Looking for a 35mm negative scanner

I

Imbi

Messages
6
Name
Imbi
Edit My Images
No
Hi talkphotography community

I'm new in this forum.

I have more than 10'000 35mm colour negatives and also some old slides that I would like to digitize. I looked at various models but can't really go for one.

As I still have some negatives in rolles a flatbed scanner might not be the best bet unless there is some sort of Frame to hold the cut up and curled negatives for stabilisation.

I also would think that ICE (Image Correction & Enhancement) is much better than a software solution.

Can anyone please give me some advice.

Thank you very much for your help.

Kinde regards from Switzerland,
Imbi
 
That is a big job and most scanner's that are value for money would take you the rest of your life to process, the cost of a pro scanner's to do the job and then not be used again may point in the direction of a lab.
A lot of organisation are using labs in India to do volume library work and it may be more cost effective to take this route with your quantity.
 
I think in your shoes i'd try and find a local minilab service that can handle scanning of negatives on something like the Frontier SP3000 machines, and try to come to some arrangement with them - 10,000+ negs to scan would provide a nice "slack time" fill in job for a less than busy lab - maybe they'd cut you a deal on the processing cost. Without a machine like that - you'd be there forever.
 
Have to agree with everyone else. Scanning whilst you shoot and dev is one thing but for 10000+ negs and slides I would deffo be paying someone else to do it on professional kit!
 
Or if you have a bit of money kicking around you could consider getting a used drum? scanner, scanning them, then selling it on for roughly the same price as you bought it for. Depends how much you could get a lab to do it, at £5 per film it wouldn't be pretty.
 
What about a film scanner like a Nikon Coolscan 5000 or (the best!) 9000ED?
Their probably two of the best film scanners ever made and are used by a lot of labs and pro's for scanning their work. The 9000ED is also the only scanner equipped with Digital ICE4 that works properly on Kodachrome amongst other things.

Unfortunately Nikon decided to discontinue their film scanner range last year, but you can get used refurbished ones for quite reasonable prices compared to what they cost originally.
 
My main worry would be the sheer number we're talking about. If we work on each image taking around 1 minute to scan and burn, 10,000+ images is over 160 hours worth of solid scanning time - hence the idea of outsourcing offshore - if you're going to have to pay 4 weeks wages to someone to do the scanning, better at Mumbai rates than Geneva ones!
 
I recently bought an Epson V700 Photo on Amazon for £400 and the results have been very impressive. It comes with holders for every film format including 35 mil roll film and slides. I gradually scanned through 550 images on negs of different formats and found that I gradually attained a good through-flow assuming about 10 to 12 images per scan. When I started I set it for 60 dpi but then changed to 1200 dpi with the result that I got absolutely all the detail though it did scan more slowly. Still, it was worth it. Hope that helps.
 
Thanks all for your valid answers. I did think about outsoursing it but here in Switzerland it would cost me an arm and a leg to have the job done. I know it will take me for ever but I will just have to life with that. I will have a look at some of the models you have suggested. But thaks again.
 
As far as the Nikon scanners go and judging by your list of reequirements.

The Coolscan 9000 will scan 12 frames of 35mm neg film in one go, 5 mounted slides or 3 6x6 negs. It will probably cost you in the region of £1800 - £2300. Plus the extra £250ish for the glass 120 film holder if you need it.

The Coolscan 5000 can't do 120 film but does have the benefit of an optional slide feeder attachment that will hold 50 slides, also an optional negative feeder that will cope with 6 frames of neg film automatically. And I'm pretty sure you can get a roll film attachment that may be useful as you do have some , it would save you having to cut them into 6's. I have no idea how much these cost and I think they are pretty rare.

The 5000 seems to fetch around £1000 - £1300 on a well known auction site, the slide feeder £350 -£450, the neg feeder may have been bundled with it, I'm not 100% on this.

The real joy of the Nikon kit is that, although expensive, if you only need it to archive your old negs and slides, once you've finished you can sell it all with little or no loss to it's value.

As others have said though it is monumentally time consuming, so I would line up some decent music and a few good books to stop you going insane while it grinds away in the background.

Best of luck, it's wonderful trip down memory lane (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top