scanning film with sd quattro

Seriously. Unless you are considering an Imacon or other high end scanner, forget about these things - you have a far better piece of equipment in the sd Q-H. Scanners (up to and including the unsupported Nikon Coolscan 9000ED have a fixed focus and a wide aperture, and invariably inadequate film holders which don't keep the film flat. Unleess you're only copying mounted slides, just about any film will bow to some degree, which means that either parts or all of the grain will lose focus. The camera has both higher resolution thanks to better optics and much better DR than a run-of-the-mill scanner as well.

I did have a Nicon CS8000ED (Nikon no longer support it) and now do have an Epson V700 Photo which is absolutely pathetic compared to the results I get with the pictured setup (sd Q-H, A4 LED light pad, Durst Laborator neg holder with masks for anything from 35mm to 5x4), and my old 35mm copy stand repurposed for the job).

The camera is dead square to the copyboard achieved by bouncing a laser off the sensor from the copyboard - the return dot coinciding with the sending beam ensures the rig is dead level where it needs to be. The neg holder holds film perfectly flat, the 70/2.8 Sigma macro (old version) offers both the possibility of critical focus as well as DOF via stopping down if necessary. If higher resolution is required it is a simple matter to take sections and stitch them - with everything true and level and in focus, the job is easy and extremely quick.