|
Maddhatter
Jan 6, 2009, 3:32 AM
Post #1 of 6
(2668 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 28, 2008
Posts: 1752
|
What is the best way to get these boxes of 35mm negatives I have into a digital format? Anyone have someone they like to use?
|
|
|
|
|
pico23
Jan 6, 2009, 6:56 AM
Post #2 of 6
(2646 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Mar 14, 2003
Posts: 2378
|
The question is what type of quality are you looking for? If 2MP is plenty, and most of the images are crap (like most 6 frame strips are), send em anywhere. (and no I am in no way endorsing Walmart)...even Walmart puts like 40 (maybe) images on a CD for $2.99 or something. So basically a roll of 36 is $3 for 4x6/5x7 quality images in 8 bit JPEG. Most pro labs do Frontier scans (same as Walmart) in TIFF or PSD format in 16 bits and at much higher resolution. These cost anywhere from $1 per frame to several dollars. You can also go with wet drum scans for quite a bit more per scan but (although much less so today) better quality than the flatbed scans. It pays if you can separate the good stuff from the snap shots you'd like to have, but don't expect to do anything with from the stuff you hope to print, or possibly sell as a higher res digital file. The other options if you are in no rush is to buy your own scanner. I have both a dedicated film scanner and I picked up an HP4150 (i think that is the model) with the 6 color scanning and optical scratch removal. Let me just say, the HP with the included software is total junk. HP cannot produce software, but the scanner is excellent for batch scanning 35mm or scanning medium format. So I dropped another $100 on 3rd party software (factored in when I originally bought the scanner) and for under $300 I got a decent machine! The alternative to me was the V700 by Epson, which cost almost 2x as much, and is not perfect either. Or almost any name brand (Minolta, Canon, Nikon) film scanner will give great results. My Minolta is slow as molasses but puts out 10MP scans at 300dpi. I use it for the better scans that I expect to print. I still occasionally send out a higher quality image for a better scan than I can do at home, but for the most part the two scanners cover 99% of my images in any format.
(This post was edited by pico23 on Jan 6, 2009, 6:59 AM)
|
|
|
|
|
apoorva
Jan 6, 2009, 11:44 AM
Post #3 of 6
(2630 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Dec 5, 2002
Posts: 80
|
I bought a konica minolta dimage scan dual IV, a film-only scanner. . They're out of production I think, but you can get one on ebay or somewhere else. Cost me about 300$, which is expensive but better than dropping double that on any of the Nikons, which are the gold standard for home scanning. Gives me a pretty decent result, though i haven't spent nearly enough time tweaking it with 3rd party software... Check photo.net for all kinds of chatter about scanning film. They're all a little rabid though, like anyone spending time on photog forums :)
|
|
|
|
|
qtm
Jan 6, 2009, 9:21 PM
Post #4 of 6
(2603 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Apr 8, 2004
Posts: 548
|
There was NO WAY I was going to hand over my negatives or slides to anyone. They're irreplaceable, which is why I wanted them scanned in. I looked at dedicated scanners like the Nikon, but didn't want to drop that much money. One option is buying used and reselling when I'm done, but that's a hassle. So I got a Canon 8600F. I've scanned 2000 negatives so far and they've come out great. But it's *really* slow, more than 1 hour per set (10) 35mm negatives at highest resolution. The scans came out very well, better than scanning the prints of the same image. JPEG files come out about the same as from my 10MP camera, 3MB-7MB. I also had a few dozen APS canisters; I tore them apart, cut them up. I made a custom frame to hold the APS negatives, then scanned them in using the batch scan feature. Worked really well. And no longer have to deal with the stupid canisters. I tested a few slides in the beginning; will begin scanning them in at some point. Test scan looked good. I've also got one Disc camera negative... never owned a disc camera so I don't know where it came from. I'm going to cut the negatives away and scan them when I get a chance, should be interesting. Only issues, the scanner glass looks like there's a lot of tiny surface scratches, they don't show up in the scan but at the right angle you can see them. I don't know what to make of them. Also, it looks like there are tiny threads stuck on the inside, don't think they affect the image either.
|
|
|
|
|
Maddhatter
Jan 6, 2009, 10:11 PM
Post #5 of 6
(2582 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 28, 2008
Posts: 1752
|
Can anyone post up some pic's of these scanners? Just so I can get a better idea what the hell I am getting into. I have thousands of negatives / slides I need done.
|
|
|
|
|
|