Best Film Scanner For Old Negatives?

mirage · Sat Feb 02, 2013 7:48 pm

Hi,

I, and everybody else who was into uploading pictures to Airliners.net before the digital photography boom, had a scanner to digitilize negatives, the HP S20. Nowadays this scanner is not working so I was wondering what are the best film scanners today? I would like to scan old negatives so any help is appreciated.

thanks
Luis

Granite · Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:17 pm

Hi Luis

Hope you are keeping well.

I get great results with an Epson Perfection 4490 flatbed. Old machine now.
If you don't want to spend too much have a look at their range.

I also use Vuescan software rather than the Epson bundled one.

Regards

Gary

mirage · Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:07 pm

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your reply, hope you're fine. That's a start, now I have something to research, because after 10 years without touching a film scanner I'm a kind of lost between all the brands and models.

thanks
Luis

dendrobatid · Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:47 pm

Luis
Unless you have a huge number to scan I would go for a flat-bed too.
I do have a dedicated slide scanner but the quality I get with a flat-bed is almost as good but, importantly it is very much faster.
Mine is a Canon 9950F which will also scan roll film (and larger). I have not looked for a while but I bet it is discontinued but there is probably a more up to date one or, as Gary suggests, Epson do a few.

Mick Bajcar

mirage · Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:28 pm

Thanks Mick,

My preference is a dedicated negative scanner, even a second hand in good condition, in Ebay, would be good for me. Epson has nice ones, V700 and V750 but they are expensive. I do have a large collection of negatives, would like to scan some again, to improve them.

Luis

dendrobatid · Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:26 pm

Luis
I have a Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite (there is a Mark II Version which is faster) and the results are superb, up to 5400DPI though I rarely scan above 2700
I have seen them quite cheaply on e-bay though they are still sought after.

Mick

ckw · Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:21 am

The Nikon Coolscan range is worth looking at, though I think most models are discontinued.

One thing to beware of with older scanners - they may not have drivers for Windows 7 or later. I think most will work anyway, but worth doing some googling on potential issues before buying.

Cheers,

Colin

Jez · Mon Feb 04, 2013 8:11 am

I use an Epson V500 which seems to work very well for a reasonable price. It has ICE which I find is a big help. I scan at 3200 dpi and after a bit of straightening, cropping etc. it will turn out an 11-12 Mp image. I tried scanning at higher resolution but found it didn't really give me any extra detail.

mirage · Mon Feb 04, 2013 7:52 pm

Thanks for your feedback, the point about the drivers is very important indeed, I'm using Windows 7, some scanners I had a look don't have drivers for Windows 7, no option.

I wasn't expecting the Nikon Coolscan models to be so expensive, Colin.

Luis

dcaviation · Mon Feb 04, 2013 8:48 pm

I've been using this scanner for my negatives and I like it. Quality of the scans and speed of the scanner is not bad.

http://www.adorama.com/ICDP8100FS.html

ckw · Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:21 am

Quoting mirage (Reply 8):
I wasn't expecting the Nikon Coolscan models to be so expensive

Well the top end models certainly are (8000, 9000) - and I must admit I'm surprised to see how well the older models have held their value (unlike DSLRs

).

I'd look for a IV or 4000 at a good price. This will run under Windows 7 - from memory, what I did was download (free) the software for the Nikon V, which works just fine, just a few of the later features aren't available.

Cheers,

Colin

mirage · Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:44 pm

Thank you very much for the help.

Luis

Granite · Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:58 pm

Luis

Hope you find something and let us know how you get on.

One this is for sure, once you get back into scanning you will get great satisfaction with the end result if the scan and processing turns out well!

Regards

Gary

mirage · Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:25 pm

I agree, one thing I must have in a dedicated film scanner is the ICE technology, to remove dust and scratch, because it was the lack of ICE and the insane time I spent in photoshop to manually remove dust and scratch that made me quit film photography and move to digital, back in 2003.

I like the Nikon Coolscan IV but it's not easy to find them for sale, at least in ebay, in case there are more reference websites for this kind of sales, please share.

Thanks
Luis

ckw · Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:57 am

Luis - in case you don't know, ICE (at least as implemented on the Coolscan 4) won't work on Kodachrome or B&W negs.

Cheers,

Colin

dendrobatid · Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:54 am

Luis
Don't ignore the Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite and have a look for some reviews.
Most reviews put it better than the Nikon and it should be cheaper (one went on Ebay in the UK a few days ago for £220, about Eu 300)
The problem could be if it breaks but I think Sony will repair them
I had a Nikon one before, a Coolscan IV and it was nothing like as good as the Konica one.

Mick

Granite · Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:33 pm

Hello

The Epson has ICE Technology too but don't use it, much preferring the VueScan software.

Regards

Gary

mirage · Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:06 pm

The VueScan can make something like the ICE, removing dust and scratch, Gary?

Thanks Colin and Mick for your help and inputs.

Luis

Granite · Thu Feb 07, 2013 11:13 am

Hi Luis

Yes, think it does.

I found the Epson software not very good. To the general public it would be good but you know how us aviation photographers are

VueScan let's you select the type of film that was used and fixes colour casts and stuff. Still a lot to play with. They do let you have a free trial so you can make up your mind.

This print was scanned with the flatbed and VueScan:

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

ckw · Thu Feb 07, 2013 12:56 pm

The latest version of Vuescan can support ICE - but it may depend on the scanner as ICE is a hardware function (in essence it does an additional infrared scan to detect dust).

Cheers,

Colin

mirage · Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:38 pm

I was looking at dedicated negative scanners but now I changed my mind, I can't afford to spend big money only to scan some negatives, I have a big collection but my idea is not to scan everything again, only a few here and there. So I'll look into flat bed scanners able to scan negatives, with decent quality, and ICE.

Thanks for the help
Luis