Railfan Technology > Recommendations for a reasonably priced film scanner

All.... I need to start archiving about a bajillion 35 mm negatives from my film shooting days that go back to the 70's... I've put it off because of the usual pressing issues like work and raising a family... I now have a bit of time to do this sort of thing; so i need to get started...

Havin said all that; what do you film and print to digital scanning guys think...?

I would like to get the best scanner for the hard earned dollars expended that i can without breaking the bank....

Thanks in advance,
leroy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/14 11:51 by leroy82646.

I use a CanoScan 5600F, flatbed scanner,does slides and film negatives, less than a hundred bucks at Staples. I know there are better scanners available, this one suits my needs. Certainly will be other posters replying to your thread.
Doug



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/14 16:25 by hoggerdoug.

A list of what is available at B&H Photo http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Film-Scanners/ci/1151/N/4042754050

I use the Plustek OpticFilm 8200i and an Epson V500 Photo for medium format negatives. Along with the scanner, you should also purchase VueScan software (http://www.hamrick.com/) to help give you the best results.

Scanning is an art unto itself. Take you time, learn how to do it right so that you don't do a thousand slides and find out you did it wrong. (Don't ask how I know.)

Also consider filing numbers and cataloging techniques so you do not make a mistake. (See above)

Lastly, consider doing your best stuff while you have your enthusiasm.

Dennis Livesey
New York, NY

ChooChooDennis Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------
>
> Lastly, consider doing your best stuff while you
> have your enthusiasm.


I disagree. Wait a year or so for the best stuff so you are good at it. The learning curve is long and steep.

In scanners you get what you pay for. Get one that only does 35 mm negs and a slides. Get a PlusTec and VueScan software.


Now you are have done. Unless you had perfect light when you took the picture, it will need further work. So you will need post-scanning software also known as image processing software. To me Photoshop is more than you'll need and time consuming to learn. And there are a lot of choices out there.

I'll write more tomorrow because it's getting late. Oops, it is tomorrow.


Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/14 10:36 by MartyBernard.

About six months ago I did a great detail of research on slide/film scanners and purchased one. In order to not break the bank I bought the Pacific Image Prime Film 7200u for $200. I also purchased Vuescan which is absolutely essential.

I don't recommend trying to save money on a film scanner. While mine gives acceptable quality, it does not produce the kind of sharpness I had hoped. I wish I had bought a truly high quality machine such as a Nikon or Minolta when they were available new several years ago.

If you think you will scan your entire collection of slides or negatives, think again. It takes about four minutes to scan an image and then more time is required to adjust the image's quality. There are scanners with batch feeders for slides but they are very expensive. I don't know of any batch feeders for negatives.

A scanner is useful to scan an occasional image for posting on Trainorders, sending to friends or submitting as a proposal for publication in a book. Your original slides/negaties are items of value. Scans of them are worthless.

KG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/14 04:39 by kgmontreal.

Have scanned maybe 10% of my slides, some of which I've posted
on TO, primarily in the Nostalgia board; have jumped around a bit,
but tried to concentrate on most interesting material.

For me, the primary driver has been to provide a backup should
anything happen to the slides. But agree wholeheartedly with
prior comment, the value is with the original.

Adding to my earlier post, and ChooChooDennis's
comment above about learning. Note also the
5/31 "Cat hair" post.

Learned about a year ago the drawback on using
dust removal software, when some lettering on
UP locomotives disappeared. Spend time cleaning
the original before scanning, so you don't
have to use the dust removal. Then after scan,
and any fine tuning (color, exposure, cropping, etc),
compare results to the original. I don't know
how many earlier scans may have lost some detail,
as I used the dust removal frequently.

Take your time !

Continuing with my earlier post, several years ago I stumbled upon Picture Window Pro and still use it.
http://www.dl-c.com
It has all the horns and whistles I need for some very old slides and recent digital pictures even from very good cameras. I have seldom found a scanned slide/negative or recent digital picture that didn't need sharpening at least. Many need shadows lightened and over exposed sky datkened.

The only thing I do not like about Picture Window Pro is it's noise reduction method. Most scanned images, especially after you work on them, have noise. For that I use Neat Image.
http://neatimage.com

Marty Bernard

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to post replies and send notes... You all have given me a lot to think about... I'll get to work on prioritizing the "best stuff" and see how big the pile is... Then we can get to work on scanning some of this stuff and start the learning curve....

Thanks again...
leroy

Rembmember, negatives that didn't print well, may look better after scanning and a lot better after post procesing. I know I threw out some slides back then which I could have made presentable today.

Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ChooChooDennis Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> ----
> >
> > Lastly, consider doing your best stuff while
> you
> > have your enthusiasm.
>
>
> I disagree. Wait a year or so for the best stuff
> so you are good at it. The learning curve is long
> and steep.

Good point and something to keep in mind.

I think what I was trying to say is, if you just start and methodically do every one of the slides you have in consecutive order, you might do a thousand slides and then are exhausted at the thought of doing thousands more. And you realize most of what you have done is so-so stuff.

The Center of Railroad Photography and Art has now implemented a method to deal with the collections of slides they have. Even the perfectly filed collections are daunting in having to digitize them and the fastest 35mm scanners simply take too long.

The method CRPA now uses I think an excellent way around the problem. What they are doing is making low res copies quickly so that the image is recognizable and can be put into a searchable data base. Having a working image makes it easy to determine if it meets a particular need. The original slide can easily be located and a full res scan can be done.

How do they quickly scan thousands of slides for reference purposes? Well, Rube Goldberg would be proud! They take a Kodak carousel, remove the lens, place diffusion material in the light path, drop in a slide from a carousel or a stack loader and shoot it with a DSLR camera with a close up lens! Click, click, click, and they zip through those slides like an ACLEA through Princeton Junction.

Dennis Livesey
New York, NY

Leroy,

This is an old thread but read the 4th post down before you dive into a project of this magnitude.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,2579316