Information wanted regarding cheap negative scanners

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NickT

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I have scanned and stored images of all the frames that I really like on my PC. I also have most of the negatives filed in a folder. Many of the shots that I quite like are portrait or group shots and by holding a 35mm strip up to the light, it is impossible for me to recognise faces. I think if the image (jpg) was in positive form, it might well be possible for me to identify the subject(s).

This has prompted me to consider buying one of these very cheap (about £50) low resolution neg scanners which are normally cubic in in shape. I know the quality is dire, but I'm hoping that rather than the rack and pinion arrangement that my Dimage Scan Dual has, these devices might do a whole frame at once quite quickly. If that is so, then given that I only use Linux as an operating system, there is at least a fair chance that with a bit of command line jiggery pokey, I might be able to get a near real time image up on the screen.

My main question is, 'is the negative holder pulled through by hand or a motorised rack and pinion ?' If the former then something like Linux's Cheese utility might well treat the scanner like a webcam. All knowledgeable answers will be gratefully received.
 
I've only ever seen and use devices that use manual advance of the negative carrier.

I guess there will be more sophisticated units out there, but not for the price.
 
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No idea really so maybe this doesn’t qualify as a knowledgeable answer. Have you thought of just using a phone cam either to ‘scan’ or view. View:

How to use your iPhone to view old film negatives - Photo Love

Our previous post explained how to scan photos with iPhone or iPad and Pic Scanner Gold app. But how about film negatives and Kodachrome slides? If you have film negatives of old photographs, here is a neat trick to view them as positives, using just your iPhone and iPad! No app needed. Viewing...
www.picscannergold.com www.picscannergold.com
 
I've used one over 10 years ago; the quality as you say was dire (and I returned it) but it was very quick despite the manual advance. Move, click, move, click etc is much quicker than move, adjust boundaries, check, scan, move... Mine ended up on a SD card that I loaded into the computer, so could be done while watching tele. (EDIT: I remember doing 3 or 4 films in the first evening this way...) Although the quality was awful it should work for the particular application you mention.
 
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I might have one you can have for the price of P&P
 
MrDrizz said:
I might have one you can have for the price of P&P
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your kind offer. I will gladly take you up on it. When I start my PC tomorrow, I'll 'start conversation' which I think is what used to be called PM (private message) .
 
Ok cool, I'll have to see if I can find it now
 
I know this does not answer the original question but could provide a solution to the point raised both quickly and at no cost.
The App called Filmlab is free and allows you to use your phone camera to capture images of negatives and converts them to a positive image.
 
@Nick T you may be better using @Yashica FX3 solution.

While I have found the scanner I cannot find the software, it's no longer available from the companies website. So I cannot test to see if it works. You can still have it if you want.
 
In the past I have owned some quite high end consumer film scanners, mainly from Minolta, in both 35mm and Medium format, both excellent at doing their job, and both expensive, the MF one was over a grand 15/20 years ago. Both were sold for a fraction of their new price, unlike now were they seem to be selling for more than they cast new :( . But although they both did an excellent job, I was never totally convinced the scans were as sharp as the original slides & negatives. Moving on 15 years I needed to scan some M/F negatives and was not going to pay the prices asked on eBay for a dedicated scanner, so had a go using my camera fitted with a macro lens. Took a few tries sorting out the best software to use for the conversion, but once done found the operation much quicker than the dedicated scanners were and the results were sharper as well.

If you have a macro or close focusing lens try sticking the negatives or slides on a light box and photographing them with you camera, you will get better results than using one of the small box converters that are no more than a light box and 5mp camera in a square box.

Photoshop or Lightroom probably even have a dedicated conversion option hidden inside as well these days making it even easier, rather than the two part conversion process I used using old software I already had, I used Colorperfects MakeTiff to convert the camera RAW files into a file Silverfast could convert to a positive image for the negatives, positives could be used as is, obviously. I am sure it's even easier now with modern software.

Paul
 
Paul-H said:
In the past I have owned some quite high end consumer film scanners, mainly from Minolta, in both 35mm and Medium format, both excellent at doing their job, and both expensive, the MF one was over a grand 15/20 years ago. Both were sold for a fraction of their new price, unlike now were they seem to be selling for more than they cast new :( . But although they both did an excellent job, I was never totally convinced the scans were as sharp as the original slides & negatives. Moving on 15 years I needed to scan some M/F negatives and was not going to pay the prices asked on eBay for a dedicated scanner, so had a go using my camera fitted with a macro lens. Took a few tries sorting out the best software to use for the conversion, but once done found the operation much quicker than the dedicated scanners were and the results were sharper as well.

If you have a macro or close focusing lens try sticking the negatives or slides on a light box and photographing them with you camera, you will get better results than using one of the small box converters that are no more than a light box and 5mp camera in a square box.

Photoshop or Lightroom probably even have a dedicated conversion option hidden inside as well these days making it even easier, rather than the two part conversion process I used using old software I already had, I used Colorperfects MakeTiff to convert the camera RAW files into a file Silverfast could convert to a positive image for the negatives, positives could be used as is, obviously. I am sure it's even easier now with modern software.

Paul
Click to expand...
That how do it.
 
Yashica FX3 said:
I know this does not answer the original question but could provide a solution to the point raised both quickly and at no cost.
The App called Filmlab is free and allows you to use your phone camera to capture images of negatives and converts them to a positive image.
Click to expand...
Hi Yashica, have you used this app? I asked because with my phone camera, I can't focus nearly close enough to get a 135 negative filling the field of view. I somehow have the impression that you'd need a close-up lens for this to work, or possibly one of these very new-fangled, expensive phones that have multiple cameras. Otherwise, you'd have to be further away and cropping in to the negative, losing much of the available resolution.

I did enquire of someone I know who works for Apple as a software engineer (though not in the imaging area), and even he couldn't find any data on minimum focus distance!

BTW the Mac/Windoze version of FilmLab is $5.99 a month, or $199 for a lifetime licence. The IOS/Android version, however, is free. (The images aren't terrible, though a bit grainy; taken on an iPhone 11 Pro with standard triple lenses, they appear to have got 861x1293 pixels on the one with a child on the beach.)
 
@ChrisRI have used it with 35mm film and 120 but not 135. Resolution was not brilliant but it did allow me to send the image to someone via messenger on my phone so they could see the image quickly.
It is far from perfect but for free, it is a quick way of converting negatives and sharing.
 
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