New to Digital-Help With Film Scanner Selection

Hello, I am relatively new to digital photography. I have many,

many B&W negatives (35mm) and 35mm slides that I would like to scan

and post on websites, etc. The B&W film is mostly TriX and Fuji

Neopan 400 and the slides range all over the place- from Kodachromes

to Kodak E6 stuff. What is a good scanner for my purposes. I don't

have much money to spend- approximately 3-400.00 dollars. I am

mostly concerned with being able to scan my B&W negatives where I

will get good quality and ease of working with them. The software I

am using at the moment is PS Elements 2. Thanks to everyone who

responds, Rick.

You might look for the Minolta Scan Dual IV, new or used. But for negative, colour or B&W, it's best to spend extra on Vuescan.

Alan, I take it that Vuescan is a type of software? I was looking through a B&H catalog and saw the Minolta Dual IV and it looked good, but being a complete novice at this I was hoping for feedback from anyone that could help, so you recommending that is a good sign. Like I said, my main concern is being able to scan my B&W negatives, some dating back more than 35 years. I am still shooting B&W film now and plan on doing so for a while. However, for color, I have gone digital. Thanks for helping, Rick.

Vuescan is a scanning software which does particular good on negative (colour & B&W). The issue with Minolta software is that it clips both ends of the histogram too much and made most scans too contrasty. But this is only a software issue and will be fine with Vuescan. If your prime concern is B&W negatives, even years old used scanners from Minolta/Nikon will do fine. Minolta Scan Elite F-2900 or Nikon Coolscan L-2000 could be obtained sub-$100 on eBay. But for slides, you really need to buy the best you can afford just for the D range. Dense slides are very demanding on the hardware (the scanner itself in this case), and some Kodachromes are just next to impossible to scan.

Save up more money or sell some of your unwanted stuff to increase your budget.

 

The volume of scans AND amount of free time you have should be a BIG factor in your scanner choice.

 

I say this because some scanners are faster than others and Nikons offer optional auto-feeders for slides and roll feeders for uncut rolls of 35MM negatives.

 

The Nikon 5000 scanner is quite fast at actual scan time...depending on the Ice options you activate.

 

You could sell the Nikons and feeders on eBay when your scans are complete. They retain their value quite well.

 

Or, instead of selling the equipment, you could start a slide scanning business...like I did!

 

Good luck with your project.

 

http://www.saugus.net/Photos/

For a really inexpensive (but not cheap) 35mm scanner, don't overlook the HP s20. I think its great if you use a PC (and not Mac). Now you should be able to pick one up on oBoy for about $100 in 'Like new' condition. It does a great job. Here's a couple of reviews-

 

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/HPS20/S20A.HTM

 

http://www.sphoto.com/techinfo/s20.html

 

I have had a Canoscan 4000fs, and now a KM 5400 II, and I'm still reluctant to get rid of my s20.

 

 

Subhash

If you wish to scan more than a few colour slides you need ICE which auto removes dust

 

on my KM 5400 it works on kodachrome, apparently some times it doesn't

 

The dual scan IV is fine but try hand dust removal first

 

perhaps download some scans fromn imaging-resource.com

Thanks to everyone for the response. When you scan your B&W negs, do you do your dodging and burning then or after I get the image into another program? Right now, I am making work prints in my darkroom where of course I do all the dodging, burning, etc and then I scan the prints into the computer on a flat bed scanner. So of course I am trying to eliminate the darkroom step and go straight into scanning the negatives. Thanks to all who helped, it is greatly appreciated.

Always try to capture all the details while scanning, which means dull scans w/o clipping the histogram for negatives. Then do all the postprocessing in Photoshop.

I recomend you read these articles.

 

To honest if they were a book you'd pay for them

 

whats nice is that as Norman who wrote them use to use a darkroom he relates the 2 processes very well

 

http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints.html

John and Alan I appreciate the help tremendously. Thanks for that link, I have already read quite a bit of it and it really helps.

You'll find, if you don't read too much, is that scanning/inkjet printing is *far easier* than darkroom work, and what you've learned in the darkroom will contribute hugely to your scanning/inkjet printing.

 

Since you'll want digital ice, assuming you want new and not mercy-killed (KM), your only real choice is Nikon V or 5000, unless the new Epsons turn out to be as good (probably won't). For demanding users who intend to print their own images, the Nikon V may be better (better film holder=flatness=overall focus) than 5000, but 5000 will save you one minute per scan, and time is sometimes money. Nikon 5000 doesn't have visual output advantage over the cheaper V, except multipass scanning Velvia specifically, though it does produce measurable advantages.