Recommendations for negative scanning?
- Thread starter mhedges
- Start date
There are several relatively cheap products available for moderate to low quality scans.
The are good for scanning a lot of film quickly so you can figure out which ones are worth sending to pros.
The quality is OK for viewing on monitor and perhaps up to 4x6 printing. However, they lack resolution for high quality print.
If you pass through my neck of the woods I will be happy to let you borrow one.
The Wolverine F2D Super was purchased from another AKer.
I found the ION PICS 2SD at a local thrift and couldn't resist. Both will scan slides and negatives (110 & 135).
Roger
The are good for scanning a lot of film quickly so you can figure out which ones are worth sending to pros.
The quality is OK for viewing on monitor and perhaps up to 4x6 printing. However, they lack resolution for high quality print.
If you pass through my neck of the woods I will be happy to let you borrow one.
The Wolverine F2D Super was purchased from another AKer.
I found the ION PICS 2SD at a local thrift and couldn't resist. Both will scan slides and negatives (110 & 135).
Roger
Got 'cha.
I was in prepress in print industry. High end drum scanners were common in print shops but not so much anymore.
Good luck!
Roger
Many years ago (I'm thinking 15 years now), I picked up a Minolta Dimage slide/film scanner on eBay. Never worked right--it had a bright line through the photo about a third of the way down from the top. Naturally, couldn't find drivers for a modern OS to try it again. That's when I tried VueScan, and it actually cured the issue I had with the scanner. Works perfectly now. It's very slow, especially if I scan something in two or more passes, but it seems to do well with quality. What's cool is that it also scans using infrared, so it has a way of using both the infrared and color scan to help eliminate dust and scratches. When I bought the scanner, it was refurbished, so I would think it's pushing maybe 17-18 years old. Probably would be tough to find one now. They were more popular back then. I only wish I had found the APS-C attachment so I could scan my APS film cartridges. (It was a $100 option at the time.)
mhedges
Super Member
I believe the software reverses the color and removes the amber tone.
jbailey930
AK Member
hmm, around 6 years ago I borrowed a friend's older NikonCoolscan for approx 300 negatives. It was cumbersome and time consuming. When I shoot film not, maybe 1-2 rolls a year, I have the processor print as well as make digital copies.
I heard about www.scancafe.com on photog forums I frequent. You pack up your negatives and send overseas. My recent Google search shows some not so great review though. This link appeared in my search http://www.digmypics.com/pricing.aspx
Let us know what you end up doing.
I heard about www.scancafe.com on photog forums I frequent. You pack up your negatives and send overseas. My recent Google search shows some not so great review though. This link appeared in my search http://www.digmypics.com/pricing.aspx
Let us know what you end up doing.
Yep! Usually in the scanning software, you specify what it is you're scanning. (If I'm not mistaken, VueScan might even ask which brand/type of film or slide you are scanning, such as Kodachrome or Ektachrome.) Then the software knows what to do with the scan output. I know we could make those adjustments in Photoshop/Lightroom if needed, but having the scanner take care of it just takes some of the fuss out of it. Same with any noise (dust/scratch) reduction--better to have the software handle it, but only if the software can do a better job than any Photoshop/Lightroom filter. (Surprisingly, Polaroid used to offer a Photoshop plugin which worked better than those Adobe provided.) Gotta admit the infrared trick works better than any other I have tried, and any remaining blemishes are easily fixed elsewhere.
Definitely. Scans take a while. If I know I want to scan something, though, I can do it while I'm working on other things, and stop every so often to reload a new negative or set of slides. I cringe, though. I have a few dozen sets of my own to scan, plus my dad left me with dozens more that have many long-departed family members in them.
I think my TIFF scans were in the neighborhood of 56MB each. 1GB seems awfully large. Unless the resolution was kicked up to some extreme value, I can't think of any other reason an individual scan should be that large.
@mhedges As for quality of the scan, what did you find disappointing? It might depend on the scanner, but I know that a film scanner should have a micro-focusing ability so that any wrinkles or warps in the film are accounted for. (Otherwise you would see large areas that were blurry.) Even with that, scans look...well...different from digital photos. Whether it's better or not, it's hard to say, and also highly dependent on film used. The last few scans I tested came out well, but needed a little massaging in Photoshop to tweak levels, color balance, etc. Here are two of those, from 1989 (Kodachrome):
I should point out that in my dad's old slides, the Ektachrome really had a lot of color shift into the maroon side of the spectrum. Took some heavy color balance changes to correct it, but it worked--all the natural colors were still hidden in there. An incorrect color balance can make or break a photo, especially when it's bad to the degree these were. (The old Kodachrome slides, 60 years on, were still pretty much color-correct!)
There used to be ways to scan negs/slides on a flatbed, but never tried them. I didn't think the scanning engine had the resolution to do them properly.
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FWIW, I was just kicking around in VueScan for a moment here. If I choose 35mm film as a source, that is where it gives me choices in film.
And this is under the Color tab (there is a "Generic" option for vendor, along with a handful of major film brands):
@mhedges As for quality of the scan, what did you find disappointing? It might depend on the scanner, but I know that a film scanner should have a micro-focusing ability so that any wrinkles or warps in the film are accounted for. (Otherwise you would see large areas that were blurry.) Even with that, scans look...well...different from digital photos. Whether it's better or not, it's hard to say, and also highly dependent on film used. The last few scans I tested came out well, but needed a little massaging in Photoshop to tweak levels, color balance, etc. Here are two of those, from 1989 (Kodachrome):
I should point out that in my dad's old slides, the Ektachrome really had a lot of color shift into the maroon side of the spectrum. Took some heavy color balance changes to correct it, but it worked--all the natural colors were still hidden in there. An incorrect color balance can make or break a photo, especially when it's bad to the degree these were. (The old Kodachrome slides, 60 years on, were still pretty much color-correct!)
There used to be ways to scan negs/slides on a flatbed, but never tried them. I didn't think the scanning engine had the resolution to do them properly.
-----------------------
FWIW, I was just kicking around in VueScan for a moment here. If I choose 35mm film as a source, that is where it gives me choices in film.
And this is under the Color tab (there is a "Generic" option for vendor, along with a handful of major film brands):
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mhedges
Super Member
Not many. 5-10, I think. They are all 35mm.
For 5-10 rolls of films it's not perhaps worth while to make a big investment.
I have a Canon FS4000US film scanner for 35mm negatives and slides and works fine 14 years now. Still compatible with Windows 7 and 10. I only use Vuescan for serious image scanning ever since I discovered it.
If you can justify the price, you can get a high-end Epson flatbed scanner (V550 or higher). There are several models ranging from good to not affordable but even better. The can scan larger negative formats, just in case you may need them. I do have some old 6x9 negatives and find that a good flatbed scanner is good enough for my purposes.
For a dedicated negative scanner for 35mm you should have a look at Plustek 8200i, perhaps the best value for money currently.
You may also want to check availability of older filmscanners, like the model I use. It may appear on ebay for very little money. Similar Nikon models, for some reason, have prices up in the sky.
Avoid the cheap $100 Chinese film scanners that claim to scan 35mm, 110, super 8 onto SD cards. Their claimed resolution is, well, not possible to confirm in reality and their optical path is toy grade. An entry level HP or Epson flatbed with negative scanning capability easily outperforms these.
Once you scan, you can either process the entire flow down to jpg with Vuescan or use other tools, like lightroom. VueScan is not an image editing software, it is an advanced scanning tool, but for basic scanning, reversal and color correction, it's good enough.
And only scan in the highest optical resolution offered by the scanner. In some scanners it's 4000dpi, and in the case of the Plustek 8200i, it's 7200dpi.
If you want to read more about scanners, check out this site:
https://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTM
and this one:
http://www.filmscanner.info/en/PlustekOpticFilm8200i.htmll
I have a Canon FS4000US film scanner for 35mm negatives and slides and works fine 14 years now. Still compatible with Windows 7 and 10. I only use Vuescan for serious image scanning ever since I discovered it.
If you can justify the price, you can get a high-end Epson flatbed scanner (V550 or higher). There are several models ranging from good to not affordable but even better. The can scan larger negative formats, just in case you may need them. I do have some old 6x9 negatives and find that a good flatbed scanner is good enough for my purposes.
For a dedicated negative scanner for 35mm you should have a look at Plustek 8200i, perhaps the best value for money currently.
You may also want to check availability of older filmscanners, like the model I use. It may appear on ebay for very little money. Similar Nikon models, for some reason, have prices up in the sky.
Avoid the cheap $100 Chinese film scanners that claim to scan 35mm, 110, super 8 onto SD cards. Their claimed resolution is, well, not possible to confirm in reality and their optical path is toy grade. An entry level HP or Epson flatbed with negative scanning capability easily outperforms these.
Once you scan, you can either process the entire flow down to jpg with Vuescan or use other tools, like lightroom. VueScan is not an image editing software, it is an advanced scanning tool, but for basic scanning, reversal and color correction, it's good enough.
And only scan in the highest optical resolution offered by the scanner. In some scanners it's 4000dpi, and in the case of the Plustek 8200i, it's 7200dpi.
If you want to read more about scanners, check out this site:
https://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTM
and this one:
http://www.filmscanner.info/en/PlustekOpticFilm8200i.htmll
