Long time reader, first time poster. I just joined here, so I thought I'd share a tip I just "invented", for lack of a better word.
I've shot a few rolls of this film over the years, having it both developed in traditional E-6 chemistry by my local lab, as well as cross processing it myself in C-41 at home in my kitchen. I have always received film so curly, both lengthwise and crosswise (canoe curl) that scanning was difficult to impossible, using the traditional Epson film holder. I usually had to resort to pressing the film between plates of "museum glass" I had cut from my local framing shop, which worked, but was a slow process, didn't provide the optimum scanning height, and always ran the risk of scratching the scanner bed. I liked the look of the film, it's affordable enough, but I kinda gave up using it because it was just too much trouble to use.
Last week, I decided to give it another go, and I came up with a new solution to get the film flat after processing with worked surprisingly well. Below is the text I posted to Flickr, along with a link to the site. Comments or suggestions are welcome. I hope this will help someone enjoy this interesting and fun film. Cheers!
I think I might have finally found a solution to the curly/canoeing CR/CN 200 problem. I've tried everything I could think of, more humidity when hanging to dry, less humidity, heat, more weight, less weight, but nothing seemed to help. They will flatten out a little, eventually, if pressed under some heavy books, but not completely, and who wants to wait 3 months to scan their film?
So, the roll I developed last night, I tried my fancy new Paterson film clips, which seem to hold the film a little firmer. This morning, the film wasn't canoed quite as bad as in the past, but still pretty severe, as well as a wicked longitudinal curl.
This time, instead of just cutting and sleeving it, I reverse rolled the film into a tight roll, and put it inside a black Kodak film canister. I put a small desiccant pack inside as well, to combat any condensation issues, put the lid on it, and placed it outside in the sun for about 3 hours.
After bringing the canister with the film into the house, I let it cool to room temp for about 30 minutes, then removed the film to cut and sleeve. It still has a little bit of canoe curl, but reasonable, and miraculously, it lays almost perfectly flat! I'm still going to leave them pressed under a heavy book most of the day, but hopefully I can get some good scans tonight.
There are many things to like about this film, so being able to get nice flat scans will keep me buying it in the future.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/digibase/discuss/72157658247851586/
