alienmeatsack
Well-known
I have some thoughts on this scanner myself. Not good ones. So please take my own experience with this with a grain of salt and understand that I am just giving you thoughts on my own use of the device and software.
I got in on the Kickstarter campaign for this and was very excited by the idea of having means to do quick and dirty scans of 35mm film in the car or on the go, from work, etc.
That excitement went right straight into "meh" when I received the unit and used it. At the time, the software was not out, so you had to use the built-in camera for your device and then invert the image and adjust it in whatever app you had available to you. I was using Photoshop Express and FX Photo Studio for iOS to do this. And the results sucked. IMHO. I am no beginner here, I know what I am doing, I've scanned thousands of 35mm shots, hundreds of medium format, and I could not for the life of me get results with this unit that I thought were usable for anything except the most basic glimpse at your work. Honestly, I'd rather wait till I got home and scan the negatives on an actual scanner.
I thought maybe it was my device that was the problem. I have an iPhone 4S, an iPod Touch 5th gen, and an older Droid X I use for MP3s. I tried it on all three and the results were not good on any of these. Maybe I am overcritical, but I expected better then what it does do for me, even using Apple's camera.
First problem I ran into, getting focus. The in-OS camera would lose focus and keep trying to refocus over and over. When it did finally get it, it wasn't also truly focused. Second issue was the exposure that is selected when you use the in-OS camera and touch the image, if you accidentally touched somewhere outside of the correct spot your image would be blown out or too dark. You'd have to leave the camera and come back to it for a fresh view.
I didn't have as much of this problem with the other apps I used like Photoshop Express and FX Photo Studio. And both of those at least had the ability to invert the image once the photo was taken. But even then, the result was very disappointing.
For iOS, the software for it is now on the App Store and it is just awful. I am sorry to say this but it is actually so bad that IMHO it should not be on the store. Some of the functions don't work and are just placeholders, others crash the app repeatedly. Lomography has said they are taking feedback to improve the app, but the problem is, they should have beta tested it a lot better before putting it up to use. You are better served using another existing app for your phone's OS over their app. It's that bad.
In their app, if you try to use any of the filters to invert the image, turn it B/W, etc, it crashes. (For all of my iOS devices.) It has a button that takes you to your camera's photos and then just kind of ends there with no actual functionality. Many of the mode buttons cause it to crash as well.
The unit itself is not too bad. You load 2 AA batteries into it and use the appropriate number of stackers to get the correct spacing between the device and the image. For the iPhone 4S, 2 is the right number. Then you turn it on, fire up the camera, get the phone situated just so, put in the film and roll it to a frame. Then you have to zoom in to fill the screen/camera with th image, let it get focus and snap the shot.
It's small enough you could carry with you somewhere on the go. But honestly, you would probably get just as good of a result with a battery operated portable backlit loupe or similar and snap a shot in that.
I got in on the Kickstarter campaign for this and was very excited by the idea of having means to do quick and dirty scans of 35mm film in the car or on the go, from work, etc.
That excitement went right straight into "meh" when I received the unit and used it. At the time, the software was not out, so you had to use the built-in camera for your device and then invert the image and adjust it in whatever app you had available to you. I was using Photoshop Express and FX Photo Studio for iOS to do this. And the results sucked. IMHO. I am no beginner here, I know what I am doing, I've scanned thousands of 35mm shots, hundreds of medium format, and I could not for the life of me get results with this unit that I thought were usable for anything except the most basic glimpse at your work. Honestly, I'd rather wait till I got home and scan the negatives on an actual scanner.
I thought maybe it was my device that was the problem. I have an iPhone 4S, an iPod Touch 5th gen, and an older Droid X I use for MP3s. I tried it on all three and the results were not good on any of these. Maybe I am overcritical, but I expected better then what it does do for me, even using Apple's camera.
First problem I ran into, getting focus. The in-OS camera would lose focus and keep trying to refocus over and over. When it did finally get it, it wasn't also truly focused. Second issue was the exposure that is selected when you use the in-OS camera and touch the image, if you accidentally touched somewhere outside of the correct spot your image would be blown out or too dark. You'd have to leave the camera and come back to it for a fresh view.
I didn't have as much of this problem with the other apps I used like Photoshop Express and FX Photo Studio. And both of those at least had the ability to invert the image once the photo was taken. But even then, the result was very disappointing.
For iOS, the software for it is now on the App Store and it is just awful. I am sorry to say this but it is actually so bad that IMHO it should not be on the store. Some of the functions don't work and are just placeholders, others crash the app repeatedly. Lomography has said they are taking feedback to improve the app, but the problem is, they should have beta tested it a lot better before putting it up to use. You are better served using another existing app for your phone's OS over their app. It's that bad.
In their app, if you try to use any of the filters to invert the image, turn it B/W, etc, it crashes. (For all of my iOS devices.) It has a button that takes you to your camera's photos and then just kind of ends there with no actual functionality. Many of the mode buttons cause it to crash as well.
The unit itself is not too bad. You load 2 AA batteries into it and use the appropriate number of stackers to get the correct spacing between the device and the image. For the iPhone 4S, 2 is the right number. Then you turn it on, fire up the camera, get the phone situated just so, put in the film and roll it to a frame. Then you have to zoom in to fill the screen/camera with th image, let it get focus and snap the shot.
It's small enough you could carry with you somewhere on the go. But honestly, you would probably get just as good of a result with a battery operated portable backlit loupe or similar and snap a shot in that.
alienmeatsack
Well-known
I tried to take some panoramic shots using the app and some of my Sprocket Rocket film. This was the best I could do with their own "stitching". I could never get the images to overlap correctly no matter how I snapped each frame of the shot. And it crashed so many times as I tried this that I gave up.
This is what I get when I do a raw "photo scan" using the iOS camera, no inversion. It's very soft and pretty low resolution feeling even though the actual photo is 2448x3264.
And this is what a typical result for me looks like inverted and adjusted to the best of what I can get from the rough shots it takes on the phone.
I have NO idea how they are creating the gorgeous scans they show as "from the device" but until they show me a workflow that does give good results, I am assuming they are doing major post processing in Photoshop or Lightroom or similar. because I could not get good results on the phone at all.
This is what I get when I do a raw "photo scan" using the iOS camera, no inversion. It's very soft and pretty low resolution feeling even though the actual photo is 2448x3264.
And this is what a typical result for me looks like inverted and adjusted to the best of what I can get from the rough shots it takes on the phone.
I have NO idea how they are creating the gorgeous scans they show as "from the device" but until they show me a workflow that does give good results, I am assuming they are doing major post processing in Photoshop or Lightroom or similar. because I could not get good results on the phone at all.
johannielscom
Snorting silver salts
alienmeatsack
Well-known
This is a best-case-scenario shot of the rosemary photo from above, 'scanned' using the iPhone's built-in camera, brought to the Mac and into Photoshop, then adjusted there. Still, IMHO, not so hot.
alienmeatsack
Well-known
And this is what I get on the phone with no outside editing using just the built-in camera and PS Express or similar to adjust it...
Before:
After:
My opinion... the device is a cool idea but it has a way to go in the software department before its useful for me for anything beyond saying "Hey I have the latest Lomography gadget".
Before:
After:
My opinion... the device is a cool idea but it has a way to go in the software department before its useful for me for anything beyond saying "Hey I have the latest Lomography gadget".
johannielscom
Snorting silver salts
Right. Interested in that too, but where would you find one? I've never heard of those!
alienmeatsack
Well-known
For reference, this is the rosemary image above scanned with my scanner at home and adjusted in Lightroom.
buzzardkid, I've seen backlight plates to go with loupes online a few times, as well as portable slide viewers. I think any of these would do the trick. Honestly, the above trick to use the iPad's backlight as a lightbox would also work. Any backlit source that did not have the LCD moire issue would work.
buzzardkid, I've seen backlight plates to go with loupes online a few times, as well as portable slide viewers. I think any of these would do the trick. Honestly, the above trick to use the iPad's backlight as a lightbox would also work. Any backlit source that did not have the LCD moire issue would work.
ibcrewin
Ah looky looky
This is a "polished" version of what I do to take a quick and dirty look at my negatives after they finish drying..
If you have the Galaxy S2, change the settings to invert and the focus to macro. You can adjust the exposure too. I'm going to try making one.
If you have the Galaxy S2, change the settings to invert and the focus to macro. You can adjust the exposure too. I'm going to try making one.
alienmeatsack
Well-known
I wish the iPhone's camera could do invert. Would save me a lot of trouble when snapping quickies from film.
ibcrewin
Ah looky looky
There's got to be an app for that!
Edit.. After a quick google search I give you.... this! http://www.petapixel.com/2012/10/23/how-to-use-your-iphone-as-a-quick-and-easy-negative-viewer/
ibcrewin
Ah looky looky
I gave it a quick and dirty try with my galaxy s2, which I think takes some pretty good pics. Granted this is probably a lot less controlled than scanning in a black box and this is handheld..
I still think you need to desaturate but you can do that in the flickr uploader.
this is a phone pic of the print of that neg..
I'm going to try making one this weekend.
I still think you need to desaturate but you can do that in the flickr uploader.
this is a phone pic of the print of that neg..
I'm going to try making one this weekend.
Sanders McNew
Rolleiflex User
Old news. All you need is a light box,
an iPhone and the free Photoshop for
iPhone app to do the inversion. We
do this all the time when we process
film away from our scanners, and it
works in any film format. Below is
an inverted iPhone shot of a negative
I shot of my son Charlie last summer
with a Rolleiflex on Tri-X:
Charlie, napping in the cabin this afternoon. by sandersnyc, on Flickr
an iPhone and the free Photoshop for
iPhone app to do the inversion. We
do this all the time when we process
film away from our scanners, and it
works in any film format. Below is
an inverted iPhone shot of a negative
I shot of my son Charlie last summer
with a Rolleiflex on Tri-X:
Charlie, napping in the cabin this afternoon. by sandersnyc, on Flickr
alienmeatsack
Well-known
All this does is invert the screen colors, it doesn't actually snap photos inverted. FWIW.
I use Photoshop Express or FX Photo Studio to do most of this for me but it would be nice if the built in camera did it too. Oh well.
MartinP
Veteran
johannielscom
Snorting silver salts
It can.
In the settings menu look for the Accessibility settings, to help disabled people use the phone.
In there you can switch on a setting that will invert the display when the 'Home' button is pressed three times rapidly. Granted, this does not snap inverted photos, but simply inverts the whole screen, controls and all...
I use that all the time when viewing negatives. Thing is, it's hard to tell whether a negative is in focus with that setting only, since the camera keeps re-focusing. That's why I was interested in the Lomo scanner, fixed distance and even back-lighting. But, seems the camera in the iPhone still will try to re-focus continuously... Bummer.
Sanders McNew
Rolleiflex User
The important thing when picking a lightbox is to avoid models
lit with LEDs. The iPhone will pick up the dots through the
negative and make the image look like it was taken through
a window screen. (I learned this the hard way.)
jordanstarr
J.R.Starr
innovation in digital photography never started with quality. It always started with a concept. The very first digital cameras that came out were so laughable that many skeptics thought it would take twice as long as it did to get to where we are. The power of consumerism gave digital photography what it needed to progress. Not that technology and film scanning go hand in hand, but as smart phones and their cameras get better, maybe the process of scanning film will too. After all, a scanner has all the same components as this -a lens and light against the film plane with some hardware and software to make it happen (I know that's a very simple comparison -don't kill me techies!). I know it will never be as good as a film scanner, but obviously those shooting lomo and instagram are not terribly concerned with this.
wolves3012
Veteran
Am I missing something? You take a photo on a film camera. You put the developed film in the so-called scanner, which is just an illuminated box and you take a photo of your photo with your smartphone's camera. Then you muck about with some app or other. Isn't it a) simpler and b) just to take the shot on your smartphone in the first place? Via a bit of quality loss (or maybe a lot) that's what you're doing with this.
alienmeatsack
Well-known
Wolves, there are those of us who shoot mostly film. And we sometimes need a way to snap a few film frames off a strip when we are not at our scanners at home or work.
That was why I purchased this scanner. I drop my film off at the lab sometimes and when I get it, I want to be able to grab a few shots off the roll to share before I am home.
Since I started developing at home where my scanner is, this is mostly a moot point for me now. And since I had such bad luck working with the images on the scanner I gave up on that convenience as well.
That was why I purchased this scanner. I drop my film off at the lab sometimes and when I get it, I want to be able to grab a few shots off the roll to share before I am home.
Since I started developing at home where my scanner is, this is mostly a moot point for me now. And since I had such bad luck working with the images on the scanner I gave up on that convenience as well.
kanzlr
Hexaneur
that. It would be nice to quickly produce index prints from a full roll and decide what to scan with a real scanner. Of course a light table would do, but this seems to be quite a bit nicer.