Scanning Film/Prints

[Mac-Jack]

I have about 500 half-frame film positives that I'd like to scan into my digital collection. The problem is that they are all cut from the roll, and not in slides. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to scan these? I'd also like the scanner to be able to scan in a bunch of 4x6 prints (drawer full).

Any help would be great!

P.S. Try not to break my bank Under 350 would be great.

Or at least point me in a new direction (forum wise)?

Thanks

 

[filmamigo]

Try asking here:

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/

This is a spinoff of the Analog Photography Users Group (APUG.ORG), dedicated to people using a mixed methodology (analog film shooting and digital scanning and printing.)

You might also have luck asking that question here:

http://photo.net/bboard/unified/

 

[ChrisA]

I have about 500 half-frame film positives that I'd like to scan into my digital collection. The problem is that they are all cut from the roll, and not in slides. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to scan these? I'd also like the scanner to be able to scan in a bunch of 4x6 prints (drawer full).

Any help would be great!

P.S. Try not to break my bank Under 350 would be great.

My Epson 4990 would do the job but it would be a LOT
of work. First all those cut frames would have to be
place in the film holder elusion side down and then you have to scan them in batches of 20 or so and then do color correctons on each one.

Prints are easy, you don't need a high end scanner for prints.

Scancaffe.com will scan your negs for 0.21 each. Is that within you budget? Less work to outsource the problem.

 

[theBB]

Epson 4990 has ICE, which filters out scratches and dust, but its negative holder does not have a guide rail to align the film easily. If Epson V200 is similar to V350 it will not remove much if any dust, but its holder has an easy guide rail on each side to help you out. It can only hold strips up to 3 frames, but in your case that is not a drawback.

4990 is about $170, V200 is probably about $100 nowadays. Quality wise I'd assume V700 is better, but it is more expensive.

 

[ChrisA]

Epson 4990 has ICE, which filters out scratches and dust, but its negative holder does not have a guide rail to align the film easily..

A assume you by "half frame" he meant that it was shot
like movie film where the film moves vertically giving a 22mm x 16mm frame size. This is how 35mm film was used for years.

1/2 frame cut pieces are going to be a royal pain in the rear to handle no matter what. You don't really need
the film holder with the Epson 4990 you could lay the
little frames directly on the glass. Maybe make a "holder" with low-tack tape. Either way a lot of work.
You may have the manually straighten each frame
using Photoshop if you don't use the film holder.
With cut frames like this I think you are stuck using a flat bed scanner.

 

[Mac-Jack]

Thanks guys for all of the input. I guess I'll explain the situation in depth further. These half-frame positives were kept in plastic cases with the film at one end and a plastic lens on the other, you would look in through the plastic lens, preferably aimed at light, and you would see a large vivid picture through the lens (much like a kaleidoscope but with a picture and minus the mirror.) As the years went by we accumulated a bin full of these (approx 500-600) and I want to put these into digital form so that they do not go by the way-side.

So with that out, would a flat-bed scanner produce high quality results, or can you tell that they were scanned?

Once again, thanks.

 

[theBB]

Uh, sorry, you have positives, not negatives. I guess you need to use whatever method the scanner offers for slides. Normally you would place them on a holder, and the scanner sends light from its lid, instead of from the glass bottom as this is a transparent object instead of a reflective surface.

In your case, just place the slide holder according to instructions and drop your positives inside the holder. They will be resting on the glass instead of the holder, as yours do not have the slide frames, but that will ensure that they will be placed in front of the light source on the lid.

I'd get a can of compressed air to dust them off and maybe a pair of gloves to avoid fingerprints as you will probably need to touch them while placing. You may also need to crop each positive manually after the preview scan, as most scanner software would be looking for the white slide frames to determine the exact picture area. At 4800dpi I am pretty sure they will come out nicely, as long as scanning mechanism can focus on your positives properly. You may need to experiment a bit, but the whole process does not sound very easy to me.