What scanners..

bastic

bastic

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Lukas
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...Do you use to scan your negatives at home ??
I have an old epson and am thinking about upgrading to one that can scan 120 negatives.
Also which ones do you have ?
 
Coolscan IV, Epson 750 and a Coolscan 9000. The 9000 is what's used most of the time but the Coolscan IV for APS film and the 750 for large format.
 
Nice Nick.
All of them out of price range :)
 
What's your price range? V550 is the cheapest new scanner which can do 120 and is pretty decent for most stuff.
 
steveo_mcg said:
What's your price range? V550 is the cheapest new scanner which can do 120 and is pretty decent for most stuff.
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Price range = need second hand one :) 80-100£ . Seen 4490 for £36...
 
500's crop up fairly regularly, keep a look out in the usual places, eBay, gumtree and the classifieds here.
 
Is 4490 much "worse " than v500?
 
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I spent a few weeks combing eBay for a bargain before giving up and buying a V500 for £115. I was looking at the 4490, but they were going for £70-£80 - if you saw one at £36 buy-it-now, I'd jump at it.

The v500 is perfectly fine, although the 120 film holder is a piece of poo.
 
Canoscan 8800f which i believe is now thé 9000f..... Outside your budget new but second hand i reckon you may fall lucky.
 
Epson V500 for MF and a Plustek 7600i for 35mm, very happy with both, recognising that they are budget scanners.
 
Not had any problem with my 4490 and medium format - it does 1200dpi no problem and 2400dpi gives even more resolution for scanning 135 negs but I would not bother going above 2400, especially with 120 negs as even 1200dpi gives pretty large files on that format.
 
I picked up an Epson V550 last week, but haven't had a chance to fire it up yet. Hoping it can do a half decent job with 35mm. Can any other Epson users out there comment on whether it's worthwhile buying aftermarket software like Vuescan? I see a lot of people saying it's the best scanner software, but I'm wondering if it's worth the extra £45.
 
FujiLove said:
I picked up an Epson V550 last week, but haven't had a chance to fire it up yet. Hoping it can do a half decent job with 35mm. Can any other Epson users out there comment on whether it's worthwhile buying aftermarket software like Vuescan? I see a lot of people saying it's the best scanner software, but I'm wondering if it's worth the extra £45.
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I still prefer epson scan for b&w, I'm learning vuescan for colour negatives but for slide film vuescan is the only way I can get good results. I ended up having to buy a profiling target and profile the scanner to get velvia to scan properly.
 
skysh4rk said:
Get the 4490.
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I deserve a pint today :)
Found myself a 4490 for £0 :) just missing film holders - and haven't checked if it scans properly. It powers up :)

Going to look for a holder or a replacement
 
bastic said:
I deserve a pint today :)
Found myself a 4490 for £0 :) just missing film holders - and haven't checked if it scans properly. It powers up :)

Going to look for a holder or a replacement
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Good stuff! And I thought I'd gotten a good deal when I bought mine for £5!

Go buy a Lomography Digitaliza 120 film holder and you're all set.
 
skysh4rk said:
Good stuff! And I thought I'd gotten a good deal when I bought mine for £5!

Go buy a Lomography Digitaliza 120 film holder and you're all set.
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Off to Google it :)
I remembered that we have found a scanner at work few months back that was working but instead of "keeping it" I gave it back to IT....had a word with them and checked basement with dead PC bits...it was still there :) with psu et all :)
 
Hi there, I'm joining to the discussion because I'm also interrested to get a scanner.
The Epson v550 seems to be an interesting scanner at an attractive cost. It also get some good review for scanning medium format film.
How do you think it perform with 35mm? Is it good enough?
If the negative holder so bad where can you get some better ones?
 
As above Tom, the Lomo digitaliza holders seem to be far more robust and useful, I shall be getting some myself soon.
 
I use an Epson Perfection V500. I have also used a Canon Canoscan 5600f, and an ancient Epson Perfection 1200.

The Canoscan 5600f scanned 35mm fine, but rather slowly with only one strip, and no option for medium format. The lamp is only wide enough for a strip of 35mm

The Epson 1200 (ancient) scanned 35mm, and 120 (one exposure at a time). It was fast, but due to it's age, low res, low spec.

The Epson V500 was my final choice. It scans two strips of 35mm (up to six exposures a strip), or 120/220 - up to at least 6 x 12. With my 6 x 6, I can scan two square 120 exposures at a time. It scans two strips of 35mm faster than the Canoscan scanned one strip, and scans MF. No mask though for 127. It also comes with Digital Ice - great for C-41 negatives.

The V500's failing - as with the other two, is that the masks are not adjustable, therefore the focus will not be perfect. Some people rectify this by buying third party adjustable masks that raise up and down by adjustment screws. Another technique used by some - to keep the film flatter, is to buy a pair of Newton glasses to hold the film in.

Personally, for my uses, the V500 with it's supplied masks is good enough for me. Remember - worrying too much about technology wastes time imagining beautiful photographs.
 
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Jao said:
Epson V500 for MF and a Plustek 7600i for 35mm, very happy with both, recognising that they are budget scanners.
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WHS, except mine's a 7500i (not a lot of difference...)
 
skysh4rk said:
Go buy a Lomography Digitaliza 120 film holder and you're all set.
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There's always some other bloody thing to buy! ;-)

But seriously, what's the advantage of this over the ones that come with the scanner? Is it just more robust? In other words, can I wait until I eventually pull at the supplied one too hard and snap it into a thousand tiny pieces?!
 
FujiLove said:
There's always some other bloody thing to buy! ;-)

But seriously, what's the advantage of this over the ones that come with the scanner?
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You can scan three frames of 120 at a time and it holds the film flatter.

FujiLove said:
Is it just more robust? In other words, can I wait until I eventually pull at the supplied one too hard and snap it into a thousand tiny pieces?!
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What are you planning to do to your holders?! Treat any of them with any degree of care and I'm sure that they'll all last a long while. Robustness is not ordinarily a selling point of film holders.
 
Can you scan without holders ? Or is it better not to as you might scratch the film ??
 
bastic said:
Can you scan without holders ? Or is it better not to as you might scratch the film ??
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You'll get newton rings all over your scans if you don't use a holder to raise the film off of the glass of the scanner.
 
I find the 35mm holder with the v500 to be fine. Is just the 120 that's maddening.
 
The original masks are fitted with designed gaps that tell the scanner that a film is in place to scan, and to turn the lamp on. Put the mask in the wrong way around, and it knows. It also as you said, holds the film off the glass to protecxt it, and finally, the focus "should" be optimised to the distance from the sensor to the film in the mask.
 
For the record, I'm not saying that everyone should get a LOMO Digitaliza film holder, I simply made a very specific recommendation to @bastic to get one, as he doesn't have the stock film holders for his Epson 4490. For most people, the standard Epson holders will probably do the trick and it isn't worth spending the £30-£40. If you're certain you want to upgrade, then consider the Digitaliza or even the Better Scanning holders.

Please note, however, that the biggest improvements in scanning likely won't come from improving your holder. The skills of the operator himself probably have the most influence on the quality of the resulting scans and it can take a lot of time, practice, and reading to master the dark art of scanning.
 
Lemaildetom said:
I don't understand well is the light coming from the scanner cover going through this holder?
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Scanners such as the Epson Perfection V500, V550, Canoscan 5600f, 8000f etc. These are hybrid scanners. They are flatbed scanners, designed to scan documents and prints. However, remove an internal cover under the top half, and you find an LED lamp built into the lid. This works in conjunction with a plastic film mask or film holder. You place a film in the holder, position it correctly in your scanner. Make sure the lamp cover is removed (used as a white background on document scanning), and using your controls / software, set it to scan film - b/w negative, colour negative, colour slide, or whatever. The LED lamp provides light to pass through the film in it's holder, and the CCD sensor scans it from below.

They are budget scanners, but far better than the even cheaper Chinese made dedicated 35mm film scanners. Prices run between £110 and £500 for new - or higher if you want better. V500s / V550s for example, can be sought out on the Net for circa £125 - £175. Be aware that some only scan 35mm, others (such as the V500/V550) can scan medium format.

I'll repeat, they're not the very best scanners. However, they are a popular option for hybrid photographers that like to shoot on film, but share or print from digital scans.
 
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XA2inmypocket said:
Scanners such as the Epson Perfection V500, V550, Canoscan 5600f, 8000f etc. These are hybrid scanners. They are flatbed scanners, designed to scan documents and prints. However, remove an internal cover under the top half, and you find an LED lamp built into the lid. This works in conjunction with a plastic film mask or film holder. You place a film in the holder, position it correctly in your scanner. Make sure the lamp cover is removed (used as a white background on document scanning), and using your controls / software, set it to scan film - b/w negative, colour negative, colour slide, or whatever. The LED lamp provides light to pass through the film in it's holder, and the CCD sensor scans it from below.

They are budget scanners, but far better than the even cheaper Chinese made dedicated 35mm film scanners. Prices run between £110 and £500 for new - or higher if you want better. V500s / V550s for example, can be sought out on the Net for circa £125 - £175. Be aware that some only scan 35mm, others (such as the V500/V550) can scan medium format.

I'll repeat, they're not the very best scanners. However, they are a popular option for hybrid photographers that like to shoot on film, but share or print from digital scans.
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I think he was asking how the LOMO Digitaliza holder worked, as it has two magnetic metal pieces that cover the film to hold it flat. These pieces are removed when you close the holder to let the light from the scanner shine through.
 
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