Can someone explain to me how these work. I'm still new to film and it's costing me a fortune in getting the film developed, is this a way I can do it myself cheaper? I understand that I need to develop the films myself before they can be put through the scanner, other than a dark room what do I need?
Film scanner
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Helen, the text here looks like it's about the processing, but your title looks like it's about scanning. Which is the pressing issue? Do you have a scanner yet?
Define a fortune, what you think is a fortune might be normal prices and we can tell you if you are being ripped off and how the costs compare to home development.
You don't have to develop it yourself it just needs to be developed first whether that's by you or someone else it makes no difference.
If you want to develop your own film that's an entirely different and much longer topic, though i wouldn't recommend it for a newbie to film.
Like ChrisR said can you calm down a bit and explain clearly and specifically what you need help with.
At the moment i am using roughly a film a week or more some weeks. It's costing me £7 per film to process and print a 36 exp.
What I would like to start doing is doing this myself. The print are not really an issue for me so I was thinking scanning would be a good idea?
What I would like to start doing is doing this myself. The print are not really an issue for me so I was thinking scanning would be a good idea?
£7 sounds about right for a develop and set of 36 prints, my local one does that for £6 for colour and £8 for B&W, you think that's pricey i once got quoted in jessops for B&W dev + prints for £18.
If you plan to scan yourself then you can just get a the develop only option which is usually £3-5 depending on film type. I think home developing is about half that but you have the upfront costs of the equipment and would need to shoot a few dozen rolls to break even on it. I really can't help you with film development as it's not something i want to do myself.
I've shot for about 3 years now and i've settled on having someone else develop my film as i don't trust myself to do it and labs have the pro level equipment for developing, plus it's a lot easier and less hassle for me. I scan the film myself and i have an Epson V500 scanner, it's not perfect but good enough for me, i was paying £4 a roll for a set of high resolution jpeg's so the scanner paid for itself reasonably quickly. Though i am thinking of getting a dedicated 35mm scanner like the Plustek 8200i as i seem to be mostly shooting 35mm now and a dedicated scanner yields better quality.
Scanning is easy but getting it right takes more time, you have to learn the quirks of the software to get the results you want from each film you shoot i.e. it scans Velvia very differently to Ektar or ACROS. I scan my film with the V500 in Epson Scan and tweak the histograms to get the shot looking about right then scan to TIFF and edit further in Lightroom to get it just right.
If you plan to scan yourself then you can just get a the develop only option which is usually £3-5 depending on film type. I think home developing is about half that but you have the upfront costs of the equipment and would need to shoot a few dozen rolls to break even on it. I really can't help you with film development as it's not something i want to do myself.
I've shot for about 3 years now and i've settled on having someone else develop my film as i don't trust myself to do it and labs have the pro level equipment for developing, plus it's a lot easier and less hassle for me. I scan the film myself and i have an Epson V500 scanner, it's not perfect but good enough for me, i was paying £4 a roll for a set of high resolution jpeg's so the scanner paid for itself reasonably quickly. Though i am thinking of getting a dedicated 35mm scanner like the Plustek 8200i as i seem to be mostly shooting 35mm now and a dedicated scanner yields better quality.
Scanning is easy but getting it right takes more time, you have to learn the quirks of the software to get the results you want from each film you shoot i.e. it scans Velvia very differently to Ektar or ACROS. I scan my film with the V500 in Epson Scan and tweak the histograms to get the shot looking about right then scan to TIFF and edit further in Lightroom to get it just right.
Knikki
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Do you know how to develop a film?
If not then check out the sticky at the top of the forum about "developing your own black and white film"
Other than the hard ware to dev a film the next thing you would need is a scanner of some sort.
Plus a PC or Mac and software of some description to resize or process a scanned image.
Scanners fall into to types
Flatbed and Dedicated film scanners.
Flatbed are by far the most common ranging from the discontinued but cheap Epson 4490 to the latest Epson V500/700 range. These can range in price from £100 (used or Ebay) to £400-500 for the newer ones.
Dedicated film scanners are the likes of Nikon Coolscan series and the Minolta Dimage series. These range anything from £150 - £2000. Some of the earlier ones used "SCSI" cards and connectors and personally I would avoid them. Others use USB or Firewire connections.
Oh I forgot about the Plustek range but I know little about them.
Pros and Cons.
Flatbed can be used for a variety of things from scanning documents to films however they are not so good with 35mm negs and do work better with the larger film formats. Mind you plenty on here use them for both.
Dedicated can only scan film some or limited to 35mm size while the more expensive ones will do medium format plus they tend to be more expensive and apart from Vuescan I am not sure about software support for these now.
Its the main reason I have not moved from Snow Leopard as I would not be able to use the scanners I have anymore.
If not then check out the sticky at the top of the forum about "developing your own black and white film"
Other than the hard ware to dev a film the next thing you would need is a scanner of some sort.
Plus a PC or Mac and software of some description to resize or process a scanned image.
Scanners fall into to types
Flatbed and Dedicated film scanners.
Flatbed are by far the most common ranging from the discontinued but cheap Epson 4490 to the latest Epson V500/700 range. These can range in price from £100 (used or Ebay) to £400-500 for the newer ones.
Dedicated film scanners are the likes of Nikon Coolscan series and the Minolta Dimage series. These range anything from £150 - £2000. Some of the earlier ones used "SCSI" cards and connectors and personally I would avoid them. Others use USB or Firewire connections.
Oh I forgot about the Plustek range but I know little about them.
Pros and Cons.
Flatbed can be used for a variety of things from scanning documents to films however they are not so good with 35mm negs and do work better with the larger film formats. Mind you plenty on here use them for both.
Dedicated can only scan film some or limited to 35mm size while the more expensive ones will do medium format plus they tend to be more expensive and apart from Vuescan I am not sure about software support for these now.
Its the main reason I have not moved from Snow Leopard as I would not be able to use the scanners I have anymore.
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The scan quality from Asda was dubious and now I've got my own scanner I'm going to redo them. Although for a quick once over of what might be worth scanning and at a pound I'll probably continue to employ their scanner also.
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If you're using C41, try Photo Express from Hull. If you send them at least two films at a time you can get a 50p per film discount if you tell them you're a TP member, makes it £4 per film for process and 2000 dpi scan, plus 50p postage. You also have to pay the postage there, of course!
The scans they did for me were brilliant. I've been using E6 and BW recently, but I'm planning more C41 film types now so I'll be knocking on their door again.
self developing your own colour film is easy with todays chemicals. I think you can get a three bath routine now. Scanning is very good for colour film, but B/W can be rubbish if you rely on the printer inks to give you a good black and white print.