Investigating scanning feasability of 35mm B&W negs

[aa]

I am currently fed up with my crappy DiMage scanner to the point where I don't

even want to shoot pictures any more or develop film.

 

Are there any mail order places in the US that people would recommend. I could

send the B&W negatives cut in sleeves (I would prefer this) or rolled up. I'd

want back reasonbly good scans of reasonble quality. I just want to view my

work, make some low res jpegs, and collect negatives that I will ultimately

print (wet lab, old fashioned printing).

 

Thank you,

Andrew

[Stock-Photos]

http://www.imagers.com

[mendel_leisk]

Andrew, maybe you know this, but if not:

 

What software are you using, and what settings? If you're using Minolta Scan Utility, and telling it you're scanning black and white negatives, you're likely seeing results with way over the top contrast. If you have Photoshop, try telling Minolta Scan Utility you're scanning a color slide, output a 16 bit tiff, and then in Photoshop invert and apply *light* clip, say 0 black and .02 white points. Just to see the difference.

 

Also, I would look into Vuescan, and try the scan-from-disk workflow. My Color Tab settings included:

 

Color|B/W Vendor: Kodak

 

Color|B/W brand: TMax400

 

Color|B/W type: D76 CI:.55

 

Color|white point: 0.02%

 

Color|brightness: 0.7

[larry_kincaid1]

I followed that tip a while back and tried using Vuescan with my Dimage 5400II. I had tried every trick (scan as positive slide as if a raw file, etc.) with the Minolta software and had given up completely. Just looked horrible. Then I tried Vuescan, then I slowly discovered the Kodak b&w settings just described. With Delta 100 negatives, you can play with different T-Max Kodak settings in the software and see the effect before you finish scanning. The HP5 scans looked right as well. I may end up using Vuescan for b&w and the Minolta software for color film. You still have to love film though, not to want to run out and get direct deposit with a digital camera. Hate the digital look though. Here's one of my favorite Delta 100 scans. Convinced me to order more Delta 100 film.<div></div>

[mendel_leisk]

For a few months now Vuescan's also offered some "curve" adjustment in the Color Tab. I find it mainly useful for opening up shadows, but you can play with the values for both "curve high" and "curve low" and see what happens.

[aa]

Thanks for the help, and I check out the information provided.

 

I was OK with the quality of the scans when the scanner works, this was my main problem though:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00I4fw

 

 

I think I might search for a Nikon Coolscan of better quality.

[aa]

"J. Harrington USA (Massachusetts)

www.imagers.com"

 

Wow, I didn't realize that it was so expensive. A quick analysis shows that it would be less expensive to buy a $600 scanner than send out 20 rolls to have them scanned.

 

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

Andrew

[mendel_leisk]

Ah, by "crappy" you meant "crappy hardware". Anyway, good luck!