Any advice on Scanners?

[Ray Kilby]

Any advice on buying a scanner? Whats currently half decent and easy too use? I have a 25 year old Cannon which is just too cranky and too awkward and has finally refused to talk to my new-ish laptop. I am in the UK.

 

[FIegiso]

What format are you scanning?

 

[d_c]

I have a 22 year old Nikon film scanner and a 20 year old Epson A3 flatbed scanner that are both working perfectly fine using Vuescan, so it might be worth checking your scanner model against the list of those that Hamrick support. As long as you don't have an interface problem, e.g. your scanner needs a SCSi connection, you will probably find that you can keep it going... assuming of course that you want to.

 

[sojournerphoto]

Epson v800/850 for a flatbed.

DSLR scanning if you want to set up for that. My setup is dedicated so it doesn’t move…

 

[kxl]

I only shoot/scan 35mm.

For the longest time, I used a Nikon Coolscan 5000, which I hacked to scan entire rolls (rather than buy an expensive adapter). If you're set on getting a scanner and only scan 35mm, I highly recommend it. There's an FB group for Nikon Coolscan--contact Frank A. White, who services and sells them. He's in the US, but I believe he'll ship to the UK.

While I still only shoot 35mm, I recently switched to the Valoi Easy35 scanning kit, which I attach to a 105mm macro lens on my Nikon Z6 III. I highly recommend it IF you already have a DSLR/MILC and a compatible macro lens.

 

[Ray Kilby]

I have a 22 year old Nikon film scanner and a 20 year old Epson A3 flatbed scanner that are both working perfectly fine using Vuescan, so it might be worth checking your scanner model against the list of those that Hamrick support. As long as you don't have an interface problem, e.g. your scanner needs a SCSi connection, you will probably find that you can keep it going... assuming of course that you want to.

Yes the scanner needs a SCSi connection, Vuescan works fine. I like it a lot, but it's the interface that's the issue, plus it's slow and not easy to do multipole scans. I've never used a flatbed for film scanning.

 

[Darthfeeble]

I have an Epson V600, it will scan both 35mm and medium format film. It's reasonably price though I don't think it is available new anymore. The V850 is the darling of the film set from what I've read.

 

[Peter_S]

I think a lot comes down to what you try to achieve. I use an Coolscan 8000ED since ages, but used prices are stiff and repairs likely impossible. I hope it keeps going...and would not want to downgrade (scans from it have been use in print media), but likely look for a Flextight X1 (had several scans outsourced to one). Not sure how the Plusteks stack up.

 

[Oren Grad]

I think a lot comes down to what you try to achieve.

This.

To Ray: what is the purpose of your scans? Are they just for getting small jpgs to post on the web, or do you use the scans for printing? If you use them for printing, what kind of printer or service do you use and how large do you print?

 

[willie_901]

I use Vuescan with a OpticFilm 7600i scanner.

 

[Godfrey]

I have a Nikon CoolScan V for 35mm, half-35mm, and APS format film. I only use it very rarely now, since my current cameras can now capture negatives at higher resolution than the CoolScan V using a macro copy setup. I drive the scanner with Vuescan.

I also used to have a Nikon CoolScan 9000 for medium format film. However, I sold that some years ago ... it produced astonishingly good scans but, in all honesty, they were much much more than I ever needed. A 50 Mpixel copy-camera scan with my current cameras, even of medium format negatives, is more than enough resolution for my purposes.

G

 

[gavinlg]

If you want the best quality scans overall without going to a commercial machine like a Noritsu or Frontier, DSLR scanning with a lightbox is the go. Convert color negs with Negative lab pro in lightroom.

If you want a reasonably priced setup (sub $300usd) and don't mind spending 1hr per roll to scan, get a plustek 8100/8200 or 135 and negative lab pro for conversion. The plustek's are pretty close to Noritsu's and Frontiers, especially for black and white scans.

 

[luuca]

I'm an early adopter of Plustek Opticfilm 120 (one of the few without issues...) and it works perfectly for me, both with 35 and 120.
But I can't recommend it to anyone due to its unreliability. I was just lucky, I assume.

 

[FIegiso]

If you are only 35mm, I would consider the Reflecta RPS 10M/S. It feeds and scans an entire roll. I've had mine about a year and like it fine. In terms of scan resolution for 35mm it is the best available new at the prosumer, not commercial, level. You can still use VueScan with it or the OEM CyberViewX, or SilverFast (my main software).

I have a little blog post on my decision making process for the scanner. Also a blog post on scanner resolution.

 

[rogxwhit]

I've had Nikon film scanners for 35mm - Coolscan LS2000 (scsi) from circa year 2001, run via an Adaptec card on Win XP, followed by a Coolscan V (usb). The LS 2000 was a hero in its day, having analogue gain adjustment and multi-pass options, all at 2700 ppi.

The native Nikon Scan software was also excellent, and I managed to invoke it in later times with the Coolscan V on Windows 8 / 10 by borrowing an up-to-date driver from Vuescan. I really can't stand the Vuescan interface or functionality, and Nikonscan (along with its quirky interface) always worked powerfully & sweetly, including its default colour neg inversions.

But film scanning can be a slow, grinding process, and I've migrated to photographing negs with a camera / copy stand / light panel setup. The stand is from an old enlarger with the head replaced by a camera mount. My neg holder is repurposed from the enlarger neg carrier (medium format). The light panel is from Cinestill.

 

[pgk]

I copy negs and transparencies using an adapted (Sony FE) Olympus OM (film days) bellows system and Olympus macro lens. Total cost ~ £200 and gives excellent results, is much quicker than scanning and easy is to use. I've used scanners including a Collscan 8000 but prefer the results from this copying set up. I've modified the bellows and can photograph and post here if it is of interest.

 

[jiun88]

I have two Nikon 9000ED scanners and one 5ED. One 9000ED is a spare in case of failure. The 5ED is for scanning 35mm film, but since I've been using the 9000ED for everything, it's been sitting unused for several years now. I should sell it.



For scanning software, I use Vuescan and Silverfast on a Windows 11 environment. Each has its pros and cons, so I alternate between them.

 

[JeffS7444]

I think I've finally figured out the latest iteration of Vuescan + my old Epson V700, and the combo is a gem! Configuring the software to auto-detect multiple film images (including half frame 35mm) isn't intuitive, and as far as I can see, you still need to manually tweak RGB curves to get best scans from color negatives, but it works well, and 2-pass scans @ 3200 dpi are relatively quick.

Windows 10 and 11 aren't compatible with some older scanner drivers, likely a side-effect of increased OS security.

Not long ago, my scanner seemed to be malfunctioning, resulting in increasingly frequent errors which required me to power the hardware down. Turns out that scanners need occasional CLAs too: I cleaned and relubricated the linear bearings (silver rods) and that seems to have fixed things. Should have figured it out sooner: As delivered, the inside of the scanner glass would get a little hazy over time, and that haze was the original lubricant.

 

[Godfrey]

NikonScan disappeared from macOS systems ages past, which never bothered me since I have been using Vuescan since Ed released it a bazillion years ago.

I've also never bothered to fuss and fidget with Vuescan (or any other scanning software) to get "perfect out of the scanning" images. I run Vuescan to obtain the maximum amount of data in the originals into my scan masters, and use LR and other image processing tools to render them. Why bother spending a lot of time setting white point on scans when, once you have the data in digital form, doing that in LR Classic is essentially a click or two away?

I prefer my tools to have discrete functions. Scanning software should scan data into digital form, not bother with rendering; rendering is the domain of image processing tools.

G

 

[jiun88]

NikonScan disappeared from macOS systems ages past, which never bothered me since I have been using Vuescan since Ed released it a bazillion years ago.

I've also never bothered to fuss and fidget with Vuescan (or any other scanning software) to get "perfect out of the scanning" images. I run Vuescan to obtain the maximum amount of data in the originals into my scan masters, and use LR and other image processing tools to render them. Why bother spending a lot of time setting white point on scans when, once you have the data in digital form, doing that in LR Classic is essentially a click or two away?

I prefer my tools to have discrete functions. Scanning software should scan data into digital form, not bother with rendering; rendering is the domain of image processing tools.

G

I completely agree with your opinion.