Film Scanners?

[Streakerfreak]

Hey everyone,

With all the free time I have right now, I have been spending my time researching my final push to embrace Digital.

I have hundreds of 35mm, 120, and 4x5 sheet film that I need to scan for a new website. I have priced out sending what I need scanned to a place that can scan at 4000 dpi and at $5-$7 per scan it would almost reach the cost of a decent scanner.

Any suggestions on a good 4000 dpi scanner that would be able to scan different film formats. I only have a little experience with film scanners so my knowledge is slim to none.

 

[bigreen505]

Nikon 9000ED. You can scan MF and 4x5 wet mounted. While not drum scan quality, I would put a wet mount Nikon scan against an Imacon or high-end flat bed (Cezanne, etc.). I've been toying with getting one and either a 4x5 or Mamiya 7.

 

[DiploStrat]

Another Nikon Vote

I have never tried anything but 35mm slides and the odd negative, the Nikon Coolscan V ED is very nice, especially if you use Vuescan as opposed to Nikon's rather limited software.

Samples of various ages are at: www.pbase.com/diplostrat

The Peru/Bolivia, Sahara, and North Cameroon galleries are all scanned slides of various dates. The Nikon will happily show you every crack in your emulsion and mildew bloom.

 

[Tucson T4R]

This only works for 35mm slides but my dad used a Nikon adaptor that fits on the end of his lens and you point it at decent light and take a picture of it with the camera. He has now digitized over 4000 of his slides going back to WWII.

Of course, he's 92 so he has plenty time on his hands to individually digitize slides one at a time.
:sombrero:

 

[hks3sgte]

Canoscan 8800F is what I use for 35mm and 120. Great price and great results.

 

[Mike S]

If you are doing this for magazine you only need 300 dpi. For web 72 is fine. Why make it so hard and expensive?

I take my 35mm stuff to my ad agency, stand over their little in house scanner and do like 4 at a time and save to DVD. And we have thousands of images for our website and ad use.

 

[Streakerfreak]

Thanks for your suggestion. My main problem has to do with my sheet film from a long term series. It's mostly fine art work that is needed for very large gallery exhibits.

Since I no longer have a darkroom, I must make sure I have complete control over the final image. These fine art pieces require a lot of time in the dark room to get them right. I need as good of a scanner as I can get in order to work on these images before I give the digital transfer to a printer. I've tried on a lower dpi scanner and they just did not work.

 

[Michael Slade]

Nikon 9000ED. You can scan MF and 4x5 wet mounted. While not drum scan quality, I would put a wet mount Nikon scan against an Imacon or high-end flat bed (Cezanne, etc.). I've been toying with getting one and either a 4x5 or Mamiya 7.

Listen to Bill. He has a great idea.

Bill - PM me. I have the Mamiya 7II system just for you!

 

[Streakerfreak]

Thanks everyone,

It helps immensely. It will be a while before we have enough cash flow to pick one up, so right now its just research.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

I bought the Super COOLSCAN 5000 ED a while ago thinking I was going to turn my entire 35mm negative collection over to digital, and that only lasted about one page from the binder before I said forget this!

Now the scanner scans beautifully, but it takes forever and the file sizes are so large, plan on having one monstorous hard drive to hold your work.

What I ended up doing was buying a Canon flatbed scanner for a fraction of the cost and can now scan about 4-5 sleeves at a time and save them all at once. If I need to find one certain negative, I just go back through the files and find that one off the strip.

The guy I ended up selling the film scanner to was a little pissed with how long it took to scan anything. I think he ended up doing the same thing I did even though I had told him exactly why I was selling it to begin with.

My uncle who shoots professionally for real estate companies says that the one comapny he shoots for just brings all their old stuff to Wal-Mart who will scan it for you. He says in the long run, it was much cheaper and easier just to pick up a disc from Wally World a week later after dropping off a few binders filled with negative sleeves.

Who would ever think it would come to this...LOL