Negative Scanner recommendation

[pulsewidth947]

I've just started getting into photography, especially film photography (lomo camera + colour flash + expired slide film + cross processing = lovely colours ).

I'm interested in getting a negative scanner to help me digitize colour and b+w negatives, but I cant find any in my sub-£300 price range that is Mac compatible. I found a Plustek film scanner for £130, which has got mixed reviews, but is PC only - booo!

I dont really wanna take my black and white negs to a lab to scan as I develop them myself at work, and I dont think I could trust a lab to scan my colour film as its usually crazy colours/out of focus/ which they may ruin as part of their quality control

The final thing is that the scanner has to be USB as I've only got the two macs listed in my signature.

Thanks for your time

 

[iHotu]

I use a Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV, $229, and think it works pretty well for the price. The software that comes with it is not great, but it does a decent job with dust and batch jobs. It will hang some times and I find that I will need to restart my computer, but not too often. There is no feeder, but you can scan 4 slides at a time. I like to scan at 3200 dpi (4680x3120 before crop) then do any corrections in photoshop.

Minolta also makes a DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II for around $550, it's little bit quicker and scans at 5400 dpi.

Edit: Seems like Minolta also stopped producing scanners earlier this year along with their camera operations, bummer. I would still recommend the Scan Dual IV if you can find one, can't beat that price.

 

[pulsewidth947]

Yeah that comes up a lot on ebay, and some lucky duck got one for £70 earlier today buy it now! Damn I wish that was me!
I'm not too worried about software or dust/scratch removal as I'd rather do it myself in photoshop (or leave it in if it looks cool)

I've gone off the sterility of digital, hence the cheap cameras and film, I just wanted to get back to basics - just having fun! Took me a while to find a metal SLR that was fully manual, but luckily there was a few on eBay as no-one wants film anymore.. woot

4680x3120? Thats nice and big.. what are your file sizes? Do you save as TIFFs?

 

[ChrisA]

I'm interested in getting a negative scanner to help me digitize colour and b+w negatives, but I cant find any in my sub-£300 price range that is Mac compatible. I found a Plustek film scanner for £130, which has got mixed reviews, but is PC only - booo!

I bought an Epson from Epson's "refurb" or "clearance" web site. It does a true 4800 DPI with Dmax up to 4.0, has features (in hardware) that remove dust and scratches. Comes with Mac software and has both USB and Firewire interface. Price was about 1/2 your budget. Inventory changes so you just have to look to see what's there now. You get a full warrenty and they sell at 1/2 price. So you can get a better scanner than you could otherwise afford
At 4800 DPi I can see the film grain even on fine grain film so there is no need for higher reolutions

Epson Perfection 4490 PHOTO - Refurbished for $173.00
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/

 

[iHotu]

I've gone off the sterility of digital, hence the cheap cameras and film, I just wanted to get back to basics - just having fun! Took me a while to find a metal SLR that was fully manual, but luckily there was a few on eBay as no-one wants film anymore.. woot

4680x3120? Thats nice and big.. what are your file sizes? Do you save as TIFFs?

Yeah I know what you mean, I use a Minolta SRT-101 and a couple of old primes.

Cropped down to remove the slide mount, the files are about 2800x4300 and around 7MB at the highest quality jpg setting, TIFF's can be 50MB+.

 

[pulsewidth947]

Just as an update, I bought a Dual Scan IV from eBay. Its strange, you can't get them any more and so the prices are rocketting.. to much above what people paid for them in the first place!! I've scanned in some black and white negs and the results are not bad. They'll be much better when I figure out the scanner software and stop it ruining my contrast

I'm just sent off 3 x out of date Fuji Velvia films to be cross processed and printed and I can't wait to see what they look like! You don't get this feeling of anticipation with digital, yes you can half replicate cross processing in photoshop, but where is the fun in that?

 

[REDSRT4]

I would say use any epson I have nothing but good luck with their products

 

[pulsewidth947]

A further update -

The Dual Scan IV works wonders on my B+W negs, but really struggles with my x-processed slide films. As a result I've passed on the Dual Scan and I've ordered a Epson 4490. I figure I'll scan the prints of the x-processed films, as I'm probably only going to put them on Flickr anyway!

I also didn't realise the 4490 apparently can scan 120 film. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[ChrisA]

A further update -

I also didn't realise the 4490 apparently can scan 120 film. Can anyone confirm this?

Yes 120 film and sheet film too as well as 35mm film and moundted slides. The scanner comes with several asorted film holders

 

[ChrisA]

I would say use any epson ....

Not quite ANY Epson. You do need a light source that is above the glass and some film holders. Also the "Digital ICE" thing works realy well. This was developed by Kodak is licensed to the various scanner makers. ICE uses a second infrared light source and compares that with the white light source to detect dust and scratches. Works well, saves much time.

 

[pulsewidth947]

Well I bit the bullet - put the scanner on eBay yesterday, someone did buy it now within hours, it shipped off today! I've ordered the 4490 from Amazon, should be here probably next week - free shipping

I hope my B+W negs come out ok with it. I'm not that bothered if they dont, if I need prints of B+W I'll do them in the darkroom at work. I'm certainly looking forward to getting my cross-processed prints digitized so I can send them to friends!

Thanks for your replies about the 120 adapter. I hope it comes with Silverfast SE, but I suspect it wont

 

[Johnsonsc]

hey pulse, with your new epson scanner, can you scan the whole negative with out having to crop the sprockets? (if you use 35mm film in a Holga of course). I'm in the market for a negative scanner for this sole purpose.
Anyone else know of a film scanner that let's you have complete freedom and scan a whole sheet of negatives?

thanks in advance