I've been scanning a number of negatives using an Epson v350 scanner, which has an automated feeder built in.
The feeder is pretty basic, but on the whole works reasonably well with most brands of film, however I'm struggling with Fujicolor 200.
With all other brands I've shot, the negatives are returned from the lab reasonably flat, and when fed into the scanner, it pulls them through correctly and the frame is aligned exactly as it is in the preview.
With the Fujicolor, there is a very significant curl to the negative, which prevents the roller and drive band in the feeder from pulling it through correctly. As a result, the scanned image does not line up to the frame, and it's becoming really frustrating.
The scanner is capable of decent quality images, and when used with Ilford (HP5 and Pan-F) and Kodak film (colorplus and ultramax usually), it is able to detect the frames and scan with no intervention from me at all.
It takes some 15 minutes to scan a 6 frame strip at 3400 dpi, but as I can leave it running, this doesn't bother me at all, and can clear several films in a day just leaving it to run on the desk next to me while I'm working.
With Fujicolor, it can take upwards of an hour to scan a 6 frame strip, as I have to keep re-scanning an individual frame. In addition, the act of running the strip through the scanner increases the curling, which makes the subsequent scans even more misaligned.
I intend to replace this scanner at some point with something more reliable, but I suspect that if I can prevent the strip from curling, it will be less problematic when using the automated feed.
Is there a reliable way to straighten out a negative without doing it damage?
In future, I will not be using Fujicolor again (I've never been particularly fond of the colour cast), but I still have a few rolls to scan.