[Russell W. Barnes]

I also like your hardware. A man after my own heart. If it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Still have an XP computer because my wife hates change. Also I get blamed because I didn’t tell Microsoft to leave the interface unchanged. :-).

I also have a Canoscan Lide 500F which is supposed to do film, but it's an afterthought design. The 'film adaptor' consists of a backlight that sits above individual negs (it doesn't batch-scan) and a flaky plastic guide that clips along one edge of the flatbed. It doesn't accommodate mounted slides. If the film buckles, it's useless, hi-res or no hi-res. I think a sheet of thin glass sandwiching the film to the flatbed might help here.

I've had some success with part-scanning 6x6 negs on it though, and I've also had success on 35mm mounted slides (colour aberrations apart) using an Agfa optical 'hold-up-to-the-light' slide viewer on a lightbox, with a Canon Ixus 750 P&S camera looking down the eyepiece on 'tulip' mode.


For a while I had a Primefilm 2700 USB scanner with VueScan drivers and was happy with it, but it went faulty. I had a delve inside and I think it's the stepper-motor, so beyond economic repair.

I like the sound of the Epson V600!

[teogin]

I am also an owner of Epson Flatbed scanner V700, but I think that a great solution could be to get a Pentax K-1 with a film duplicator like this one: Pentax Film Duplicator Overview - CP+ 2014 | PentaxForums.com
This will give you the raw option you need and maybe a better focusing situation!
If you like take a look here!

Good luck!

[Helios 1984]

I like the sound of the Epson V600!

Apparently, the V550 is as good. Also, if you want to save a bit, you can buy a refurbished scanner directly from Epson.

[jcdoss]

I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Image-PrimeFilm-7250uPro3-Windows/dp/B000QW9D...2103337&sr=8-2

The first one was defective... wouldn't scan the bottom 1/4 of the frame so I returned it hassle-free (Amazon) and bought another one that works great. What I like about it is that I can load and scan a whole roll of film at once. I also had a V550 which was OK, except that it only scans 5 frames max at a time, and therefore required constant babysitting.

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Last edited by jcdoss; 07-20-2018 at 09:28 AM.

[abruzzi]

Best deal for C41 processing and high res scans I’ve found is here:

RFF Ultra-High Resolution Scans

[steve_k]

I also have a Canoscan Lide 500F which is supposed to do film, but it's an afterthought design. The 'film adaptor' consists of a backlight that sits above individual negs (it doesn't batch-scan) and a flaky plastic guide that clips along one edge of the flatbed. It doesn't accommodate mounted slides. If the film buckles, it's useless, hi-res or no hi-res. I think a sheet of thin glass sandwiching the film to the flatbed might help here.

I've had some success with part-scanning 6x6 negs on it though, and I've also had success on 35mm mounted slides (colour aberrations apart) using an Agfa optical 'hold-up-to-the-light' slide viewer on a lightbox, with a Canon Ixus 750 P&S camera looking down the eyepiece on 'tulip' mode.


For a while I had a Primefilm 2700 USB scanner with VueScan drivers and was happy with it, but it went faulty. I had a delve inside and I think it's the stepper-motor, so beyond economic repair.

I like the sound of the Epson V600!

I am also an owner of Epson Flatbed scanner V700, but I think that a great solution could be to get a Pentax K-1 with a film duplicator like this one: Pentax Film Duplicator Overview - CP+ 2014 | PentaxForums.com
This will give you the raw option you need and maybe a better focusing situation!
If you like take a look here!

Good luck!

Apparently, the V550 is as good. Also, if you want to save a bit, you can buy a refurbished scanner directly from Epson.

I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Image-PrimeFilm-7250uPro3-Windows/dp/B000QW9D...2103337&sr=8-2

The first one was defective... wouldn't scan the bottom 1/4 of the frame so I returned it hassle-free (Amazon) and bought another one that works great. What I like about it is that I can load and scan a whole roll of film at once. I also had a V550 which was OK, except that it only scans 5 frames max at a time, and therefore required constant babysitting.

Best deal for C41 processing and high res scans I’ve found is here:

RFF Ultra-High Resolution Scans

Thank You all very much for your responses. I am definitely considering purchasing a scanner and appreciate all of the information.

I found a lab Adrian Bacon – Photography | Prints | Film Lab located in the San Francisco Bay Area that developed the film and provided me scans as 81 mb dng files. I forget the pixel dimension but was happy with the result.

[aaacb]

I have a cheap Epson scanner, v370, and while not as good as the others mentioned, it's not bad either for my needs. I get large and sharp enough scans (3000 pixels in height), and it can output 16 bit Tiff for more processing latitude, which I found more important than having high res jpeg scans from a lab.

For developing, check any local stores if you want to save some money. In Boston I use Hunt's and they charge $5 per c41 roll. Turnaround time is the same as mailing, the store itself doesn't have the equipment.

[steve_k]

I have a cheap Epson scanner, v370, and while not as good as the others mentioned, it's not bad either for my needs. I get large and sharp enough scans (3000 pixels in height), and it can output 16 bit Tiff for more processing latitude, which I found more important than having high res jpeg scans from a lab.

For developing, check any local stores if you want to save some money. In Boston I use Hunt's and they charge $5 per c41 roll. Turnaround time is the same as mailing, the store itself doesn't have the equipment.

Thank you. I assume $5 is just developing and then you scan them yourself. If I were to buy a scanner it would be to scan old photos or negatives from the 70's and 80's. I'm not certain I want to go down that path or what I would do with the scans.

[Bob 256]

Scanning film can take on a life of its own so be prepared if you go that route. Modern scanners are faster than older ones, but it still takes a finite length of time to scan each frame and if you shoot a moderate amount of film, you will be spending time with your scanner. In many cases, it makes sense to have the scans performed by a good lab at the time the film is processed and not have to deal with the scanning. On the other hand, if you have only a few choice images from time to time, it could pay you to invest in a quality scanner so you have full control over the process (it still might pay to have your processing service provide "proof" scans so you can quickly sort your photos). Having your own scanner also saves you from the need to send out your valuable film and shots for scans which may risk damage to them in doing so.

[steve_k]

Scanning film can take on a life of its own so be prepared if you go that route. Modern scanners are faster than older ones, but it still takes a finite length of time to scan each frame and if you shoot a moderate amount of film, you will be spending time with your scanner. In many cases, it makes sense to have the scans performed by a good lab at the time the film is processed and not have to deal with the scanning. On the other hand, if you have only a few choice images from time to time, it could pay you to invest in a quality scanner so you have full control over the process (it still might pay to have your processing service provide "proof" scans so you can quickly sort your photos). Having your own scanner also saves you from the need to send out your valuable film and shots for scans which may risk damage to them in doing so.

Thanks Bob,

Your response makes perfect sense to me. The only way I could justify it would be something to do during the winter with photos that were taken decades ago. I've also considered printing my own images and could not justify the cost and also printing them. I have no plans on selling photos and what would I do with all the prints.

Thanks Again
Steve

[Russell W. Barnes]

Just found that I can use my Epson ET-2500 scanner / printer for scanning 6x6 negs. Haven't tried it with 35mm. I put the neg on the glass and placed a sheet of thin picture glass on top of the neg, then a sheet of white paper to act as a diffuser, then suspended a Petzl LED headtorch above it. It made no difference whether the neg was emulsion side down or shiny side down, apart from the need to reverse the image. I used a headtorch to eliminate Moire patterning caused by the 100Hz flicker of the mains supply (an incandescent lamp may be OK as a light source because of thermal inertia).

It's no better on 4800 DPI than photographing the neg with my Sony RX100 II, manual focus, in RAW mode, but marginally easier to set up. I did a scan at 9600DPI but it takes slightly longer than three minutes per neg.