Originally posted by drewdlephone I'm looking into scanning the negs as well. It costs me half the price to develop without printing the negs at my work, and to have their lab scan at the resolution I want (2400-4800dpi, 14-20Mp depending on the image) it would cost me over $15 per roll just for them to scan them. Like others have noted, you need a scanner intended for this purpose however; it needs to have dual light sources (one on each side of the negative) to work properly. Models that fit that bill are Canon's 8800F, Epson's 4490, V500, and V700, and I'm sure there's others. You might do well to consider a scanner with Digital ICE as well, which slows it down some but delivers dust and scratch free scans. The Epson 4490 is the least expensive model that also provides this.
I'm not trying to neuter the darkroom experience (I'm just starting to learn it myself) but I think that having high-quality scans of your negs definitely helps if you intend to show off and distribute your pictures, or send them to labs to get printed. It also saves wear and tear on the actual negatives.
So this leads me on to the next question. What scanners do you guys like and what are the pros and cons? I think I've settled on the work order I want to do:
1)shoot the photos
2)develop the film myself
3)scan the negatives to view them and use/share them online
4)(optional)send to lab to get printed
I'm looking for something that is affordable (around $150) and that will give good enough results to print. I will be mainly shooting B&W. How is the Epson 4490, does anyone have it who can comment on it?
Thanks,
Ted