Negative scanners

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Negative scanners

Postby Apollo » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:14 pm

Has any got any experience or recommendations regarding negative scanners, basically for 35 mm use?

I have thousands of images in this format, and would like to have access to many of them digitally, but the thought of scanning the prints is a non-starter for a number of reasons. Principal problems are time, or the need to cut down the volume by pre-selecting, but more so the fact that most prints are poor representations of the negative, having been printed by automated processing machinery. I have many disappointing prints that have much superior negatives, and that have been latterly recovered from them. Scanning defective image prints seems counter-productive. Better to start with the original source from the neg, then any fiddling needed can be done with the favourite editing package.

Since the price of neg scanners has come down, there doesn't seem to be a lot of user info about, so if anyone's had hands-on, it would be interesting to know with what, and how good/bad the results were.
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Postby AlanM » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:19 pm

Haven't got one myself but I'm told that the Nikons are the ones to go for.
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Postby MacotheIsles » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:45 pm

I use a little Epson 1670 scanner which has an adaptor for slides and negative 35mm strips. Goes up to about 1600 dpi; which is important since slides/negs are obviously going to have to come up in size for printing. 48 bit colour too. Results from this are generally good and it comes bundled with some
software, but Photoshop is still a necessity for the average punter of discernment. It's by no means a professional system - it only scans 2 slides or one normal 35mm neg strip (4 pics I think) at a time. There can be some fine vertical scan lines though although I'm sure some twiddling with the -rather good - settings would fix this.


http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/cons ... d=35836299
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Postby John » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:46 pm

I have one of the Nikon Coolscan V ED (LS50) scanners and am delighted with both the results and the usability. I got it online for a good price.

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Postby hazy » Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:48 pm

Apollo if its inexpensive but ok I use hp Scanjet 4580. If you want to go for a dedicated 35mm scanner get a Plustec optical film 7200. Cost a wee bit but the results are good.
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Postby Apollo » Sun Feb 04, 2007 2:22 pm

Thanks for the hints - it's really a nuisance when you can't get the work to provide a reason to buy, or at least try, some alternatives.

I saw a scanner with converter, but never liked the idea (using an A4 size bed for 25 mm just feels wrong to the engineer in me :roll: ) after seeing a proper neg scanner at work, with the illuminator/detector operating right at the neg surface.

The Nikon recommendation's a bad thing, but only because it's the sort of thing I would trust with so many negs :) I don't fancy doing the job twice.

Any local/UK suppliers for the Plustec? - all I get back in searches is forum queries asking about Plustec's not working with XP and a dead Plustec url.
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Postby hazy » Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:07 pm

Apollo if you go to http://www.datamind.co.uk you will find all the plustec range + a load of other scanners.
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Postby ozneil » Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:57 am

I use an HP scanjet 5400c with a HP scanjet xpa attachments for 35mm slides or film. I works fine. But I am strictly a beginner & not up to all the nuances
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Postby Apollo » Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:30 pm

hazy wrote:Apollo if you go to http://www.datamind.co.uk you will find all the plustec range + a load of other scanners.

Ah, that's better - bit less hurtful on the wallet than Nikon (but then, a lot of things are :) ).
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Re: Negative scanners

Postby engineer » Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:40 pm

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Re: Negative scanners

Postby Vinegar Tom » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:41 pm

I am looking for some advice on buying a scanner - I have a lot of family Kodachrome slides from the late 1960's / early 1970's which I have ( foolishly ) volunteered to digitise / print etc.

The slides have a lovely vibrant colour (?) quality about them , which I would love to be able to reproduce in the scans.

I have spotted this one at Jacobs.

Any advice folks?
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Re: Negative scanners

Postby darrel » Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:56 am

have a look in Maplins in St Enoch Square they had a very good one and it was not very expensive
http://darrels.smugmug.com/
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Re: Negative scanners

Postby GlasgowMac » Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:55 pm

I use an Epson Perfection 4490 photo scanner, a very good bit of hardware, been scanning quite a lot of 80+ year old MF negatives as-well as 35mm, 110mm neg's on it. The scan quality is some of the best I've ever seen from domestic scanners. :)

You can pick them up in some places for under £100 now.

http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Scanners/Epson-Perfection-4490-Photo

:D

[edit] And yes, it's extremely slow work loading/unloading the negatives and painfully time consuming with large amounts of negatives, but the effort is well worth it when you see the finished copies. The 80+year old 'MF' negatives surprised even me after they were scanned considering the poor condition of them, as for 35mm and slides, I can only say WOW! :)
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Re: Negative scanners

Postby Late to the Party » Tue Nov 08, 2011 10:51 am

Mac, does the 4490 generally come with a holder that'll take 6x12 shots? Been tinkering with some MF pinhole stuff recently and getting a good scan seems harder than figuring out the reciprocity failure....
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Re: Negative scanners

Postby fourbytwo » Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:22 am

I have an old but very reliable Epson Scanner GT7000.
This has not been used for a few years, as I use a Mac, and this model of scanner's drivers stop at mac OS.X.10.3.9.
Although I have a more modern Canoscan, the Epson was by far the best I ever used.
This model also has the attachment for negatives and adapters for the older single plate photos.
I probably still have the software somewhere, the most important points being that this model continues to work with almost all Windows programmes.......
If you are interested, post a message, and we will work something out....... 8O
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