How hard is scanning anyway?

[Roger Hicks]

Scanning has a degree of learning to do, but once you get to your correct set up, then it is only a matter of time available. I have a job which permits me to scan while I work, so in this sense the time does not cost me anything. In terms of speed flatbed is the slowest, then dedicated scanners, then a hi res adapted digital camera. I scan on Nikon CS9000 and a full 35mm film at full resolution takes me about 4 hours.
I would generally suggest to shoot colour on digital and B&W on film, unless you REALLY want to get that creamy colour negative film look which comes from shooting MF - particularly appreciated by portrait and wedding photographers. The software of choice is Vuescan - by a large margin - and as to the choice of the scanner, it will primarily depend on how big you want to print. Here is a useful article to look through:
https://www.trippingthroughthedark....5mm-black-and-white-negatives-with-the-d800e/

And wet-print B+W, I take it. That's what I do.

Cheers,

R.

 

[kj_]

I have a question for you. Why do you want to scan? Why not just do digital capture? Or find an analog darkroom. Thought I'd ask!

Hope this helps you.

Thanks Bill, that's an interesting perspective. There are a few things holding me back from a completely film based workflow, and advantages with a hybrid approach.

For me shooting film is mainly about two things at the moment. First: slowing down - i.e. No chimping, bettering and trusting my skill rather than automation, thinking more at the time of capture than at the time of curation. Secondly: the look - while it can be emulated pretty well these days, I simply enjoy how it looks, especially the wide latitude and endless highlights (the one thing that doesn't really emulate). I also find the gear side of the equation nicer as well, with more interesting, nicer to use cameras. All these things remain, regardless of the rest of the workflow.

As for what's holding me back from going all film, it's mainly about space. We live in an apartment with no feasible way of setting up a darkroom. I'm also pretty confident that I can get better results printing digitally than in the darkroom

The hybrid approach also gives me options for putting together books on Blurb or similar services, which I like doing from time to time. Storing digitally also means the images get included in my backup routine - far reducing the likely hood of a major loss of images.

Hope that offers a balanced reasoning for my approach.

 

[Bill Clark]

Hi kj

Your post does give me your ideas. Thanks.

Welcome to rangefinder forum.

Hope we can help you.

This is a nice place to learn and help.

I'm always learning and helping, hopefully, a little bit of each!

You live on a beautiful part of our planet. Quite a number of folks reside here in Minnesota from your location.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

 

[endoplas]

I only use a V600 for colour negs - for BW I use DSLR direct capture over an LED lightbox. I use my Nikon D800 and the quality is as good as the V850 I used for a short time and so so much quicker. I then 'process' the negative in LR5 with a preset to invert the tone curve.

Great results I think.

https://www.instagram.com/after__alice/

 

[hlockwood]

Are all your images so fantastic that you have to scan them all? 😕

That was also my immediate reaction to the time issue. I scan with a Nikon 4000ED, choosing images from 6-image strips. I scan at maximum res, 16(14) bit, those few keepers that I get form a 36 neg roll. The scanning process is very simple.

I don't do color ever, but I'm using Ilford XP2 chromogenic film so that I can take advantage of Nikon's ICE spot removal feature. Other than that, I do no processing in NikonScan (never could get it right in Vuescan); all adjustments are done in Photoshop.

The C41 (B&W) film is developed in a local camera store or in a local pro shop. I get a low res disk from the camera store, or a contact sheet from the pro shop.

A dedicated film scanner is hard to beat.

HFL

 

[Erland]

Since I also live in Sweden I was wondering where you send your photos? Slot of labs here do it amazingly well. My local does a great job with developing and scanning for 135kr..
I myself had a plustek 7300, hated it. Painfully slow, really utterly cumbersome to use and you won't like the sound its making. The output is OK, not more. You get more resolution, upwards of 2-3000dpi if you scan in 7200dpi, and have alot of spare storage.. Bit plusteks are weak in Dmin and Dmax, and you won't be able to get the entire dynamic range (not starting a war here OK guys!).
I torned my plustek apart, attached the stripped negative holder-holder and are using a dslr with a macro and colorperfect instead. Much much better.
The pkusteks don't have autofocus.

But since you don't like the idea of dslr capturing, I can only recommend Pakon, nikons or konika minoltas. Pay up a bit more cash, and perhaps you will get satisfied.

 

[shimokita]

Sounds like I should probably forget about the flatbeds, right.

not necessarily... the flatbed has the advantage of price, multiple formats, and the ability to scan prints. Yes, scanning is not that difficult, but you will improve over time. I have been scanning for years and from time to time a tip pops up that's "new" to the approach. Keep reading the scan threads at RFF, it's a moving target in some respects.

As well your workflow / interests will change over time and you can rescan / reprocess. Set up a well thought-out filing system to find your negatives and search your scanned images. Over the years you will accumulate a few photos ; ).

Have fun...
Casey

 

[kiemchacsu]

I currently have upgrade from a Nikon Coolscan IV to 5000ED. Wow what a release. I now can scan whole roll at once, and it takes about 45 minutes. You set up every and do something else; get back a all the files are there for you.
I would suggest that you find a Coolscan 5000 ED or at least 4000 ED. a little tweak can make the SA-21 works as the SA-30 to scan the whole roll.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Just take it easy. Scanning is not difficult at all. Get as good as possible scanner, known scanning software and LR. Scan with settings to get best from film and process in LR.
Or take it even more easy. Take color on digital and process in LR or use it SOOC. And for bw negatives use darkroom and scan prints if you want it on the internet.

 

[jim0266]

Lately I've been using a Sony A7r2, Nikon bellows and a 55 or 60 mm macro, plus a TTL flash. I find the "scans" as good or better than using my coolscan 4000 - and way faster. Output DPI is almost the same with these 2 systems.

I started scanning with B&W negs my original 5D then a 6D. The scans were as good or better than from my Microtek 4000tf, and a LOT faster.

Shac, are you also scanning C-41? I've played with ColorPerfect and it seems promising but seems to have a steep learning curve.

 

[bence8810]

I hate scanning too which is why I now only use a Pakon 135+ and it takes 5 minutes max per roll. Totally unattended for that 5 minutes too.

It will not give you the resolution you want but it will be good enough for online sharing etc. When you do have one you want printed you could still take it frame by frame to a pro to get it scanned.

Just my 2c.
Ben

 

[FujiLove]

I could only recommend the Pakon 135+ for colour 35mm. The flat beds are okay for medium format, but it's tedious.

I've printed up to 12" wide with Pakon scans and they look great.

 

[kj_]

I run Linux as an OS and use the paid-for version of Vuescan Pro. For me, this works well. Many find it hard to use or don't like the output.

Thanks a lot. Great info. Very cool to hear you run Linux! I love it. Used to run SUSE, then Ubuntu. Gave it up because everything at my day job runs on Adobe software and quickly became messy to share stuff between the environments.

 

[kj_]

Since I also live in Sweden I was wondering where you send your photos? Slot of labs here do it amazingly well. My local does a great job with developing and scanning for 135kr..

Wow. 135kr per roll sounds great. If I could get good results at that price I probably wouldn't bother with scanning myself. What lab is that?

I use a lab in Stockholm called Crimson. For development and 8MP scans i pay around 350kr (€38) per roll. They also need 1-2 weeks to get it done. From asking around this has been the most recommended local lab. Other labs I've checked seem to offer lower res scans at similar prices.

I myself had a plustek 7300, hated it. Painfully slow, really utterly cumbersome to use and you won't like the sound its making. The output is OK, not more. You get more resolution, upwards of 2-3000dpi if you scan in 7200dpi, and have alot of spare storage.. Bit plusteks are weak in Dmin and Dmax, and you won't be able to get the entire dynamic range (not starting a war here OK guys!).

Thanks for the info. I'm surprised that you felt the dynamic range was limiting. Was that with negs or slides? I was under the impression that it was more than good enough for negative film.

 

[kj_]

Seriously - I can only recommend scanning, in this day and age, to masochists. Please refer to my experience with the PrimeFilm XA (an incredibly well-rated scanner that is built for speed) in this thread.

Thanks. I followed that thread with trepidation. I understand it must've been a very frustrating experience. I do like the look of the scans you posted though. Hope you'll be able to find a good alternative approach.

 

[rjstep3]

kj

There are a couple of problems with scanning: first off, it is boring. True, you can set an Epson flatbed going and make a cup of coffee and come back when it is all done, but you need to be around to swap over the negs or whatever, so quite dull and boring really.

Second - it is a black art. True, there are some online tutorials, but no books, no courses available at my local education centre, so you are left with trial and error.

I get the results I want, but the key to scanning is to choose what you want to scan so as not to waste time waiting for the thing to finish.

If you want to shoot film - then you need to get some familiarity with scanning, as it is the only way to get those images into a format where you can easily share them online.

Let us know what you decide to do!

rjstep3

 

[harpofreely]

1. It isn't that hard.
2. It is tedious and time-consuming.
3. The scan once at high resolution and never scan again is a counsel of perfection that costs more time and more hard drive space. It is a good idea if your negatives are so disorganized that you might never find your daughter's favourite photo again.
4. A flatbed is fine. But my very good V700 Epson is on a shelf at work as I have no room for it here. I love the Ilford FP4 black and white scans I did with that.
5. The Nikon 5000ED I have is great for slides and black and white negatives and colour negatives. It is quick to set up and put away and takes up little space.
6. I am increasingly disappointed with any scan I get from my higher end photo developer.
7. Thanks to RFF you can learn it all pretty easily.

All this, plus:

8. For the price point, the Epson V500 is not too bad - I use it with VueScan.
9. Getting the color right on scanned color print film is a massive PITA - probably the #1 reason I currently only shoot b&w film. Eventually I will try a digicam & macro setup for this...
10. Anti-newton glass inserts (from eBay) for your film holders are worth every penny - makes the holders much easier to load & holds your film flat.

 

[bmattock]

Thanks a lot. Great info. Very cool to hear you run Linux! I love it. Used to run SUSE, then Ubuntu. Gave it up because everything at my day job runs on Adobe software and quickly became messy to share stuff between the environments.

Yes, well if you are running Linux and you want to use it to scan, please check hamrick.com (Vuescan) before you purchase any scanner. There are some scanners which do not work with Linux, at least not under Vuescan. Epson is generally fine; Prime and Plustek are generally not OK.

If my older scanners were to give up the ghost, I might have to buy an inexpensive dedicated film scanner such as the one you mentioned. But I would also have consider moving to a Windows environment (why not Apple? Because I am cheap, that's why not).

 

[Erland]

I am just about to fix the Capture One CH (cultural herrirage) presets to work 90-95% in the ordinary version. Some more coding to do, but can share my results when Im done. Plus CH version is about $4000 I think.

 

[rowghani]

My two cents:

I bought a Nikon CoolScan couple of years ago and it has paid itself off already. Very easy to use and gives good results for small printing, however if I really like a pic and want to print larger than 8x10 I rent an Imacon at a shop here for $20 CND per hour and scan it there myself. This might not be an option for you, but there is a noticeable difference between the two. Drum scanning is way too expensive for me. Also another way to get around the huge costs of scanning and investing in an enlarger and doing prints yourself. its so much fun and you will save $. A great site to check out if you are interested is www.apug.org.