canon flatbed that doesn't have an MF slide holder, I made one from black card using the 35mm slide holder as a pattern for the outer shape. I reckon you could do the same for the Epson one and cut the aperture for the negs to give side and end support.
 
I think Steve is right about it being 127 film.
 
yep, 127 roll film (y)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127_film

so, you're best bet would be to get a peice of anti-newton ring glass that'll fit in the 120 holder recess (without the fold down clip) and basically "magic tape" the ends of each strip of neg. to the underside of the glass. The glass will hold the negs flat to allow half decent scanning, and putting the anti-newton glass on top of the 12 holder recess will ensure the negs are at the correct height above the plattern glass to keep the image in focus.

the anti-newton glass will also come in handy for scanning badly "cupped" 120 negs as well - so it's not quite a "one trick pony".
 
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I'm going to attempt an interim solution of making an insert out of black card. I'll make it wide enough to sit in the 120 carrier slot, and cut holes to allow the negs to be scanned while sandwiched between the two pieces. Hopefully(!) the thickness of the card will have a negligible effect on the focus. A bit of a fiddle, but I'll see how it goes...
 
FishyFish said:
I've done a more precise measurement and the actual image frames are 57 x 42mm.
Click to expand...

If the images are 57mm wide, surely that's 120. It's 60mm wide
 
Alternatively, grab the glass out of a picture frame (anti newton is better but not the end of the world) then tape the negatives onto the top side and sit the glass onto the scanner direct. This lifts the negatives high enough to match the focal plane of the scanner and lets you scan them in. There's a chance you'll get newton rings on some but it's better then no scan :0)
 
I had the same problem with a load of negatives I took using my Brownie 127, taken at the time it was my first camera, 1955 maybe, a holiday in Morecambe and another in Bridlington, plus a school holiday in Northumbria, possible as late as 1961. I made black card masks for the 120 film holder of my Epson V700 which worked pretty well. The mask is made up of two pieces, lower and bottom halves, slotted for the outer dimensions of the negatives, hinged with Scotch tape (the thin 'magic' stuff to keep the thickness to a minimum). It's a bit tedious loading the film into the mask but it stays pretty flat in the holder. Perhaps sharpness was compromised! But we talking about a Brownie camera. I don't know what film I used, whatever the chemist supplied, I suppose. Whatever it was was quite thick and curled badly I managed to get it flat enough to scan.

I feel I have denigrated the Brownie 127 but, with it's curved film plane and even the plastic meniscus lens, it did deliver images which satisfied an 8 year old.
 
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