Focus

<p>So, I'm starting a project that includes scanning 110 film negatives. I don't expect razor sharp results (that's part of the problem) but I'd like to get the most out of an inexpensive flatbed scanner for the project. I'm planning to buy an HP G4050 (in part because I also want to get archive quality, by which I mean good enough for identification, of 4x5 negatives as well). My question is about how this scanner will focus on film negatives. The easiest answer is that it will assume the negatives are at the distance from the scanner that the included film holders place them. But the instruction manual says that for negatives that don't fit in one of the holders, just put the negatives on the glass and cover them with a sheet of paper (that paper confuses me for another reason, but that's for a different post). How can the scanner know whether to focus at the depth of the holder or the glass? I don't see a setting for it, though I may have missed this. A related question is whether I can use a different holder, from a different company (one that has virtues I won't take the space to explain here) one that might not exactly match the depth of the included holders. If the lens somehow focused on the negative wherever it was found, I would get it, but in a related post I learned that not all scanners (and not cheap ones) have this feature (and I'm unsure how any of them could). Any comments are welcome, and thanks.</p>

<p>Not all 110 cameras are necessarily all that spectacular either.</p>

<p>Here is a scan of a 110 Kodachrome slide (mounted in a 2x2 paper mount) scanned on my Canoscan scanner. In case, you haven't guessed, the problem here was not with the <em>scanning</em>. ;)</p>

<p>This was not an expensive 110 camera, obviously.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks, JDM, but I was not under the impression that a scanner could fix an image that is blurry to start with. Any thoughts on my question?</p>

<p>How does that HP compare in price to an Epson 700 or 750, a pretty nice scanner. I don't know how it will do on 110, but its quite good for Med and Large format film. 4x5 on almost any of the epson's will be good. I've gotten good results with a 2450. The new ones should be awesome. I don't know if these scanners just do a DOF scan or if they focus on the film, but I do believe on the Epson's, there are aftermarket holders that improve the quality. Don't know about the model you are talking about.</p>

<p>Thanks, Barry. The Epson 700 is about three times the price, I believe.</p>