The least fun part about shooting film is having to scan it later. Scanning is slow, tedious, painstaking, loaded with pitfalls, and the software is some of the worst ever devised by man. I’ve gotten my scanning workflow to be somewhat manageable, but it still sucks. One thing I’ve struggled with is film curl. My negatives, especially in fall and winter, curl terribly along their length. These days I’m using an Epson V750 flatbed scanner, and the film holders are terrible, and in no way help keep the negatives flat. This means that the center portion of the scan is going to be out of focus, what with the center bowed way up and all.

Enter the replacement holders and ANR inserts from Better Scanning. I’ve been using the replacement medium format holder,and just received my ANR inserts for the medium format and 35mm holders. These are basically nothing more than custom cut ANR glass inserts. You just drop them on top of your negative in the holder and poof! flat negatives.

Here’s a rather severe example showing the difference between a scan using the stock 35mm holder and one using the ANR insert.

Highly recommended!