What do you know about scanning negatives ?

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I am hoping to get started shooting film very soon, and will need to scan the negs (I have no darkroom yet..).
So, having never scanned anything before, what help can you give me ?
Any tricks or techniques I need to know about ?
Cheers
Steve
 
Obviously you'll need a scanner and scanning can be quite BORING!!! All depends how much money you want to spend, flatbed scanners have come on quite a lot these last couple of years. It really depends on how much youve to spend. And of course what format you are using. If you give more info then im sure a few people on here will be forthcoming with good advice.
 
marko - I will be shooting 6x6 and 6x7, mainly black and white. The scanner is not yet known, but maybe an Epson v500 or 700, but possibly a Nikon coolscan 8000, if I can get one at an affordable price..
What more do I need to tell you..?
I have used a flatbed scanner for scanning 'other' stuff, but never for negatives, so am a total beginner !
 
The scanners you mention are all highly thought of. As i said above the pricier you go the better reults you'll get. I scan through Photoshop though sanners do come with software. though the software supplied with scanners is a bit limiting in my experience. There's not much to explain really, other than its very time-consuming, which was one reason i moved to digital cameras. Any specific questions i'll try to answer
 
Cheers marko - once I have some, I'll ask !
Just why is it time consuming - is it just a slow process, or is there lots to do ?
 
I am hoping to get started shooting film very soon, and will need to scan the negs (I have no darkroom yet..).
So, having never scanned anything before, what help can you give me ?
Any tricks or techniques I need to know about ?
Cheers
Steve

Crikey.

I logged on to ask exactly the same question.
 
no problem steve, it's a pleasure to help
its just takes time for the scanner to scan, it's a lot of sitting waiting for the scan to come through. will you be scanning using photoshop? i would recommend it....i'm going home soon so won't be online for a while, just in case you think i ignoring you!
 
marko - for when you can reply...
scanning through photoshop ??
I have elements 5, and also ACDSee. These good enough ?
Why do I need to scan through anything ?
I assumed you scanned, then manipulated as and when with whatever, but clearly not.....
Blimey - another learning curve, I fear !
 
steve, to be honest they proberbly are, i'm just a photoshop pusher!
 
Other than getting slides and negs scanned and saved on a CD by the shop (which I'm quite disappointed with out here) I've never done any of this before. I just bought myself a slide copier to fit on the front of the camera in place of the lens, hoping that will do a good job :shrug:
 
Hmmm, yeah, I had some scans done of some 35mm, they are sharp, well exposed and good colour, the film was colour reversal not my favourite film, but the worst thing about them were the lines across nearly every one.
Its not the scanning, the lines are on the negs, machine development sucks....a lot.
I have a Minolta dedicated scanner now, my flatbed can take a running jump, just gotta work out how to connect the thing, what the heck is SCSI, and what are these stupid 25 pin 80's connectors/leads rubbish.
I never had anything that didn't plug into a usb or firewire port, instructions would be handy:thinking:

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Hmmm, yeah, I had some scans done of some 35mm, they are sharp, well exposed and good colour, the film was colour reversal not my favourite film, but the worst thing about them were the lines across nearly every one.
Its not the scanning, the lines are on the negs, machine development sucks....a lot.
I have a Minolta dedicated scanner now, my flatbed can take a running jump, just gotta work out how to connect the thing, what the heck is SCSI, and what are these stupid 25 pin 80's connectors/leads rubbish.
I never had anything that didn't plug into a usb or firewire port, instructions would be handy:thinking:

I've got a Minolta Quickscan 35 and a couple of SCSI cards. I'm no expert but may be able to pass on a tit bit or two.

Bob
 
Thanks Bob
well, I know I have a SCSI port on the back of my pc.
think I'm just gonna have to plug it in and see what happens.
I dont know why there are 2 leads and 2 different sockets on the back of the scanner, cant use both.
I dont even know if the SCSI card on the pc is compatable.
 
I used to scan all my 35mm negs before switching to digital. Minolta makes some great scanners, but like marko said, it's very boring and time consuming. For high-resolution scans you really need a book to read while the scan is being performed.
 
What do you know about scanning negatives ?

That my Nikon CS3 does it with ease
 
I use an epson gt 7000 with film adapter old tech but works reasonably ok. Just in case you fancy a cheapish one to try, ebay Item number: 130196536941
or I have a scsi unit spare minus adapter foc, when you next in UK?
 
Can anyone recommend a lab that will develop film and scan the negatives onto CD as well? The local Boots and other such places do it but the resolution and sharpness is quite poor.

I'm using both negative and slide film if that makes any difference at all.
 
Can anyone recommend a lab that will develop film and scan the negatives onto CD as well? The local Boots and other such places do it but the resolution and sharpness is quite poor.

I'm using both negative and slide film if that makes any difference at all.

Realistically, to get the best quality, you'll have to go to one of the Pro labs, which is expensive.
(The reason the CDs you have had made so far are poor is purely down to cost - to make them cheap they cut corners, hence poor resolution.)

The principle of good scanning is the same for negatives and slides.
 
Can anyone recommend a lab that will develop film and scan the negatives onto CD as well? The local Boots and other such places do it but the resolution and sharpness is quite poor.

I'm using both negative and slide film if that makes any difference at all.

Metro Imaging in London will not let you down top class lab
 
marko400d - jist to pop this back up to the top - I think I have bought me a coolscan 8000 scanner, so hope thats up to the job..!
 
Hey steve, congratulations, i'm sure it will be....buy a good book to read whilst scanning though!!
 
You could try and get your hands on a drum scanner, I use a Linotype_Hell 3300 its the size of a small car but scans an A4 full Res Tx in only a few minutes.

Were £30-40k around 10-15 years ago, but you might pick one up on fleebay for a few hundred quid.

Here you go, picture found via google, told you it was big....

bild.jpg
 
O.K. so what exactly is a drum scan and why is/was it better than a flatbed apart from the fact that flatbeds have come a long way in the last few years?

Time issues:shrug:

Looking at getting the Epson 750 soon as I am getting a Mamiya MF camera soon as a buddy to my flock of K-1000s.

Looking forward to hearing from you(y)
 
Theres nothing much special about drum scanners other than the light and receptor used to record a scan.
They use lazers and a photo multiplyer tube that records far more detail/dynamic range than the ccd based scanners us togs use, the drum spins as it scans, the slower the spin the more resolution is recorded.
Dedicated scanners scan only film and therefore are optimised for one scan medium only, they are the best you can get besides drum scanners.
Flatbeds do a few jobs besides film, so generally compromises have to be made in the design of the optics and whatever, both are just ccd recording much like a digital camera, the length of time it takes to scan a neg is effectively a shutter speed...
 
A drum scanner (like a dedicated film scanner) is ever so slightly beyond my budget and so I thought I'd buy the best flatbed I could find and afford.

How far apart are they in IQ?
 
Technology as with everything else changes, the flatbeds are getting better and better all the time, I could only talk about what I've used and seen personally.
I wasn't impressed with my epson 4490, and generally all the flatbeds get reviews ranging from the dogs cajones to a pile of crap dont buy it.
I thought I'd take that inconsistency out of the equation and buy a dedicated, the complaints about those are generally software based not the scanner itself.
Maybe the new flatbeds like the V750/700 or microteks M1 are as good as dedicated, or as near as doesn't matter...I just dont know...I'd have to use one.
I've seen some great scans out of an epson 4990, Canons 9500F and the V750/700, how much pp is included:shrug:
The software used to scan is almost as important as the scanner itself..
 
I use a V700 with all the software whistles & bells turned off and PP in tattyshop.

Digital ICE takes forever and the results aren't all that good, images come out a bit muddy and soft. I tend to cherry pick the images at the preview scan stage and work on them in photoshop after the main scan. The film holders are adequate but probably easy to break if you're not careful.

BTW you don't get an awful lot more for the extra money of a V750 over the V700 either, there are a lot of p****d-off V750 owners out there.
 
BTW you don't get an awful lot more for the extra money of a V750 over the V700 either, there are a lot of p****d-off V750 owners out there.

I gathered this much looking at the specs;)

The price difference down here is about R 6,5 K vs R 8,3 K.

Quite a bit to pay for bragging rights and little else:shrug:
 
The V750 is supposed to be optically superior to the V700 and it can take a fluid mount, that is, the film is placed directly on to the glass using some optical fluid like a drum scanner, this clears imperfections in the film, makes it as flat and square to the sensor as possible and ensures there are no newton rings.
I remain unconvinced at the difference between a V700 scan and a V750 with or without fluid mount....
The guys that manufacture the fluid, have an instructional video I've posted before, and they swear on their mothers life its the beginning and the end of fablious flatbed scanning.....but.....they would say that, wouldn't they:bang:
Seriously sprog, give your V700 marks out of 10..
Are you dissappointed by any amount or are you getting what you expected, bearing in mind "getting what you expected" doesn't mean they're that brilliant.
If I ever get this Minolta going I'm gonna critique it to the death...and then some..
 
Seriously sprog, give your V700 marks out of 10..

I'd give it an 8.

I paid £350 for it off Amazon and the only real criticism I have with it is the flaky software (not really an issue because I do all my PP in Photoshop) and the flimsy film mounts (35mm negatives are not held very flat) It would be nice to be able to adjust the focus but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere if costs are to remain reasonable. I may invest in a fluid mount for the more critical scans, I believe it retails for about 40-50 quid.

Oh, and it's a sod to keep dust free, the huge glass surface areas seem to attract it like nothing else I've seen so I'll have to look at getting some anti-static cleaner or something.
 
You kinda hit the nail on the head with that word "focus", that is the absolute number one worst thing and the reason I hate my 4490, the focus was terrible, hugely frustrating when I through a loupe can see the negs are sharp as hell, my d70 slide copy macro arrangement was miles sharper, but blows the highlights:LOL:.
Dunno what software the v700 comes with but I thought the EpsonScan that came with the 4490 was 8/10 pretty good.
I pinched a big blusher brush off our lass, it sits alongside the scanner and is as important as electricity for scanning.
Dont think the fluid mount is available for the v700..
Ere, I was reading somewhere that the mounts have adjustable legs or something to give a little focussing adjustment...or shims....I forget ?
 
The film height adjusters did seem to make a little difference to the quality of scans on mine. I have a dedicated 35mm film scanner Minolta Dimage Dual Scan IV, the V700 doesn't match it in detail but I still find it satisfactory, although this could be due to the different software I'm using on each machine. The IR dust removal is great with no appreciable loss in detail (doesn't work for B&W films though).

I didn't get the V700 for 35mm though, I recently acquired a TLR and look forward to getting my first roll of 120 developed and then see how the scanner performs.
 
In regards to SCSI - I can help there.

It stands for Small Computer Systems Interface.

You need a SCSI card for your PC. The reason there are two ports on the back of the scanner is because SCSI connections are done on what you'd call a daisy chain - you chain them all together and then have to terminate the signal on the end of the cable. You'd have a SCSI cable from the SCSI card to your scanners first port and then have a terminator (a small SCSI connector with nothing on the end).

SCSI is old school - the first CD-Writers were all SCSI and its still widely used in servers although SATA is starting to take over on the cheaper systems. You'll have to have a hunt around for the SCSI adapter card you need, try ebay.
 
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