How do you scan your 35mm B&W film?

How do you scan your 35mm B&W film?

  • I use a flatbed scanner - i.e. Epson V750 photo scanner

    Votes: 313 35.6%

  • I use a dedicated 35mm scanner - i.e. a Nikon Coolscan V

    Votes: 360 41.0%

  • I use a dedicated multi-format film scanner - i.e. a Nikon Coolscan 9000

    Votes: 86 9.8%

  • I use a professional scanner - i.e. drum scanner

    Votes: 27 3.1%

  • I send mine away to be scanned

    Votes: 62 7.1%

  • I don't care - I wet print!

    Votes: 31 3.5%
  • Total voters
    879
I use a dedicated 35mm film scanner - the Dimage IV, and a couple Epson flatbeds. I use Vuescan exclusively. They all work pretty well for me.
 
I bought a Nikon Coolscan LS-20 new about 20 years ago. I scanned many rolls of film with it. 3 years ago I upgraded to a used Coolscan 4000ED with SA-30 and SF-200 I could get from a friend for reasonable money.
I use nikon scan 4.0.3 unter Win 7 and sometimes Vuescan. I prefer Nikonscan.
 
ChrisLivsey said:
Dedicated Plustek 8100 (No IR but as only shoot B/W for home process no need)

If I was printing I would send out (Ilford Lab UK) for the web I have no issues. Perversely I am happy with Silverfast as bundled when according to almost everyone else I should use Vuescan. The example is straight from that software no other processing.
I can see on some strips a flatter holder would give me better results but modern choices are limited. Under our consumer laws I have 6 years redress against failure, try that on S/H.
I may have a good, well aligned copy, or indeed it may be average who knows.
I am puzzled that the OP states "the last few rolls" was he happy before? Have expectations changed or has the scanner had a knock?


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HP5+ TD-201 Nikon S3 50mm Nikkor Olympic


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Just stumbled across this randomly but I am surprised.
I'm not sure how critical your eyes are, but your scan exhibits the same problems I have with my plustek 7600Ai. Hard to see but there is some kind of softer banding or interference along the horizontals of the negative.

If you apply a drastic curves manipulation or color b&w conversion the 'bands' become quite evident. For example if I scanned a b&w negative as color positive then apply a b&w conversion, by adjusting certain color channels adversely you would see the bands shifting, very strange it has lead me to believe it is something to do with the RGB LED light-source. They appear in the same spot for every scan so even perhaps a mechanical issue.

I notified plustek of the issue and they have never seen it before, I am due to send it in for inspection and repair but just haven't got around to it yet.
 
And what is even more odd is that yours appear to be in pretty much the same positions as mine. These never showed up when doing color negs, but the scanner had been in storage a long while since.
 
just upgrade to Nikon CS5000 from a CSIV ED
it's way faster and i am happy with multi-sampling mode when I need fine grain output.
i use software Nikon Scan 4; tried Vuescan before but never worked well for me.
 
I'm using a Nikon Coolscan 4000ED. It died shortly after I bought it but I had it repaired and it's been working perfectly since. I set up an old Powerbook G4 so I could run Nikon Scan.

It get's a little grainy sometimes so I kind of wish It had the multi sampling options of the later models, but overall I'm plenty happy with the quality.
 
I wet print my negatives and scan the prints with an Epson V700 Photo. Vastly faster for me than scanning the negative. I simply suck at scanning film.
 
I've been using pakon f-135 plus for almost 2 years and a v750 for my 120 films (with better scanning glasses) for 9 years. I do not think i could find a better solution.
 
pakon f135+ for the past 3.5 years. If I didn't have this machine, I wouldn't be shooting film today. Instead, I almost only shoot film today. Printed 12x18 that is tack sharp. 6mp scans from the pakon are dramatically better than what comes out of my Epson flatbed.
 
I can't say enough good things about the Pacific Image Primefilm XA (AKA Reflecta 10M). It's fast for a dedicated scanner, the manual and autofocus functions are a godsend, and most importantly it produces fantastic 33mp scans from 35mm film that are actually sharp. Cheap too. Way cheap. I think someone is selling a used one here for even cheaper.

Pro tip, don't bother with trying to scan a full roll. AFAIK it takes a long time and sometimes messes up the framing. Why wait all that time to find out the 5 or so frames on a roll need to be rescanned properly? My enlarger doesn't autoprint every frame on a roll, in fact it takes a considerable amount of work to make one good print. I treat it like an enlarger and can't argue with the results. There is a bit of a learning curve, but I'm beginning to figure out vuescan. Bad interface, great multiexposure and multisample functions though.
 
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