I need to make prints from old, old negatives

<p>Hi, I just inherited the family boxes of old photos, including lots of medium format B&W negatives. I like to see them, but can't afford to pay $2 each x 200 pics, or buy a scanner for $500 or more. Any other options out there? </p>

<p>Do you have a digital camera that can focus to macro distances? If you do then you can just photograph them (putting them on a light table is best but even taping them to a window will work) and reverse them using software.</p>

<p >Place the negatives, one at a time, on an illuminated viewer. You can construct a viewer yourself. You can go to glass shop or hardware shop and buy one milk glass window pane or plastic diffuser for florescent light fixture. Place pane or plastic sheet, elevated a few inches off the floor. Underneath, on the floor, place white card stock. You can elevate by placing the pane supported at the corners by books. Now illuminate using two reflector floods from the hardware store. You can purchase pin-up fixtures also.</p>

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<p >Placing the negatives on the pane, illuminated from below, you photograph the (make a copy) with your digital camera. Copy each negative using your camera’s close-up mode.</p>

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<p >Once copied, view your images on your computer screen. Your viewing software likely has the ability to convert images to black and white and also has the ability to convert from positive to negative. In this way you can see a positive black & white image on your computer. </p>

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<p >If your software lacks the capability I described, I suggest you buy Paint Shop Pro or equivalent. You can download a working trial copy of Paint Shop Pro from the Corel web site.</p>

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<p >This is easy, you can do it.</p>

<p>Scan 'em. Seriously, there's no easier way to reproduce large numbers of prints. You don't need a very expensive flatbed scanner to do this job. Any good flatbed can handle this. For years I used an ancient Umax SCSI flatbed for scanning my b&w prints up to 11x14. That Umax had once been an upper-midrange in price, popular among graphics pros during the mid-1990s. By the time I bought it at an electronics surplus store it cost five bucks. Worked like a champ 'til I finally gave it away last year.</p>

<p>I've done the route using a camera, macro lens and reproduction stand for this task. It's a huge hassle, very inefficient compared with scanning. The only time I rephotograph old prints now is if they exceed 11x14 in size.</p>

<p>Scanner is more like $50 now a day and not $500. Here is one for $75 from Epson</p>

<p><a href="http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63074517">http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63074517</a></p>

<p>I just bought an Epson V500 from the Epson company's 'clearance center'---$150 US, refurbished. It works great. If you have many old negatives to scan, it will pay for itself very easily. You might also find an older Epson (like the one I replaced with the V500) used for sale even cheaper. For years, I've been getting very good 11x14" prints from 6x6cm negs, using an old Epson.</p>

<p>By the way, I've scanned large numbers of old negatives and slides from my own family and my wife's family, and many older family members really enjoy seeing the old photos again, this time as a slideshow on their TV or computer. So send copies of your scans to your family! :-) --ken</p>