I bought a Perfection Epson V370 Photo scanner that allows also to scan 35mm slides, positive and negative.

If you want to  scan 35mm slides or or negative/positive film strip, you have to remove the white board and use the film strip holder (see this YouTube tutorial, if the case). That holder must be positioned properly in order to have the slide/strip located to match the light strip available on the cover. Note that its position must be different if you have to scan slides or a film strip. Moreover, in the Epson Scan SW you have to specify if you want to scan a photo or a slide: in the second case, you must remove the white board if you don’t have already done.

This is fine if you want to scan a 35mm slide, but what to do if your negative is bigger, lets say 8x6mm? You have several options, none the best but some acceptable in specific cases:

1. Scan as a slide, removing the white board, and putting the big negative in a location that match the position of the slide lamp available on the cover. DO not use the film strip holder in order to be able to scan that slide for all its length. However the resulted scanned picture is less high than it should be, because of the limited size of the lamp strip. Therefore if you want to have scanned all the slide you have to scan it twice, the upper part and then the lower part: afterwards, using a photo editing SW (e.g. Photoshop) you can combine them in one picture. Note that you need to use the professional scan mode and not the automatic one, otherwise the scanner SW is not able to find the slide, not being located using the film strip holder.
2. Scan as a photo, so the result is a negative that, in this case, is of the full size. Then you need to use the Invert feature available in a photo editor (e.g. Photoshop). However in that case the quality is low because of the low contrast, not being the cover lamp help: the result will be not so good neither after some possible retouch!
3. An other possible alternative (that I still have to try) is to make a cardboard mask with a hole of the slide dimension and then put a lamp over the slide, once it is layered on the scanner glass with over the cardboard. You can try scanning both as a slide or a picture (in the first case, possibly putting the slide/hole matching the original light slide) … I let you know when I will try: the only possible problem may rise if the scanner do not work if the cover is up!
4. Last possibility is not to use the scanner and, putting the big negative film on a window glass in a sunny day, take a picture of it with your digital camera … and then use, also in this case the invert feature available in a photo editing SW! 😉

You need to use the professional scan mode and not the automatic one, otherwise the scanner SW is not able to find the slide (1)

You need to use the professional scan mode and not the automatic one, otherwise the scanner SW is not able to find the slide (2)

Use the professional mode and slide option. Do not use the film strip holder in order to be able to scan that slide for all its length (even though the resulted scan is less high than it should be, because of the size of the lamp strip).

Professional mode and slide option with a proper resolution.

In my case, having only scanned the negative film partially in its height, was not a big problem because the interesting section of the picture was on its length: so I did not even need to do two scans and then use a photo editor to merge them 😉

Negative scanned as a slide as described above: full length, even though only partially its height is available with each scan.

Negative scanned as a picture: even inverting and retouching with an editor SW, the result is not very good.

Invert option available in a photo editor (e.g. Photoshop Elements)

The Epson Perfection V370 Photo scanner manual is available here.

For any possible question, you may contact Epson using the form available in the U.S. Support Site … even though possibly you will receive only what is already written on the manual, no further suggestions, like in my case when I asked suggestion how to scan negative films bigger that 35mm one: