Best films for scanning?

[ned1]

<p>This has probably been asked before, but what are the best films for scanning? So far I've gotten good results with Astia and Ektar, but I've had trouble with many others. What is your experience?</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p><em>This has probably been asked before...</em></p>

<p>That's an understatement. I guess your SEARCH key is missing or stuck ;-) You can get good results with any film - it just takes practice. Pick one or two emulsions, say ISO 100 and 400, and get to work. It takes about 10 rolls before you get to know how a particular type of film behaves in different situations - more if you are just learning to scan.</p>

[jeff_z.]

<p>Hi Edward Horn, I have largely settled on a few films and don't stray from them. The latest gen Kodak Ektachromes seem to scan <i>beautifully</i> on my Coolscan IV, as do the latest Kodak color print films. Ektar 25 (from apprx. 15 years ago) can be a challenge.</p>

<p>Kodachrome, if well exposed seems to scan well, too, but if underexposed can be a challenge... K-64 is still an interesting film to me, though. I have one or two Velvia images (I was never fond of that palette) that have scanned okay, in case you have many of them; however, I've heard they can be a difficult too, if underexposed at all... </p>

[zoltan_arva_toth]

<p>Properly exposed frames shot on Velvia 50 scan very easily. With black-and-white films I have less experience, but my initial impressions of Ilford Pan 100 are very good.</p>

[randrew1]

<p>I've found some faded reflection prints that gave me lots of trouble scanning. I have yet to find a film I couldn't scan. I usually do a custom curves correction for each channel on each image. This wont work for scannning massive quantities, but my scanners only scan one image at a time (except for APS).</p>

<p>Sometimes I try to reproduce the image as recorded. If it is faded, I can usually fix it. One particular defect I like to fix is the green toe contrast of Kodachrome. For a variety of technical reasons, it was often difficult in manufacturing to get the green sensitive record in K-25 and K-64 to match the highlight contrast of the blue and red sensitive records. The same problem was there in older versions of Kodachrome. If you've ever seen highlights shifting quickly from green to magenta, you know what I'm writing about. By putting a little bump in the green channel curve, this can often be fixed.</p>

[dallalb]

<p>I love Fuji Provia 100F: easy to scan (with Nikon 5000 ED), almost grainless, excellent details and good (not oversaturated) color render... Look at my portfolio: I have several shots from this film (look at the "Details" tab).<br>

Regards, Alberto.</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>Elitechrome in 35mm is so easy it scares me I use an Epson V700. When it comes to 120 B&W any film works well for me 35mm B&W I find Plus-x and Tri-X a walk in the park... Kodachrome took me a month to figure out.. and don't use ICE with Kodachrome I discovered....</p>

[ned1]

Ron, thanks for the green-toe tip. I've been going nuts trying to deal with it.