The Future of Film Scanners

I have a Nikon CS 9000. So far it stands up very well. When it craps out as all things must inevitably do, ( including Moi )
I hope I can find another scanner, perhaps the Plustek Optic Film 120.

I prefer to shoot film, but I don't have a darkroom at this point in time and now that I've seen what I can do in Photoshop
to a properly scanned negative and how I can make successive prints that are perfect duplicates of the first,
I'm not inclined to set one up.

There are lots of really good practical reasons to switch over to digital cameras, except for the fact that I'm not practical
and I hate the idea of having to learn a new set of menus every few years.

As an old fart and as a complete amateur old manual film cameras suit me. After owning My Leica Ms for over 30 years there isn't that
much I don't understand about them.

If I out survive my present scanning system, I hope to be able to acquire another. Perhaps the Plustek.
 
There have been some new scanners since 2010 ...

The plustek 35 mm scanner line, the plustek OpticFilm 120, which is very good quality and costs $US 1999, and also the Pacific Image 120.

Things actually look pretty good, if you ask me.

- N.
 
ndnik said:
There have been some new scanners since 2010 ...

The plustek 35 mm scanner line, the plustek OpticFilm 120, which is very good quality and costs $US 1999, and also the Pacific Image 120.

Things actually look pretty good, if you ask me.

- N.
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I agree. It would be nice to have Nikon producing scanners, but as long as someone is making good ones, I'll keep scanning my film.
 
I'm on the same line of thinking as MartinP. And, Frankie's comments.

We'll have service bureau solutions for scanning film. For small scale, for me as an individual, I'm hoping to have hardware/software solutions for "scanning" with my DSLR.

Hardware to hold the film in position, maybe even flat. Built-in illumination and software to deal with the C-41 orange mask and proper inversion from negative to positive. Maybe it's a return to the old "slide copier" but with quality, precision, and calibrated to film types. That would make it easier to user film.

Until then, it's sending off to Precision and NCPS for me, and frankly I'm shooting film only rarely.
 
With Plustek committed to the film scanning, I think things with the consumer desktop scanning market are in a pretty good place. Having the chance to use a Plustek 7600Ai a while back, I was quite impressed at the quality it delivered, which for me was as good as my dslr's were producing. If anyone's on the fence re: 35mm scanners, I would say give the Plusteks a shot.
 
jpberger said:
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Kodak made a bunch of really nifty hight speed scanners for photo labs back in the day that no one was willing to buy for thousands of dollars each. If we can convince them to salvage the tooling to bring some of them back for a more reasonable price we might be set.

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Sony made such scanners, also. I have one (a UYS-90) that I bought on ebay. It has an SCSI interface, and drivers are not available for operating systems more modern than Windows XP and the equivalent Mac of that era. However, if you have a computer that old and can assemble the Sony equipment (for probably a few hundred dollars now), you have a really good ultra-high-speed, moderate quality scanner. It will buzz through uncut rolls of 35mm or stacks of mounted slides in maybe 5 to 10 seconds per image.

I use the Sony for proofs. Whether I develop the film or send it out, I can get a full set of proof-quality scans in about 4 minutes.

For presentation quality images, I have a Minolta 5400.

I'm not sure what is going to die first--the scanners or the old computer I'm keeping alive to drive these things. (I believe only Vuescan will drive the Minolta in the most modern operating sytems; it's better than nothing but not the most robust software.)

Silverfast will drive the Minolta, but it does not have Minolta support that works with the latest (10.8+) Mac OS.

So, software rot is setting in fast on the Minolta, and as I said, it'll die anyway at some point.

If the Minolta died tomorrow, I would try first to get a replacement on ebay. I notice one for sale for less than $800. A lot, but it's the only game in town and does a high-quality job.

If need be I guess I would try one of the newly manufactured scanners, like a Plustek. Can anyone who has used both scanners compare it with the Minolta, for quality?

Thanks,
Tom
 
Oh Two said:
1.) Digital has become the tool of the masses, analog and scanning will become the tool of the professional.
Click to expand...

Digital also the tool of the professional. And scanning is also the tool of the hobbyist.

Personally, the stuff I hang on my wall comes out of a darkroom (if it originated as film).
 
i found that high end scanners would be too expensive to repair or replace.
so i decided to buy cheap 3200 dpi minolta scanners which was going for a
song, and I bought four (!), each around 100-200$ and came with missing
power cords, film holders etc. All four arrived and all four worked (!), shipped
from USA to Singapore (Shipping cost a bomb unfortunately).
I am still using the first Minolta 3200 scanner and know that if it breaks,
I still have three more to go. The Minolta 3200 scanner has the ability to
scan grains, which is better than the Epson v700.

I still use the Epson v700 for contact print and medium format.

raytoei
 
The most true analog future: Drum Scanner community project!

The most true analog future: Drum Scanner community project!

I'd hope we organize a group of artists and engineers who're passionate about analog photography and make a DIY drum scanner project. If we could project and source the required parts to build down to i.e. 2500-3500$ range would be awesome (in comparison the similar scanners used to cost 30,000-100,000$ !!!). Those who can't afford it alone can do it with multiple guys and share it.

Basically buy the parts from different electronics sources and buld yourself. Get Vuescan or Silverfast back the software side to control it. Use common PMTs used i.e. in scientific or environmental survey field equipment (i.e. Hamamatsu), simple control board you can weld together using available components, cheap computer bits, fans for cooling and cabling, using fine step-motors and mechanics some true 5000-6000 ppi capable scanner, high quality optics (i.e. using now cheap s/h Schneider/Zeiss/Nikon APO optics you find hundreds in fleaBay) and high quality 12- or 14bit A/D rear end, USB or Firewire interface.

With the community involved produce a nice multimedia-oriented build-, maintenance and troubleshoot manual for it - contains pictures, videos, text etc. Everything's open-source and can be contributed by community who's using this same scanner to fine-tune it different components, upgrades, common faults that you can avoid etc etc. Basically an artists/engineers community based open-source drum scanner project.

Sounds like a dream scanner project for many true analog artists who're passionate about high-quality scanning and demand the most analog-like results.

It'd beat the crap out of any Epson, run circles around any Nikon and most of all bring forth this awesome analog-like PMT-rendering that no CCD or dSLR scanner can do.

I've felt CCD scanners have somehow much undermined film/analog photography and maybe one of the reasons of film-demise since the film results look too-alike to digital photos so to speak, since they use the same technology sensors. CCDs maybe have been decent on scaninng prints, but for film - no so much. Nothing beats the skilled wet-darkroom work but PMTs brings this much needed difference in the digitized analog.

All IMHO of course.

Cheers,
Margus
 
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