New to scanning questions

[PeterKeith]

Greetings to all - first post and I have some questions about scanning.
I intend to digitize my entire family history of photographs. I'm also interested in simply shooting 35mm and Photoshop-ing. Please help with the following:
1. Are there flatbed scanners that would allow me to both scan film and prints in a good way? I'm pretty fussy about image quality, though won't be making anything larger than 11X14.
2. Are there scanners that will handle B & W film well? I've read that you must use chromogenic B & W films. OR, should I just shoot a good color neg. and convert in Photoshop? Which method is best: shoot color and convert, or shoot true B & W and scan? i suppose I would like the option of having the image in color using it, if the image warrants color - otherwise I'd like to focus on black and white.
3. Should I just get a dedicated film scanner and a decent flatbed for the prints to digitize?
Hope these questions are clear. Thank you and great day to all.

 

[gregg]

You'll probably get as many opinions on this topic as there are people here... 😀

Because of how much 35mm I use I ended up with your option 3. My film scanner is quite old (Minolta Scan Elite II) but consistently gives better results than flatbed scans of the same images. It is slow but keeps on plugging away so I haven't found a need to replace it.

I use my flatbed (Epson 2450 Photo) for print scans and for "preview" scans of 35mm - 12 images per scan at 1200 dpi helps me to see the images that have the most potential. Each 12 image preview scan takes about 5 minutes but saves tons of time in the long run.

A best of both worlds situation may involve something like the Microtek i900. It has a glassless film scanner AND a flatbed. An updated version of this scanner, the M1, is supposed to be out "soon."

Also, lots of people have reported good results with the Epson v700/750.

The most useful advice I received for scanning was to find software you like and get to know it well. The Minolta software is great and Silverfast LE is pretty nice on the Epson.

Color/B&W is going to come down to preference again. The dust removal features of scanners only work on E6 slide film and C-41 negatives. Tradititional B&W and Kodachrome slides don't benefit from this feature. All scanners will handle both color and B&W - there may be nuances but most of that can be made up by again, knowing your software.

Best of luck!

 

[smileyguy]

Hi PeterKeith and welcome to RFF!

I'll answer your questions from the viewpoint of someone who owns the Canon Canoscan 9950F. It does both flatbed scanning and negs/slides/MF as well. I have found it to be an excellent scanner and any shortcomings are caused by the user. 😱

I've found the software to be quite reasonable and easy to use. Most of the time I'm turning off all the variables anyway so that I get a "pure" scan with no sharpening or auto tone or anything--I'll do that in post myself.

Handling b&w film is easy. I generally scan as a monochrome negative and end up doing VERY minor adjustments in post. I find my results using film far better than what PS can do with far less time. It IS possible to get a good looking b&w from colour in PS but it takes more time than just shooting on b&w film. I was blown away the first time I shoot b&w film, it was miles ahead of anything that I was doing in PS at the time.

As far as getting both a dedicated film scanner and flatbed it just depends how much you have to spend and how much it's worth to you. The Canoscan 9950F cost me about $600CAD a couple of years ago and I've been quite happy with it. I can see some advantages to having a dedicated film scanner at this point but it's not worth it to me, I'd rather put my money elsewhere.

Hope my ramblings have helped you somewhat.

 

[kully]

For your photos I would recommend any cheap flatbed.

For your film I would recommend the V700, sure a dedicated scanner is better quality, but if you have a lot of film to scan you'll appreciate being able to set four strips of six at a time and going and doing something else.

I don't like doing old prints on my V700 as it gunks up the glass, I use a Canon 3200F.

 

[PeterKeith]

Will look at the flatbeds...

Will look at the flatbeds...

I am going to look at the Canon and the Epsons mentioned. I can't help thinking that a dedicated is going to be superior to a flatbed with film, but preconceptions are meant to be broken. Thanks for the assistance, friends.

 

[ocean7]

The conventional wisdow is that a dedicated film scanner will pull much more details from a negative than a flatbed. The difference gets thinner as you reach the higher end of the flatbeds though, with beasts like the V700 approaching the quality of a dedicated film scanner in the same price range. The V700 costs about the same as the Coolscan V for instance. If you are doing 35mm film only and aim for the best quality a dedicated is the way to go. If you are scanning for web presentation or for printing less than 8x12 a high end flatbed will do the job I guess.

One advantage with flatbeds is that you can also scan MF and LF film if you go that route one day.

 

[oscroft]

If you are scanning for web presentation or for printing less than 8x12 a high end flatbed will do the job I guess.

I reckon my V700, at high res, will scan good enough for way bigger than 8x12 - I haven't done any prints from scans from it yet, but I reckon it's easily good enough for A3