New Bessa R

[kennyg]

Got my new Bessa R with the 35/2 lens from Cameraquest yesterday. I am very pleased with the camera body, lens, case, the works. Very nice setup. I am a new RF user. I am going to shoot a roll of Fugi ISO 100 thru it and post results.

I have never done anything with film on the computer. My impression is that I can have the film scanned to CD and then post them on the computer with some photo software, correct? Do most people print the whole roll of film? Or should I get just the scan and pick what I want printed? Is that cheaper?

 

[jcee]

I suggest getting a film scanner sooner than later and scan your negatives yourself. For my very first roll with a Bessa R (I believe it was a Fuji 100 too!), I had it scanned to CD with a contact sheet, and while it's nice to have someone else do it and be able to see the whole roll on a contact sheet, I was very disheartened by the scan results. I bought a film scanner after having 15+ rolls scanned at a lab and I'm much happier now scanning them myself because I have full control of what the results look like. I only wish I had bought a scanner earlier. Then I make a contact sheet using iPhoto on my mac and spend more time post-editing the ones I like and maybe print them. I never get prints from the lab because I find that only 2~3 per roll are worthy of prints. 🙂 When you buy a scanner most likely it will come with some kind of software like Photoshop Elements.
Congrats on your new purchase and have fun!

 

[lubitel]

Enjoy your camera and lens. Its a great combo! When you have a chance also get one of the russian 50mm lenses, like Jupiter 8 or Industar 61. They are pretty cheap and (if you are lucky 🙂 ) of very good quality.

I usually get my film processed with prints and then just scan the prints. I have a epson 2580 photo scanner which can scan film, but the quality of the film scans is terrible. So if you plan to scan film you will need a good quality, dedicated film scanner.

 

[kshapero]

I suggest getting a film scanner sooner than later and scan your negatives yourself. For my very first roll with a Bessa R (I believe it was a Fuji 100 too!), I had it scanned to CD with a contact sheet, and while it's nice to have someone else do it and be able to see the whole roll on a contact sheet, I was very disheartened by the scan results. I bought a film scanner after having 15+ rolls scanned at a lab and I'm much happier now scanning them myself because I have full control of what the results look like. I only wish I had bought a scanner earlier. Then I make a contact sheet using iPhoto on my mac and spend more time post-editing the ones I like and maybe print them. I never get prints from the lab because I find that only 2~3 per roll are worthy of prints. 🙂 When you buy a scanner most likely it will come with some kind of software like Photoshop Elements.
Congrats on your new purchase and have fun!

Suggestions for a scanner, not too expensive please.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Minolta Scan Dual III. I got mine for $120 from keh.com.

 

[rool]

I'll second that.

 

[jcee]

Suggestions for a scanner, not too expensive please.

I scan medium format, too, so I went with Epson 4990, which can be had for much less than before due to the new V700 model. I can't speak for other scanners but I like this one a lot. I did buy an Epson 25XX before and returned it because the scan quality wasn't good and it was very noisy. If you don't need to scan medium format, I'd look at used 35mm scanners like the Minolta Scan Dual or Coolscan IV. Hope this helps.

 

[willie_901]

Congratulations on the Bessa R and 35/2 lens.

I found lab that will develop a roll of negative color film and scan it to CD for $7.00. The scans are 400 ppi. Most of the time the the automated adjustments to the scans produce reasonable results. This resolution is fine for a virtual proof sheet of photos and for web publishing. I adjust the images in PS and crop them as needed.

I rescan those negatives that suffered from the automated scanner settings. I also scan negatives that I send off for prints. I use a Canon 9950F scanner and the Silverfast AI 6 drivers. These scans are 16 bit, 4800 ppi "raw" files (~180 MB per scan). Of course the final jpg file is 8 bits and the size is much smaller (11-20 MB). I have been quite please with prints. Even a 12 X 18 looks very nice.

I have found that drugstore developing/scanning (Walgreens in my case) not to be worth the cost.

I develop B&W myself and scan those at 1200 ppi to make proofs.

 

[Bryce]

I'd hesitate to write off scans from the photo lab so quick, and I'd also hesitate to recommend the Scan Dual series scanner. I own one, and have never been happy with it... Complaints are extremely poor shadow sensitivity on slides, awful noise from negatives, both c-41 type and traditional B+W. And getting useful color from color negatives is very difficult!
On the other hand, while most minilab scans are truly useless, one in my neighborhood has an Agfa machine that spits out 6 megapixel scans with beautiful color from 35mm negatives. As long as you pay a little extra for .bmp files (their jpegs are overcompressed) you get much more useful scans than the little Minolta ever gave.
If I was bent on buying a scanner that I'd actually use, I'd save for a Nikon 4000/ 5000. I was able to use one of these in school, and was very impressed.