scanning negatives
Discussion
You can get some very acceptable results from photo prints but, all things being equal, a negative (or slide) offers greater potential if you want to play. If they are larger thnn 35mm the potential is greater again. If smaller, less good.
Yes you do need a special scanner with a light in the lid and usually some sort of negative carrier(s). Or a dedicated film scanner which is designed only for negatives and slides.
There are a number of products around. Which to buy coems with the usual 'it depends what you want to do' pointers. It seems that people will often buy a scanner for a project and then offload it via eBay so the cost of digitising, for a 'project, need not be too great.
If you have a few to do be aware that you can get sucked into producing some big files so be sure you have considered how you are going to store the resulting files.
For dual purpose flatbed scanners Epson and Canon are probably the names to consider but bear in mind that scanners adapted for photographic requirements do not seem top of the range for document scans - and vice versa.
Hope this helps. I can offer more if you have a clear idea of what you want in terms of quality and haow many you need to do
Yes you do need a special scanner with a light in the lid and usually some sort of negative carrier(s). Or a dedicated film scanner which is designed only for negatives and slides.
There are a number of products around. Which to buy coems with the usual 'it depends what you want to do' pointers. It seems that people will often buy a scanner for a project and then offload it via eBay so the cost of digitising, for a 'project, need not be too great.
If you have a few to do be aware that you can get sucked into producing some big files so be sure you have considered how you are going to store the resulting files.
For dual purpose flatbed scanners Epson and Canon are probably the names to consider but bear in mind that scanners adapted for photographic requirements do not seem top of the range for document scans - and vice versa.
Hope this helps. I can offer more if you have a clear idea of what you want in terms of quality and haow many you need to do
I think a slide/negative scanner is a very useful tool, certainly way ahead of using a flatbed as a dual-purpose. I use an Acer Scanwit 2700 slide/negative scanner. It was only £250 new, about 7 years ago, probably available very cheap now. It scans negatives or slides to a digital file that has pretty much exactly the same number of pixels as my Canon 20D DSLR punts out. Until I got the Canon, I used the slide scanner for scanning all my best shots, which I printed myself, I was amazed with the quality of the results. A slide scanner and an old-fashioned but high quality SLR and prime lens, of the sort available on Ebay for £very little these days, is a great low-cost combination if you have the time to scan and edit them. Most of my best shots were taken on slides and the scanned images rival the ones from the 20D, in fact the colours and detail are often better unless I've been using RAW in the 20D.
The downsides: Slides scan with much more natural colours than negatives - the scanners have various programs for various film types but none are as good as slides. This can be sorted in Photoshop if you have more patience and time than me. The scanning process accentuates grain - for A4 prints 50, 100 amd 200 ISO are fine but 400 and above will display clear grain (not the end of the world, sometimes a good thing). Unless going straight to JPEG the files can often be 30MB each even if using 8-bit colour only (I tended to save as .psd photoshop files though when edited I just save a JPEG for storage reasons). And the process handles contrast poorly, highlights may be burned and darek areas black. My brother's Nikkon is better in this regard than the Scanwit. Lastly if, like me, you get one without the "ICE" dust removal feature it takes a little while editing out imnperfections.
Overall though the quality is great - for uniformaly exposed landscapes and other well-lit shots I just scan, edit dust marks out, unsharp mask a tad and the result is a picture with often better colour(if scanned from a slide) and detail than from my EOS20D DSLR. Have a look at the link on my profile to my area on photo.net - most of that is done from negative or slide (sometimes 200 or 400 ISO film on a fairly basic SLR). Even now I use a film SLR and 50 ISO Velvia slides, scanned, for landscapes as I prefer the effect of a 24mm prime lens to the weird-looking effects of an ultra-wide on a DSLR with a 1.6x crop.
The downsides: Slides scan with much more natural colours than negatives - the scanners have various programs for various film types but none are as good as slides. This can be sorted in Photoshop if you have more patience and time than me. The scanning process accentuates grain - for A4 prints 50, 100 amd 200 ISO are fine but 400 and above will display clear grain (not the end of the world, sometimes a good thing). Unless going straight to JPEG the files can often be 30MB each even if using 8-bit colour only (I tended to save as .psd photoshop files though when edited I just save a JPEG for storage reasons). And the process handles contrast poorly, highlights may be burned and darek areas black. My brother's Nikkon is better in this regard than the Scanwit. Lastly if, like me, you get one without the "ICE" dust removal feature it takes a little while editing out imnperfections.
Overall though the quality is great - for uniformaly exposed landscapes and other well-lit shots I just scan, edit dust marks out, unsharp mask a tad and the result is a picture with often better colour(if scanned from a slide) and detail than from my EOS20D DSLR. Have a look at the link on my profile to my area on photo.net - most of that is done from negative or slide (sometimes 200 or 400 ISO film on a fairly basic SLR). Even now I use a film SLR and 50 ISO Velvia slides, scanned, for landscapes as I prefer the effect of a 24mm prime lens to the weird-looking effects of an ultra-wide on a DSLR with a 1.6x crop.
If you are going to scan photos have you invested in some software that specialises in the task? Makes a big difference usually and the application should allow you to fix certain types of imperfection and also any colour cast or fading that they may suffer.
On the other hand Digital ICE can also miss things, mistake things, make detail fuzzy and take a long time to process. It won't give you what you want every time. Sometimes a manual edit makes more sense. That said I think ICE works better with scanning prints than it will for scanning negatives or positives.
If you do end up scanning from the original film bear in mind there are several scanning applications beyond the manufacturers' offerings that many people find superior in some way. I have come to the conclusion that most of these products may well be better but if you have a broad range of material to scan you may need more than one of the applications to get the very best results.
If you want to get a feel for the issues that people have scanning negatives and positives from a fairly wide perspective - rank amateur novices through to perfection seeking professionals with very specific requirements - try the forums at photo-i.
www.photo-i.co.uk
Some interesting product reviews there as well.
On the other hand Digital ICE can also miss things, mistake things, make detail fuzzy and take a long time to process. It won't give you what you want every time. Sometimes a manual edit makes more sense. That said I think ICE works better with scanning prints than it will for scanning negatives or positives.
If you do end up scanning from the original film bear in mind there are several scanning applications beyond the manufacturers' offerings that many people find superior in some way. I have come to the conclusion that most of these products may well be better but if you have a broad range of material to scan you may need more than one of the applications to get the very best results.
If you want to get a feel for the issues that people have scanning negatives and positives from a fairly wide perspective - rank amateur novices through to perfection seeking professionals with very specific requirements - try the forums at photo-i.
www.photo-i.co.uk
Some interesting product reviews there as well.
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