filmscanners: The whole frame

["Peter Marquis-Kyle" <petermk@optushome.com.au>]

I am annoyed that my Nikon LS-30 can't scan a whole 35mm frame.

 With my old Leitz enlarger I could project the whole 24x36mm frame, plus about
1mm of clear film all round. I used to print the whole frame, including the
black border as evidence that the image was complete and uncropped. (Ah, the
purism of my youth!) I would like to do the same when scanning a negative.

 Both the standard Nikon film holders (the Strip Film Holder that fits the Slide
Mount Adapter, and the motorised Strip Film Adapter) mask the edges of the
frame.

 I thought of making a special neg holder with an opening larger than the frame
size. I made a cardboard mock-up, but found a problem with the scanner itself --
the width it scans is barely 24mm. Even if the negative is perfectly positioned
in the holder (which is difficult to do given the sloppy fit of the
adapters in the scanner) the scanner does not scan a pixel more than the frame
width. In the other direction there is not the same problem -- the
scanner can capture beyond 36mm.

 Do other makes or models of 35mm scanners score any better?

 Peter Marquis-Kyle