Portra 400 is here, where are the scanners?

[samuelphoto]

So, Kodak is in the process of launching its new Portra 400 series of films with the primary design being scanning performance not printing. All I can say is "way to go, Kodak!" Unfortunately, this only solves half the problem.

The 35mm pro scanner manufacturers have abandoned the market; I'm thinking specifically about Nikon and the 5000ED or the comparable Canon or Sony (Minolta) models. The 5000ED now costs on the used market more than TWICE what it cost new. There is one and only one reason for this, demand is outstripping supply. I have to believe there are thousands of film photographers aching to get there hands on a reasonably priced (~$1K) dedicated 35mm roll film scanner like the 5000ED. The 9000ED and the Epson V700 series are not the same thing. So where are the scanner producers with compatible machines? Now here is a market void if I ever saw one!

 

[Stuart John]

Yep I have to agree. I doubt though whether Nikon will release a new line of scanners as their business is selling as many DSLRs as they can same goes for Canon and the other camera manufactures. I just wonder why the film companies just don't do more to promote film use and don't develop a reasonable line of scanners that would encourage people to actualy use the stuff. Film is great as it is a write once medium so people always have to buy more to take more pictures. I just wonder how many more DSLRs people will buy before they will stop the regular upgrades and only replace broken equipment.

 

[Ulev]

Yap, second hand prices of the Nikon coolscans are ridiculous !
Last well, I took pictures of my negatives with a friends macro lens and converted them afterwards in photoshop (invert actually).
I'm going to make a small but decent lighttable and a holder for the negatives.
I won't even bother checking for a scanner.
Quality this way is high enough for the web and when I need a large analogue file, I will have the lab make a scan.

Rgds
Ulev

 

[sepiareverb]

I think the used market and the new market are very different animals- for a manufacturer to consider developing a product they need to move lots of them. Tho Leica seems happy to make things that sell in smaller numbers. Perhaps a Kodak/Leica collaboration on a good scanner? I suppose that would only breed more hatred of Leica pricing.

My Minolta scanner is a huge pain in use- crashing glitchy software is the main annoyance. The Silverfast replacement isn't much better- what it lacks in crashes it makes up for in confusion. I'd like to see somebody come up with a scanner that had a simple interface, and wrote RAW files. White balance, some sharpening if you want it, basic color correction. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[samuelphoto]

OK, but Nikon still sells the ED 9000 MF scanner. I understand they wait for a sufficient number of orders and then make a relatively small run of 100 or so. They have the tooling for the 5000. Why not do the same thing for that model?

Good comment by the way about the film manufacturers. If anyone should have an incentive to produce a scanner, it's Kodak and Fuji.

 

[archeophoto]

What don't you like about the V700 series? I find the wet mount option of the V750 works great and if you get the betterscanning holders, I find it's great. My prints look fantastic even at 24x36. I used to manage a camera store for a couple of years and we scanned all our stuff on an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner. We never had a complaint even from our pro customers on poster size prints.

Are you after more sharpness or is it the handling of a flatbed you don't like?

So, Kodak is in the process of launching its new Portra 400 series of films with the primary design being scanning performance not printing. All I can say is "way to go, Kodak!" Unfortunately, this only solves half the problem.

The 35mm pro scanner manufacturers have abandoned the market; I'm thinking specifically about Nikon and the 5000ED or the comparable Canon or Sony (Minolta) models. The 5000ED now costs on the used market more than TWICE what it cost new. There is one and only one reason for this, demand is outstripping supply. I have to believe there are thousands of film photographers aching to get there hands on a reasonably priced (~$1K) dedicated 35mm roll film scanner like the 5000ED. The 9000ED and the Epson V700 series are not the same thing. So where are the scanner producers with compatible machines? Now here is a market void if I ever saw one!

 

[samuelphoto]

What don't you like about the V700 series? I find the wet mount option of the V750 works great and if you get the betterscanning holders, I find it's great. My prints look fantastic even at 24x36. I used to manage a camera store for a couple of years and we scanned all our stuff on an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner. We never had a complaint even from our pro customers on poster size prints.

Are you after more sharpness or is it the handling of a flatbed you don't like?

I've considered the Epson V700 series. They seem to be well regarded for larger formats, but somewhat of a compromise for 35mm. You are right, I'd prefer the feed system of the 5000ED, especially with the roll film adapter, but I could probably live with a flatbed if I had to. If Kodak can make a sensor for the M9, surely they could produce a top level scanner to support film sales, especially given the positioning of the new Portra 400 film. BTW, since I started this thread, Nikon announced they had discontinued the 9000ED. Wonder what took them so long...

 

[flip]

Word of advice. Shop for used stuff right after new years. Last year, the prices for 5000s dropped a bit at that time as folks 'upgraded.'

 

[davidefontaine]

I've considered the Epson V700 series. They seem to be well regarded for larger formats, but somewhat of a compromise for 35mm. You are right, I'd prefer the feed system of the 5000ED, especially with the roll film adapter, but I could probably live with a flatbed if I had to. If Kodak can make a sensor for the M9, surely they could produce a top level scanner to support film sales, especially given the positioning of the new Portra 400 film. BTW, since I started this thread, Nikon announced they had discontinued the 9000ED. Wonder what took them so long...

Supposedly Kodak was toying with the idea of releasing such a scanner (http://figitalrevolution.com/2010/03/15/scanners-the-achilles-heel/ and http://figitalrevolution.com/2010/03/16/scanners-the-achilles-heel-part-2/ give some backstory in the audio links) but didn't find enough demand.

 

[keithdunlop]

What about the Plustek 7600?

 

[cooltouch]

I own an Epson 4990, which was the immediate predecessor to the V7xx series. The Vs are perhaps a tad sharper in terms of image resolution and Dmax, but you really have to look close to see much of a difference. These scanners do a decent job with medium and large format, but when it comes to 35mm, their performance is no more than adequate.

Reason for this is simple. Just about any good flat bed scanner's image resolution tops out around 2400 ppi. I don't care what sort of resolution they claim -- the real, verifiable resolution capabilities of these scanners is far less. It's very easy to test this for oneself. Scan an image at 2400 ppi, then scan it again at 3200 ppi. Then, in your favorite image processing software, upsize the 2400 ppi image to 3200 ppi. Compare the two images. Odds are, you won't be able to find any difference in sharpness between the two.

Having a geniune, dedicated high-resolution 35mm film scanner like the Nikon 5000 would be great, but it's way out of my price range. There is a reasonably priced alterntative, though, and that is to use your DSLR as a slide duplicator. If you have a full-frame DSLR, you can just use s bellows with slide duplicator attachment and a ~50mm macro lens. If you have an APS-C camera, it gets a bit trickier. For my Canon APS-C camera, I have 30mm worth of extension tubes attached to a 55mm Micro Nikkor and a duplicator tube attached to the front of the lens that's about 50mm long, to which I've attached a slide stage. This gives me 1:1 dupes. And at my camera's megapixel level (10.1), I get 2600 ppi scans. Better than any flat bed I know of. Just think, if you have a 7D, you'd be getting about 80% higher than that, a 5D II , 120% higher. Best of all, this rig cost me very little. I already owned the Micro-Nikkor, so I bought a cheapo set of extension tubes, a Nikon F to EOS converter, and a dupe tube with 52mm threads that I could thread into the front of my lens.

This outfit works great with an off-camera flash for duping slides and B&W negs, but it can be a chore getting the colors right if trying to dupe negs. What somebody needs to do is write a good plug-in for PS that is intended for converting duped negs to positives.

 

[Steve B]

I already have a scanner, I'm still trying to figure out where I can find the film. The new portra 400, that is. Has anybody found a source with it in stock?

 

[PCStudio]

slide duplicator on DSLR won't work

 

[bhop73]

I already have a scanner, I'm still trying to figure out where I can find the film. The new portra 400, that is. Has anybody found a source with it in stock?

http://freestylephoto.biz/6031678-Kodak-Portra-400-iso-35mm-x-36-exp-5-Roll-Pro-Pack?cat_id=1102

 

[steveyork]

Dedicated film scanner options are pretty much limited to Plustek these days. There are others (e.g., pacific image) but the reviews tend to be more mixed. I have no personal experience with either. I have a Nikon, which I grabbed last year before they were discontinued.