Discussion
Hi Folks,
Just bought myself a film scanner - A Prime Film 3600U, From Jessops.
And Quite frankly it's cr*p! Especially on black & white.
Admittedly I've only had chance to play with it for an hour or so, but I have had plenty of experience of scanner in my time.
Whilst the resolution is pretty high (generates a 47Mb tiff at full chat) the greyscale sensitivity is awful; resulting in a histogram that looks more like an old comb than a nice curve - there really is so little tonal information.
Does anyone have experience of film scanners? I was told that the qualty is better than flatbeds with transparancy hoods, which I'm more used to, but in this case it simply isn't true!
All advice appreciated.
Bob.
Just bought myself a film scanner - A Prime Film 3600U, From Jessops.
And Quite frankly it's cr*p! Especially on black & white.
Admittedly I've only had chance to play with it for an hour or so, but I have had plenty of experience of scanner in my time.
Whilst the resolution is pretty high (generates a 47Mb tiff at full chat) the greyscale sensitivity is awful; resulting in a histogram that looks more like an old comb than a nice curve - there really is so little tonal information.
Does anyone have experience of film scanners? I was told that the qualty is better than flatbeds with transparancy hoods, which I'm more used to, but in this case it simply isn't true!
All advice appreciated.
Bob.
Generally speaking, a good film scanner will give better results than a good flatbed, but there's such a range of models available that it really depends on what you compare.
The software can make a difference too, but often the standard software can give results just as good, if not better than the 3rd party offerings - again, it depends what you're using, and how well you know the software.
Generally, film scanners from Nikon, Canon and Minolta are among the best consumer scanners you can buy, and Epson and Canon are the names to look out for in flatbeds.
I'd be pretty confident that a decent £200-300 flatbed would give better quatilty than a Jessops film scanner, but if you spent £500+ on a decent film scanner, then you should find even more quality.
The software can make a difference too, but often the standard software can give results just as good, if not better than the 3rd party offerings - again, it depends what you're using, and how well you know the software.
Generally, film scanners from Nikon, Canon and Minolta are among the best consumer scanners you can buy, and Epson and Canon are the names to look out for in flatbeds.
I'd be pretty confident that a decent £200-300 flatbed would give better quatilty than a Jessops film scanner, but if you spent £500+ on a decent film scanner, then you should find even more quality.
I have a Primefilm 1800u 35mm film scanner (A Jessops item), but it doesn't get used anymore.
The resolution was fine but the colours were all over the place.
I now use an Epson Perfection 2450 flatbed (2400dpi) for my 120 and 35mm slides.
The resolution is about the same for 35mm as the film scanner, but the colours are so much better.
The resolution was fine but the colours were all over the place.
I now use an Epson Perfection 2450 flatbed (2400dpi) for my 120 and 35mm slides.
The resolution is about the same for 35mm as the film scanner, but the colours are so much better.
I recently bought an Epson 4990 based on reviews which suggested that it was pretty much on a par with the top dedicated 35mm scanners but cheaper and allowed negs greater than 35mm.
I'm very happy with it - grayscale is fine, more than any of the software I have can cope with at the moment - samples posted on here recently.
No problems with the colours though the Epson Scan software will auto adjust depending on the content to be scanned. Even when the 'balance' leaves somewhet burned out highlights there is still detail to be recovered with some judicious editing.
It comes bundled with a lite version of Silverfast, which I have looked at but for most of the stuff I have tried so far I prefer the Epson results. Epson seems very good with scans from old and discoloured prints.
Likewise with sharpening, the standard software seems to do pretty well all round.
The potential to run 24 35mm negs as a single process is attractive as well - if only they processors would stop cutting them into strips of 4!
Review here if you are interested.
Disappointing on documents using the EPSON COPY utility to print to an older HP printer - but I am working on that and it may not be you prime requirment when buying a photo scanner anyway!
I'm very happy with it - grayscale is fine, more than any of the software I have can cope with at the moment - samples posted on here recently.
No problems with the colours though the Epson Scan software will auto adjust depending on the content to be scanned. Even when the 'balance' leaves somewhet burned out highlights there is still detail to be recovered with some judicious editing.
It comes bundled with a lite version of Silverfast, which I have looked at but for most of the stuff I have tried so far I prefer the Epson results. Epson seems very good with scans from old and discoloured prints.
Likewise with sharpening, the standard software seems to do pretty well all round.
The potential to run 24 35mm negs as a single process is attractive as well - if only they processors would stop cutting them into strips of 4!
Review here if you are interested.
Disappointing on documents using the EPSON COPY utility to print to an older HP printer - but I am working on that and it may not be you prime requirment when buying a photo scanner anyway!
After 3 years I went from a Canon FS4000 dedicated film scanner to an Epson 4870 flatbed and found that quality and speed on the Epson were better than the Canon (which was good for its day). Colour & B&W, slide and neg. I also don't bother with the bundled Silverfast software.
Wouldn't touch a Jessops scanner myself, do they do a return it within x days and you can swap it deal ?Minolta make a better dedicated film scanner or one of the Epson 4990s might suit you better.
Wouldn't touch a Jessops scanner myself, do they do a return it within x days and you can swap it deal ?Minolta make a better dedicated film scanner or one of the Epson 4990s might suit you better.
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