35mm film to digital conversion

I tried several of them a few years ago and none worked very well, so I bought a Canon MP980 which is a scanner printer and it was totally perfect and handled all my negs and slides also all the photos have been reproduced perfectly,

Geoff
 
I was recommended a Plustek film scanner and it's been great. Although the software is a bit problematic - which is most likely my fault as it was fine on my previous PC. I paid around £150 for mine I think.
 
Canon, Minolta and Nikon used to make the best scanners but sadly they are no longer made, but they are still the best scanners if you can find one for a good price, but the drivers have not been been updated for years so you may have issues running them with the newer OS's although Vuescan should work them without any issues on newer systems.

Now days the only real options for 35mm scanning are flatbed scanners with a transparency option or the Plustek scanners.

For 35mm I would not go down the flatbed route, they are fine for Medium Format but not good enough for 35mm. The Plustek scanners are quite good, although not as good as the Minolta and Nikon scanners they are better than the flatbed options.

I did find that Vuescan gives a much better and much quicker scan than the supplied Silverfast software especially once the extra cost of an iT8 calibration slide is added.

An example of scan speeds.

Vuescan 7200dpi 48bit scan with IR dust and scratch removal takes about 9 minutes

Silverfast SE Plus 7200dpi 24bit scan with IR dust and scratch removal takes about 18 minutes

To get 48bit with IR dust and scratch removal and iT8 calibration with Plustek and Silverfast you have to buy the more expensive Ai version of the scanner so it's better to buy the lower cost SE version and get the pro version of Vuescan and an iT8 slide for calibration. So you get much better scans at a much faster time, which is important if like me you need to scan large numbers of slides.

Paul
 
I am thinking of getting one of these as I have quiite a lot of 35mm photos. Has anyone used one of these and if so their thoughts please

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scanner-Express-Convert-Negatives-Digital/dp/B00ISL7IV2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1415729758&sr=8-4&keywords=film to digital picture#productDetails

Don't get it. Just don't!

It's a crappy digi camera in a possibly-light-tight box. It might work ok for black and white, and possibly for some slide film (although you'll almost certainly hit problems). But it has no idea of the orange masks for the different types of colour negative film. The one I bought had light leaks, and the general quality was abysmal.

Look for a scanner that runs attached to your computer with a USB connection (some older ones use SCSI that can be a problem these days). I bought a Plustek 7500i that works very well, although I can't use the expensive (and hard to use) Silverfast software any more, as it won't run on my version of OSX. I use Vuescan Pro instead, which has the advantage that it works with almost any scanner known, including (probably) your all-in-one printer-scanner. In the case of the 7500i, the i refers to an infreared channel that can help remove dust and scratches automatically. Reflecta also do a well-respected range, slightly more expensive? Both of these are dedicated 35mm scanners.

There is also a range of scanners that do both 35mm and 120 (and possibly 4*5 LF); these are flatbeds, and the main ones around are the Epson V500 and V700. They have slightly lower resolution than the dedicated 35mm scanners.

One thing to remember is that most quote resolutions are meaningless; some parts of the system can reach those resolutions, but the optics and filters tend to be limiting factors. It's pretty hard to get a resolution much above 2400 dpi from consumer scanners, and often for that you have to scan at a nominal 6400 dpi or above, giving you huge bloated scans. There's a German site that does actual tests with standard targets that will give you better info. OTOH 2400 dpi on a 6*9 (cm) negative is about 30+ mpixels!

Commercial drum scans are the ultimate in getting everything out of your negatives, but far too expensive for anything other than your very best shots that you want to print big.
 
I used a flatbed to scan my negatives, originally an Epson 3170 (3200 x 6400) which gave very good results but very slow.

I borrowed a V550 which was absolutely awesome & very fast.

warning old negatives gave a poor scan, very grainy and marked. I got better results from the prints and fixed colours with PS etc
 
I have an old epson 4490 with transparency hood which is just about ok but if i was still shooting film id go with a plustek dedicated film scanner
 
Thank you all for your help, I really mean it. What I tried was using a CN-160 portable light ( which normally used for my video work on top of my camcorder) as a backlight and the camera using flash for really lighting up the image rested on the 160 with A4 paper to even somewhat the backlight. Then rested a slide on the paper and took a couple of shots.

That really decided me the photos just arn't good enough to warrant a converter. The photos were mainly taken with a Voitlander vito CL camera by me over 50 years ago and been stored for most of that time.
So thank you all again for your advice and well taken on board.

I also tried with my Epson PX710w printer and scanner and that was even worse direct to the computer



Just as a try and see effort
 
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You could do with a macro lens really.

I don't really understand what you're doing with a4 paper and flash but all you really need is the light, a mask and a dark room.
Cut a hole in some light proof material, some black card, vinyl, plastic or something, the same size as the film frame and use it as a mask on your light.
Shoot in a dark room.

or you could try a slide duplicator if you didn't want to spend much money and eliminate a bit of faff factor.
 
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Cheap film scanners are crap. Buy a used macro lens, and a cheap slide viewing light box off ebay. Just photograph the negs, and convert them in PS. Quality will be higher. Scanning 35mm is way more difficult than larger formats, as they're so small.
 
you could use a tablet and perspex off ebay as a deffuser, that's what I do
 
If I search eBay for ''slide viewer light box'' I get little AA battery powered ones. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Sorry to hijack. I'm interested in this too :)


Well I wouldn't want to recommend one without using it first but for a tenner it hardly matters.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TILTED-LIGHT-BOX-Docrafts-Light-It-Up-Daylight-LIGHTBOX


or you could make one or just search for lightboxhttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TILTED-LI...Crafts_PapercraftTools_RL&hash=item5413f758f2
 
even illumination over a 35mm x 24mm square ??

be a poor do if it can't do that
 
This has been a very useful thread for me as I've tried my old flatbed scanner which was quite slow even with Vuescan software, but I have an old X-ray viewer which I used for sorting my slides and which may just be the thing. As it uses fluorescent light, I will obviously have to set the camera appropriately. Many thanks, all!

Ernie
 
Cheap film scanners are crap. Buy a used macro lens, and a cheap slide viewing light box off ebay. Just photograph the negs, and convert them in PS. Quality will be higher. Scanning 35mm is way more difficult than larger formats, as they're so small.

Just what I do - Sony A7 + a Canon FD 50mm macro lens.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/using-a-sony-a7-as-a-35mm-film-scanner.520691/

I'm getting much better results than with my Epson V700 on 35mm. The V700 has been reserved for medium format film.


 
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Dedicated 35mm scanners are the way to go for best possible results. Have a look here too for all we could ask about scanning:

http://www.scantips.com/begin.html


GOOD 35mm film scanners are, yes. They're also expensive. You can get results equally as good in some cases by actually re-photographing them with quality macro lenses, bellows, and a diffused, even light source. It costs peanuts compared to a decent, dedicated 35mm scanner.
 
And takes a fraction of the time.
 
If money is a consideration (which it is for most if us) then the macro lens is a cheap alternative but if you are only scanning your film archive then you are far better off buying a secondhand dedicated film scanner such as a Nikon Coolscan IV or V from a well known auction site, scanning your archive and then selling it on once you're finished. If you buy sensibly you will lose very little money, you may even make a little if you're lucky.

Yes the macro lens/digital camera option is relatively quick but you are tied to the equipment whereas a dedicated scanner will happily chug away scanning your negs while you get on with your life.

Don't underestimate how mind-numbingly dull and tedious scanning negatives can be, anything that can alleviate that aspect of the operation should be embraced in my opinion. Fine if you've only got 10-20 shots to scan but if you've got an archive of 100's or even 1000's then a level of automation will preserve your sanity.
 
GOOD 35mm film scanners are, yes. They're also expensive. You can get results equally as good in some cases by actually re-photographing them with quality macro lenses, bellows, and a diffused, even light source. It costs peanuts compared to a decent, dedicated 35mm scanner.

Sorry, based on experience I can't agree with that generally. But getting results we're pleased with when scanning colour/B&W negs and slides is always good enough.
:)
 
"Don't underestimate how mind-numbingly dull and tedious scanning negatives can be..."

Ain't that the truth. I found that I was forced to scan only the most significant of the negs and slides I had. If nothing else it made me incredibly fussy about my shots. But very tedious work and the scanning software was fairly complex and demanding but wrung the absolute best out of the tones and content of each frame. Then I was typically editing the images in a conventional program.

Then digital came along!
 
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