Scanning 35mm film

[Deafacid]

So recently my costco stopped scanning film digitally.(but not developing thank god) Anyway I have a really crappy wolverine 5mp scanner I'm using right now. I not a expert on scanning or whatever. I would like a better scanner and my budget can't go over 150. Thanks!

 

[DKimg]

So recently my costco stopped scanning film digitally.(but not developing thank god) Anyway I have a really crappy wolverine 5mp scanner I'm using right now. I not a expert on scanning or whatever. I would like a better scanner and my budget can't go over 150. Thanks!

I do like my V600. It was under 150$ but at times it would act silly. It was refurbished... so that may be the issue. At times it wouldn't want to scan :bang: but other than that I like the results.

I typically keep all the settings unchecked. Scan in positive mode. Play with the levels and blacks/whites on the epson software. Do the inverting in Lightroom and play with the exposure etc there. Then I export to photoshop to do the rest of the retouching and sharpening.

 

[michaelwj]

My advice would be save up and get a dedicated 35mm scanner, such as a plustek 8200 (~$350). Or if you are doing 120, get one of the Epsons.
You already have a cheap scanner, why blow $150 on another cheap one?
Michael

 

[edge100]

Find an extra $100 and buy a Pakon F-135 Plus.

 

[thegman]

I would probably keep using the scanner you've got until you can go for the one you want. Buy cheap and you'll buy twice has been my experience a few too many times.

 

[Chrisrw]

I've been happy with my Epson V500 and many are happy with the V600 and higher. They seem to be in your budget. For posting on web they're fine.

 

[jordanstarr]

What are you scanning for, print or web? That makes a huge difference. On my website, you'll find negatives scanned on a $100 Canoscan and a $2000 Nikon 8000ED....if you can guess which one is which, I'll give you my next pay cheque. But if you're scanning to print, that's a whole other story.

 

[struene]

Hallo,

there are 3 posibilities:

1. You "Scan" with a DSLR. You´ll need a lighttable triopod and a mask... all in all can be cheap if youre already in posession of a tripos an dslr and youll habe to fiddle around a bit yourself to get it working

2. A good dedicated 35mm filmscanner can be had starting from 200/300€ the plustek 8100 is very strong and quite reasonbla priced.

3. Flatbedscanners can also scan larger formats and you can scan up to 24 frames (in the v700/750) in one run. However they dont reach the resolution of dedicated filmscanners but with the 2400 optical dpi of the epson v700 ie you are equal with the common 10x max. enlargment of the standard-more sofisticated enlarger lenses. Cheaper ones like canon 9000/8800 or epson v500/600 reach only about 1500-1800 dpi and cost ~200€ the epson v700 with its optical ~2400dip is about 550€ here in Europe.

BLack/White Scanworkflow is pretty straightforward, thats what i do on my epson v700:
a. Scan in Epson Scan at 4800or6400dpi/16bit in "positive mode" manually set the white and black point in the histogramm to include everything an produce a "flat raw". The inversion i already do in epson scan via a inverted curve -> so a straight \ instead of /, beacause some people keep telling, that PS is not able to do a linear inversion and i believe them, because i am simple..

b. PS: Stamp dust crop and resize to 2400dpi(automated, wenn saved) (~30 seconds per picture)

c. Import in lightroom and do the "digital enlargment": set the adequate white/black-points eventually some curves or d/b... etc...

With Color its much more complicated:
a. Start with epson scan scan in positive mode, completely flat, the whole information from "0" to "256" in each channel to a48bit file

b. then in photoshop the same as in b/w, but with the additional step of negative-conversion through the Plugin ColorNeg, which costs a bit, but works the best and most consistent for me.

c. import to Lightroom and some final adjustments.

--> Good filmscanners are not massivly expensive. Get a Plustek 8100 or the like if you only do 35mm or a v700 if you shoot MF too. The digitalisation through a DSLR is not to my liking and I can not reccomend you a workflow for that.

schöne Grüße,

Johann

 

[Tokoza]

I have the Plustek 8100 and it works fine without the IR dust removal capability. And if you only scan black and white negatives this dust removal feature can’t be used.

 

[BW400CN]

I bought 2 years ago a 2nd hand Reflecta CrystalScan 7200 and all I can say is - get one if you on low budget and want a 35mm film scanner.
Forget about the CyberView X program which come with the scanner and get as soon as possible VueScan.
Especialy with slide film this thing is wonderfull - but it is slow and you have to move every singleframe by you own - so scanning a complete film can take 8-10 hours!!!!