Film/negative scanners

P.Y. Photographic

P.Y. Photographic

Messages
50
Name
Carrick
Edit My Images
No
Anyone got any good advice on not-ridiculously-expensive film scanners?

I shoot film occasionally, more from a process point-of-view to force myself to slow down and think about things more than I sometimes do when shooting digital. I've sat in alongside a mate who develops his own B&W films, and am looking into either borrowing his kit or buying my own off the back of that, but am wondering how's best to go about scanning things. The technique itself I'll deal with when I come to it, but withe the hundreds of variations on the theme out there I was wondering if anyone could point me at a decent value and not overly complex scanner to start off with.

Cheers!
 
Hi,

So the first thing we need to know is what film format are you wanting to scan, and indeed do you ever plan to change format to anything bigger/smaller/different/whatever in the future? As both of these will affect the advice you'll see here.
 
Very fair point - I shoot 35mm and don't see that changing at any point.

Mix of B&W and colour (fortunate enough to have grabbed a decent amount of Poundland's finest before they stopped stocking it) if that's of relevance as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MDR
If you are only going to post here at 1000px on the longest side and never do prints over say 10 X 8"..then you can get by with the cheapest Epson flatbed photo scanner. BUT If you could get an old Epson 3200 for about £35 or 4990 for £65 with neg holders etc it's not far off for results compared to later dearer models.
Pentaxpete is still using a scanner from the 1000s models i.e. 1650
 
Woodsy said:
Ok, and if I may ask, how much are you looking to spend?
Click to expand...

For a new units, probably not more than £150-200 tops. If there's any recommendations of secondhand models that would be worth a punt (as per Excalibur2's post) that's great too.

The better-reviewed things I've spotted that are in the top end of the budget on Amazon are things like the various Epson Perfection V550/600 or the PlusTek Opticfilm 8100/8200, but I'm open to suggestions!
 
I have an Epson V550 and the 35mm scans are pretty good (although not up to the standard of one of the more expensive flatbeds - like the V850 - or a dedicated 35mm scanner like the Plustek). I also shoot medium format and it will scan those negatives too (and makes a very nice job of them) which is great for me.

The advantage of a flatbed is that you can use it to scan more than just 35mm negative - photos, documents etc. But you'll most likely lose some quality in comparison with a dedicated 35mm scanner.

This is a recent scan from my V550 at full Flickr resolution (apologies for the large image size!) - although still not the full sized image of 3395 x 2221 pixels. It was scanned at 2400dpi. This was shot on an Olympus OM-1 with F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens on Ilford Delta 100 film.


FILM - Cobra curves by fishyfish_arcade, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Epson V500 is great for a mixture of 135 and 120. The Epson 135 film strip holders are not the best, and the resolution is slightly down compared with the dedicated 135 scanners. The Plustek variants with an i have an extra infra-red channel that can help with automatic dust spot removal for C41 and E6 film (not proper black and white or old Kodachromes, as both have silver content that the IR tends to confuse with dust). The Plustek's have better registration, so allow multi-pass scans; you get noise reduction advantages. Some will also do multi-exposure, useful for getting extra detail out of shadows in E6 (or highlights in negative film).

http://www.filmscanner.info/en/ is the best review site.
 
For 35mm, I picked up a second hand Minolta Dimage IV scan for £80 at the start of the year. Before that I had an Epson V550 flatbed and there's a clear difference between the two in my opinion. If I was buying new now i'd perhaps consider the Reflecta 10M for its ability to scan a whole uncut roll automatically, but the RRP of those is a fair bit higher.
 
A lot of people are having success with a macro lens or bellows setup on a DSLR and a light box. If you have one of those new fangled electric cameras, that might be the way to go. A lot faster than a scanner too.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
A lot of people are having success with a macro lens or bellows setup on a DSLR and a light box. If you have one of those new fangled electric cameras, that might be the way to go. A lot faster than a scanner too.


Steve.
Click to expand...

How well does that work with larger sizes?
 
steveo_mcg said:
How well does that work with larger sizes?
Click to expand...

Not sure. I have tried it up to 6x9. It should work with the right lens, but obviously, you don't get the scaling up of resolution advantage which you would have with a larger piece of film in a scanner. You could stitch together multiple images but that sounds like a lot of faffing about and I wouldn't bother.


Steve.
 
I've digitised 6x6 slides and 4x5 slides with my old APS-C Sony but it means merging images because the digital sensor is obviously much smaller than the slides. Using a Full Frame camera would be better again.

Yashica 635 - Tmax 400 (single shot cropped to reduced resolution)

Yashica 635 - Kodak TMax 400 - A6000 Scan by Steve Lloyd, on Flickr

Polaroid 110a 4x5 (multiple images stitched)

Port Sunlight Hillsborough Memorial by Steve Lloyd, on Flickr

(what looks like a join is actually a cloud/darker ground that happened to line up!)
 
Last year, I made an attachment to go on a compact Nikon camera which held the front of an old slide copying attachment. I also made an adaptor so it could hold 35mm negatives as if they were slides. It worked quite well... until I dropped and broke the camera!

M1.JPG


M2.JPG


M3.JPG




Steve.
 
Last edited:
stevelmx5 said:
I'm working on a new product with Hamish Gill (35MMC) as the moment which will make digitising much easier. I can't say much about it yet because he's not ready to launch but it will certainly make the process easier!
Click to expand...

Ooh interesting. ;)
 
Had a few film scanners over the years, the best for 35mm was the Minolta 5400 and the best for Medium format was the Minolta Multiscan pro the MR scans at 4000dpi optical were huge but of a very high quality, sadly both were sold for peanuts years ago and kick myself now that I ever go did of them as second hand they sell for more than the cost new 10 years ago

More recently I tried one off the opticfilm 8200 but found the scans to be a little lacking in sharpness compared the the Minoltas output and for MF all I had was an older Epson 4490 which again left a lot to be desired in the sharpness department.

Nowadays I just go simple and cheap, so for MF I use the film holder from the Epson on a lightbox with my camera and macro lens on a tripod, this is giving very good results, and for 35mm I just use an old Onhar Slide Copier with the optics removed and use it attached to my macro lens, again it gives excellent results and all costs a fraction of the dedicated scanners I used to own.

Only downside is no IR dust and scratch removal so quite a bit of healing brush is needed at times.

Paul
 
Noritsu LS-600 is the way to go for 35mm C41 & E6... New one costs 17K Where as Excellent Used Costs 1700ish and they are going up in Value!
 
Taimoor said:
Noritsu LS-600 is the way to go for 35mm C41 & E6... New one costs 17K Where as Excellent Used Costs 1700ish and they are going up in Value!
Click to expand...

Well nice to have inc the Fuji frontier...but what happens if something stops working and finding someone to repair it and the cost?
 
excalibur2 said:
Well nice to have inc the Fuji frontier...but what happens if something stops working and finding someone to repair it and the cost?
Click to expand...

Thats why mentioned LS600 Noritsu, They are still in production and are made. Nothing usually goes wrong with them unless you drop them and There is substantial damage to it. For personal use you simply can not hit the service threshold in years, They are meant to be on and running 24/7

Re: Frontier , I have scanned 800 Rolls on My Frontier 500SP Unit in last 2 Years and it has not stopped once for me. However Parts for SP3000 are rare and expensive due to medium format Capability.

Hope this helps.

T
 
"Anyone got any good advice on not-ridiculously-expensive film scanners?"

"I shoot film occasionally"

"if anyone could point me at a decent value "

As good as the Noristu and Frontier are, neither of them fit the OPs requirements.

If they're definitely sticking with 35mm only, a dedicated scanner like a Plustek will probably give the best results vs effort vs speed. However, when they see sense and move on to Medium/Large format, a flatbed like an Epson V500 would deliver excellent results (and still do 35mm) :0)
 
stevelmx5 said:
I certainly hope so, we're working on the Kickstarter together :0)

I made an updated version of the product last night and it's looking good.
Click to expand...

Will you update us about this project on the Forum or can we sign up somewhere to hear progress?
 
desf said:
Will you update us about this project on the Forum or can we sign up somewhere to hear progress?
Click to expand...

Once Hamish has published his article about it I'll link to it here. I need to cut another one after making a few small adjustments but it's pretty much ready to go. He's working on the packaging for it now but it's essentially flat-packed due to the way I've designed it.
 
35mm only workflow - Plustek models offer the best range and image quality within your budget. Don't bother with a flatbed for 35mm - they are barely any cheaper, and not ideal for 35mm by a long stretch.
 
stevelmx5 said:
As good as the Noristu and Frontier are, neither of them fit the OPs requirements.

If they're definitely sticking with 35mm only, a dedicated scanner like a Plustek will probably give the best results vs effort vs speed. However, when they see sense and move on to Medium/Large format, a flatbed like an Epson V500 would deliver excellent results (and still do 35mm) :0)
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve - any yes, a £1700 old stock scanner wasn't anywhere on my shopping list, as good as it may be!

I'll have a look at the PlusTek's then. Thanks for all the advice everyone.
 
LS600 seems to use USB as well which makes a lot better than many of the industrial scanners.
 
stevelmx5 said:
Once Hamish has published his article about it I'll link to it here. I need to cut another one after making a few small adjustments but it's pretty much ready to go. He's working on the packaging for it now but it's essentially flat-packed due to the way I've designed it.
Click to expand...
look forward to hearing about this one
 
If you're only scanning 35mm I can definitely recommend the Plustek scanners. Here's a comparison I did between an older 7600i and an Epson V700:

First, the full shot (from the Plustek):
jbOfT3N.jpg


Epson on top, Plustek below. Both set to 2400DPI:
ShR95qB.jpg


This was with a Nikon FM2n and a 28/2.8 AIS which is a very sharp lens.
 
If scanning speed is important to you and you are planning on shooting colour, then I'd recommend a Pakon F135. I have the cheaper non-plus version which is virtually the same as the F135+ in real world use. I ran a proper speed test not long ago (which I can't find it right now) and I think it took about 10 minutes to scan a 36 exposure uncut roll. The same roll would take two evenings with my flatbed. I'm not sure how quick the Plustek range is, but I'd guess you would still be looking at 2 to 3 hours (can anyone confirm?), and however long it took to colour correct the scans. The built-in Kodak auto colour correction in the Pakon does as extremely good job with colour negatives and saves hours of work messing about in Lightroom. The software is clunky and you have to run it via Windows XP (I use a virtual machine), but it's simple once you have it set up and have run a couple of rolls.

A quick comparison of my Pakon vs Epson V550: https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/pakon-135.579937/

Check out the Facebook Pakon group for more details and help getting started. Keep an eye out on there if you fancy buying one, as they sometimes pop up in the UK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PakonF135/

@Taimoor is your's still for sale?
 
The time to scan a roll with my Plustek 7500i is... well, how long is a piece of string?

I think I probably scanned that roll of redscale recently in less than an hour: 1200 ppi, single pass. For a roll I care about more it can certainly take several hours, as I will often use 2400 ppi, 2 pass, multi-exposure, and occasionally 3600 ppi, 4 pass multi exposure. Each frame gets individually assessed, which is an advantage (and disadvantage because of the time) compared to the Pakon. The latter does sound great though!
 
FujiLove said:
The same roll would take two evenings with my flatbed
Click to expand...

Two evenings ? If you had the Epson V700\V750 it does 24 neg frames per scan...putting them in the neg holders, blowing the dust away, scanning for thumbnails shouldn't take more than 1/2 hour, then adjusting in Photoshop to how you like it, say another 1/2 hour...so job done in 1 hour or less.
 
Last edited:
I've had some incredible results using my Plustek 8200 on colour slides. It can be very slow work though. I tend to do large batches at once, and it seems to go on forever... Did a lot of Kodachromes so no automatic dust removal etc.

The ability to lay out a few strips of negs on an Epson flatbed can be quite appealing, they are a world apart in sharpness though.
 
And the Epson 135 negative holder is much inferior to the Plustek one, lacking cross strips IIRC.
 
It takes about 10 seconds for a 400DPI preview and under a minute for a 2400DPI scan on the Plustek, single pass. About 2 minutes with the IR dust cleaning. The Epson is a bit slower though. With a loupe and a lightable to pick out the shots worth scanning, I actually end up scanning faster than I can process the files in Photoshop.
 
Last edited:
excalibur2 said:
Two evenings ? If you had the Epson V700\V750 it does 24 neg frames per scan...putting them in the neg holders, blowing the dust away, scanning for thumbnails shouldn't take more than 1/2 hour, then adjusting in Photoshop to how you like it, say another 1/2 hour...so job done in 1 hour or less.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just me, but the last negatives I scanned took most of my evening, i.e. about 3 hours start to finish. That was a set of 10 6x7 colour negatives, so it would definitely take me two evenings to sort out a 36 exposure roll of colour negs if I had to use my v550. That's: dusting off, loading the negatives into the holders, the actual scanning, filing the negs back in the sleeves, importing the files into colorPerfect, fiddling with the colour balance, dust spotting them in Photoshop, importing them into Lightroom and adding keyword tags, probably some more tweaks to the colour and contrast and a bit of cropping etc.

In the same time I could mix and warm up RA4 chemicals, print a contact sheet, then select and print four or five big prints from the roll. They would be dry and ready to view while my 'digital self' was still hunched cursing over the computer :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top