Film scanners, what do you recommend?

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KayJay

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So I've decided to scan all the negatives, thousands of them, and I need a good quality hi resolution neg scanner. Has anyone got any recommendations? I'm not too fussed about speed as long as the output is good.

Thanks.
 
I know my Nikon coolscan produces excellent results
 
How much did that set you back? Also, how many frames can it scan at the same time?
 
Cant be exact but i think i paid around £400 although that was sometime back

It can scan a strip of five or individual

There are flatbed scanners that are able to scan multiples although i'm not sure of the quality
 
is it 35mm only or are you into MF/LF?

For MF as well the Epson V700 is pretty good, but I'm looking at some better scanning film holders because my film is always curly
 
Some of the Nikons and Minoltas have a slide feeder as an accessory.
If your film is mounted and you aren't too particular about processing them individually, you just load it up with 50....and go do some ironing.
If they're not mounted, there is a roll feeder, but I haven't seen it, gotta do 35 at a time I suppose.
If they're cut rolls, a flat bed is quicker it'll do more in one pass than a dedicated scanner.
Top quality consumer res is 4000dpi, but you don't need that unless you plan to print big.
 
35mm only really.
Thanks for the info so far, much appreciated.
 
I have a Canon 8800F and i think you can't get better for the price. It's almost as good as the top of the range Epsons and costs a lot less.
 
The Nikon Coolscan V is a very good scanner, mine cost £450 new three years ago but Nikon no longer make them. Been thinking of selling mine as I have digitized all my film and no longer use it.
 
i use a canon canoscan 5600F and for the price, is definitely worth it!

i got mines from amazon for around £80 i think and scanned nearly 500 negatives from a recent trip to Paris. i guess it depends on your budget and how big your looking to print them?

it takes 16 minutes to scan 6 negatives at a time on 2400 dpi setting, so be prepared to spend some time with it!
 
For all round use, think flatbed. Ok, Nikon scanners are good but you are limited to 35mm negs
 
I think the nikon super coolscan 5000 is the bee's knees. Fast, great results, costs a fortune.

It only does one slide at a time.

You can't really load it up and go and do the ironing.

But if I remember correctly, I think it may come with a film strip adaptor.....
 
jerry12953 said:
I think the nikon super coolscan 5000 is the bee's knees. Fast, great results, costs a fortune.

It only does one slide at a time.

You can't really load it up and go and do the ironing.

But if I remember correctly, I think it may come with a film strip adaptor.....
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There's a slide feeder for it, Nikon SF210, a bargain at microglobe, only £357.81....:gag:
 
Lots of valuable info on this thread so thanks for that :) Will let you know what I go for. Got A LOT of archived negs to go through.
 
Probably a stupid question, but what results do you get if you put the negative in an enlarger and use your digital camera to photo the result ?
 
How could you do that, you'd block the light projecting the image with your digital camera, wouldn't you ?
You could put a neg on a light box and shoot that, slide copying, or use a made for the job slide copier.
 
who? said:
Probably a stupid question, but what results do you get if you put the negative in an enlarger and use your digital camera to photo the result ?
Click to expand...

Hmm... I wonder if you could focus the image from the enlarger onto the SLR's sensor. It would be evenly backlit, etc. You might find it hard to get 1:1 copies though, and if you're using a crop SLR it'll be even worse. You might find that you have to have the enlarger head so near to the easel that you wouldn't be able to fit the SLR in there.

You could certainly use this technique to photograph tiny parts of a negative though.

I'd have to do a little experimenting to find out. That said, you're best off using a slide duplicator.

If you enlarge the image onto a flat white surface and photograph the surface... I don't think you'll get very good results.
 
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