Best colour film for scanning?

ah5168

ah5168

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I normally shoot B&W negative film, but now need to do some stuff in Colour in both 120 and 35mm.

The subjects won't be moving and I will be using a tripod so I can select the optimum ISO to give me the best data capture from the scanner. I have found with B&W that the thinner films give better results and have settled on T-MAX 100 for most things.

I am guessing that transparency film will give me the best overall image quality in colour but have never used it, any thoughts?

I have access to a Hasselblad Flextight X1 and a Nikon Coolscan 9000 so scan quality wont be a problem.
 
If your scanner is profiled with an IT-8 target for transparency film from either Kodak or Fuji then transparency/slide film is easier to scan than colour negative as all you have to do is just scan it then and it should technically be correct whilst with colour negative film to get a 'correct' result its best to use a program like Vuescan or silverfast that have film profiles so that the colour balance, contrast etc will be right for the film. Vuescan is a bit out of date though with its film profile library.
 
From experience Ektar 100 Scans very very well.
I rarely get good scans from slide however.
 
Well I've scanned quite a few films going back to 12 year old expiry dates to films not made any more to 40 year colour negs and positives, and have few problems as you can correct with the scanner's software or Photoshop........some frames I've classed as unscannable as I just can't get the overall colours right and some B/W frames are very grainy (well I'm not an expert).
 
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To be honest, anything that I've tried as far as Colour Neg. film has been fine with Silverfast SE, provided it's supported by a pre-cooked profile. I'm far too skint to lash out on the software that allows me to actually modify profiles or roll-my-own, so I've tended to stick with films that are supported by the software. The only stuff that's come out a bit ropey has been when I've munged the developing myself, and I'm prepared to take my lumps for user-error on those cases.
 
I shoot all my colour on either Ektar for landscape or Fuji 160s for portraits. Not really much point in shooting transparency these days if you are scanning, unless you like using film with a very small margin of error.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Others have also recommended Ektar ISO 100. I thing I will get a few rolls to try.(y)
 
Edtog said:
I shoot all my colour on either Ektar for landscape or Fuji 160s for portraits. Not really much point in shooting transparency these days if you are scanning, unless you like using film with a very small margin of error.
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There is the added satisfaction of looking at it with a magnifier on a light box. :)
 
i've always had trouble with portra, difficult to get rid of the casts.

had good experiences with ektar though!
 
Undercrank said:
For the best range of tones to scan and work with in software I can recommend Fuji Reala. Fantastic film. Really is. Excellent for prints. I used it for everything for years.
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me too (y) for Reala, but with winter drawing in 100 asa might be a bit slow.
 
Pretty much any colour neg will be easy to scan, some colour slide material is hard because the Dmax of consumer scanners is so poor E6 can be a challenge.

I find that in 120 I use quite a bit of Fuji 400H and of late because its so cheap Fuji Superia 400 'Xtra' which I get at £2.50 a roll.
Although Ektar is fairly easy to scan NC and VC also so unless you under/over expose you get nice colours with most modern neg film.

The trick with getting a good scan is setting the black and white points before scanning.

Mark
 
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