olifaunt
Well-known
Oh, from Leica, I for one would not be able to afford it 😱
But why not Kodak? That would make so much sense for them to do. It is surely an obvious missing link in growing their film business model.
Why so few dedicated film scanners?
- Thread starter Takkun
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 95
- Views 7K
Oh, from Leica, I for one would not be able to afford it 😱
But why not Kodak? That would make so much sense for them to do. It is surely an obvious missing link in growing their film business model.
Oren Grad
Well-known
Be careful what you wish for:
https://www.kodak.com/us/en/Consumer/Press_Center/KODAK_SCANZA_Digital_Film_Scanner_converts_film_to_JPEG_files/default.htm
Yes, it's a junky off-brand product rebadged with the brand name licensed from Kodak.
pauld111
Well-known
I think there would be interest for a high end 35mm Leica film scanner at say the $6k price point, including all accessories. One with the same specs as the Hasselblad X1 (just the 35mm component). It would create a scanner that would give Hasselblad a run for their money and also further show Leica's commitment to film. I know it will never happen, but it would be cool.
mod2001
Old school modernist
Only for 35mm and then the same **** with the film holders, I doubt it would sell well. Besides, you get them used (and serviced) for this price, incl. the possibility of MF and LF up to 4x5, and user of the latter 2 formats are normally the one who buy this kind of scanner.
If somebody pays 6K for a (only) 35mm scanner then only if he/she is shooting a lot of films every day/week and needs a fast way to digitize, means either the whole film roll or like the new Pacific scanner up to 10 stripes at once. For all other user with less film usage we have enough alternatives.
Juergen
ptpdprinter
Veteran
And after the first run they could do some limited edition ones in different colors.
rolfe
Well-known
You can buy a serviced Noritsu LS-600 for around 1k that will do all this now, and it is still supported by Noritsu. Is it all the way to X1 specs? No, but close and much, much faster.
Rolfe
pauld111
Well-known
How does the Reflecta RPS 10M compare to the Noritsu?
olifaunt
Well-known
Where though?
Cheapest on Ebay is $2,200 incl shipping. Next cheapest over 4K. Elsewhere seems out of stock.
rolfe
Well-known
I would monitor the Noritsu group on Facebook as they show up there regularly. They come on the market in batches, as various drugstore chains discontinue film processing. I think the last batch came out of Rite-Aid stores. That is in the U.S., obviously. The big re-seller here is AAA Imaging.
Rolfe
rolfe
Well-known
I'm not personally familiar with that scanner, but from the specs it looks as though it is geared toward scanning individual frames.
The Noritsu is a mini-lab scanner, geared toward high-speed scanning of whole uncut rolls. It does a whole roll at 6048 x 4011 resolution in about 3 minutes. It does a fast pre-scan so you can work on corrections while it is still scanning.
Rolfe
mod2001
Old school modernist
No real comparison, the Reflekta can scan a whole roll also but thats it with the common specs, had 2 for testing, was not really satisfied. The Noritsu is much much much faster, has accurate framing and much better color science. Same with the Fuji Frontiers or the Pakon. Now I'm hoping that Reflekta sells the new Pacific scanner (Powerfilm) under their brand in Europe as the do with the RPS10M (PrimeFilm XA).
Never saw a Noristu LS-600 for 1K, would buy it in a heartbeat. Maybe I should create a (fake) FB account to follow the Noristu group.
Jürgen
olifaunt
Well-known
Agreed. I recently paid a quarter of a K to a lab just for developing/scanning 12 rolls I shot in a travel weekend. (This was BW, I can get color done locally for half the price, but still, I need to move at least BW to home development or I simply can't afford it, besides the problem that the lab techs don't necessarily pa the attention they should to skin tones, etc.)
brbo
Well-known
AAA Imaging were selling them for less than $1K just a few months ago, now the price is up to $1.200.
(no connection to the seller)
* edit: Ah, saw that they are out of stock...
Ted Striker
Well-known
My god that's an awful scanner. JPEG???
Kodak simply does not have the resources to develop and market something like a film scanner. The company needs to raise cash badly and the R & D effort needed to develop a world class film scanner is very expensive. They do not have the money needed to do this.
Bob Michaels
nobody special
If that were true, the Noritsu would be the highest resolving film scanner ever made at any price. And by a factor of about 2.
I noticed a visible step up in scan quality from both Noritsu and Frontier mini lab scanners when I bought my Minolta ScanDual III back in 2002. It's published resolution was 2820dpi
Mini lab scanners do what they were designed for well. That was to quickly scan a whole roll of 35mm film delivering a file that could be used to automatically print a consumer quality 8x10 print with no post processing. But that has never been what I wanted. I still want a scanner that will contain the maximum amount of digital data from a piece of film. I don't care what the output from the scanner looks like as I know I am going to use an image editing program, like Photoshop or Lightroom, to make it look like I want.
Scanning a whole roll at a time is meaningless to me. I always edit the negatives before scanning so I will only scan 2-3-4 negatives from a 36 exposure roll. That way, each scan gets the attention and respect it deserves.
I had one of those Noritsus, it's not anywhere near that fast. It's also big and loud. 🙂
Even at higher resolution it's not as good as the Pakon, which *will* do an entire 36 exp roll in about 5 minutes, at 3000x2000.
Once the roll is scanned, adjustments can then be executed, and the Pakon software (although clunky and ancient) has decades of Kodak color smarts built-in. If that doesn't do the image justice, the image can be further tweaked in other software, of course.
There is no penalty for scanning the entire roll with the Pakon, I find it's the best way to cull the images down to the few keepers. Much easier to pick keepers with positives rather than negs. 😉
I did a side-by-side test and sent back the LS-600.
Even at higher resolution it's not as good as the Pakon, which *will* do an entire 36 exp roll in about 5 minutes, at 3000x2000.
Once the roll is scanned, adjustments can then be executed, and the Pakon software (although clunky and ancient) has decades of Kodak color smarts built-in. If that doesn't do the image justice, the image can be further tweaked in other software, of course.
There is no penalty for scanning the entire roll with the Pakon, I find it's the best way to cull the images down to the few keepers. Much easier to pick keepers with positives rather than negs. 😉
I did a side-by-side test and sent back the LS-600.
rolfe
Well-known
Well, each to his or her own. I own an Imacon 949, a Noritsu LS-600 and a Pakon 135+. The Pakon is indeed fast and has wonderful color algorithms. The weakness is the need for Windows XP and no further support.
I'm not sure what software you were running with your Noritsu, but the most recent software has approximately doubled the speed. I'm using the dedicated EZ Controller software on Windows 10, both of which are supported by Noritsu.
For 35mm I use the Noritsu 99% of of the time.
Rolfe
rolfe
Well-known
Well, that is indeed the resolution of the Noritsu at its HQ setting. I'm not sure what you mean, as my Imacon 949 is higher, but not by much.
Rolfe
Bob Michaels
nobody special
Difference between manufacturer computed or stated resolution and actual real world resolution. I suspect your Imacon may come close to it's manufacturer stated resolution. My experience, although long ago, was that the actual resolution of the Noritsu was not even in the same ballpark as it's spec.
It is like Epson saying the V600 scanner has a max resolution of 12,800 dpi but the optical resolution is only 9,600. Both numbers are totally bogus in the real world, I would speculate by somewhere around a factor of 8 from experience.
That's exactly what I found in my side-by-side comparisons, the Noritsu claimed resolution wasn't nearly what was expected.
Yes, it will run with a modern OS, although even that wasn't enough for me to keep the unit.
Yes, it will run with a modern OS, although even that wasn't enough for me to keep the unit.
