Scanner for B & W negatives

[jim_benson]

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm just starting to work with a 4 x 5 camera, and am interested in scanning the negatives.<br>

I don't foresee working with color film any time soon, so I don't feel the need to spand a lot of money to get good color at this point.<br>

I might wish to expand to 8 x 10 at some point in the future, but that may not happen soon, or not at all. I f I can get 8 x 10 capability without going up greatly in price, that would b enice, but if not that's fine as well.<br>

Also, I don't understand the liquid mountin method. How does one clean the negative afterwards, and does it realy give that much advantage?</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Jim</p>

<p> </p>

[greg_peterson3]

<p>I use an Epson 750 Pro for 4X5, though only for color negs so far. I'd think that it would work fine for 8X10s as well.</p>

<p>It's pretty good, but I often end up having drum scans done for really big prints. (Of course I only do that after the client has agreed to pay for it!)</p>

<p>I've never tried the wet mount stuff, but sometimes I have to re-scan because of Newton rings, which I'm told the wet mount method is meant to eliminate. Seems way too messy for me.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Epson V500 if you don't want to pay extra for future 8x10 capability. Epson V700 or V750 for all the way up to 8x10. The V750 is slightly better, but more importantly, comes with a full SilverFast Ai license. I thought SilverFast Ai was worth the extra money, you may not. (Scanner software is partly a matter of taste.)<br>

Either way, get a filmholder from http://www.betterscanning.com.<br>

Anything better is going to be well north of $1000.</p>

 

[tom_monego]

<p>The V700 is definitely better than a V500, have done 35mm slides on both. The V750 is supposed to be marginally better than the V700. I have used a V700 at work for 4 years, my job changed 6 months ago and I lost the scanner so I just bought one for home. I like the 4x5 scans I get even with the Epson carrier, it is 2 1/4 that the carrier is a real problem doesn't have enough support for the thin film. It is not a bad 35 scanner either. Epson often has them for sale in their clearance center for $450 or so. Oh yes I have done 4x5 and color on the scanner, always use 48bit for color and 16 bit for b&w, with the Epson software.<br>

<br /> Have fun<br /> Tom</p>

[spodzone]

<p>If it's only b&w you're interested in, then how about contact-printing and scanning on a flatbed of choice?<br>

Alternatively, Epson, either V700 or V500 to taste, as everyone else is saying. :)</p>

[jon_shiu]

<p>Note: V500 can only do 35mm and medium format!<br>

I recommend Epson V700.</p>

[jim_benson]

<p>I've spent some time looking at prices for the 700 and 75o, with the 750 coming in at about $200.00 more, which seems mostly to do with the software.<br>

How difficult is the Silverfast software to use? Bear in mind that my first computational machine was a slide rule. I can stumble around programs like Photoshop and Office, but it is not my native language.<br>

@ Greg Peterson: Do you feel that the Silverfast is an advantage for B & W as well as color? By and large people seem to be recommending the 700, but I don't want to try to save a couple of hundred dollars only to regret it later.</p>

<p>I did see that last fall one retailer was selling the 750 for as low as $500.00, but I don't expect that to repeat any time soon.</p>

<p>It's good to know the different bit rates for B & W and color. That;s the sort of thing that I don't know anything about, although it's logical when presented.</p>

<p>Jim Benson</p>

[greg_peterson3]

<blockquote>

<p>@ Greg Peterson: Do you feel that the Silverfast is an advantage for B & W as well as color? By and large people seem to be recommending the 700, but I don't want to try to save a couple of hundred dollars only to regret it later.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Jim,<br>

I haven't done enough B&W on the Epson 750 to offer an informed opinion. Most of the B&W I shoot is on 120, and that gets scanned on my Nikon CS-9000.</p>

<p>Sorry.</p>

[edward_issac]

<p>Note it is possible to scan 4x5 negs with the V500. You have to do it in two passes, then stitch them together in PS. It's far from ideal since you have to place the neg directly on the glass--no tray. I keep my 4x5 negs in clear plastic archive sheets meant for polaroids and I lay that flat on the glass. Dust removal is a challenge. If there was a compact, dedicated 4x5 scanner, I'd probably buy it.</p>

[thirteenthumbs]

<p>The scanner and software do not care if the image is color or b&w, transparent or solid material. The scanner only has the light source, sensor, and mechanical movement of the sensor and or light so that it covers a given area. The rest is software. The driver turns the light on and off and controls the drive motor that moves the light and or sensor and not much more. <br>

Most manufacturers software do a good job of scanning documents and a fair job of scanning negatives or slides. Software such as Silverfast or Viewscan are fine tuned for photography work and provide more controls to milk out more information from the negative or slide. I found Viewscan to do as good a job on 35mm as the Polaroid Sprintscan 4000 software that came with the scanner and almost as good as Silverfast AI that was bundled with my Microtek 8700 and was better than the Microtek software for the 8700.<br>

Difficulty to learn: On a scale of 1 to 10, Photoshop mastering a 10, basic image editing in Photoshop a 5; Silverfast basic a 4, Silverfast advanced a 6, Viewscan a 5. Use the scan software to get the most information from the negative or slide, adjust for best tones in photoshop or similar image editing software. Silverfast has some good video tutorials. Optical resolution, d max, scanable area, and software bundle are the main things to determine what scanner to get.</p>

[dhbebb]

<p>There is an ENORMOUS difference between color neg, color transparency and b+w neg in terms of the maximum density which the scanner needs to be able to handle (particularly if b+w negs are at all overexposed or overdeveloped). A spec of Dmax = 3.6 is probably the minimum that will be of any use, the higher the better. I scan sheet film on an Epson Expression 1680 Pro, a pro-grade flatbed which accepts film up to A4 size (the scanner is rather old, you can get the same spec for less money now). I find sheet film stays flat enough for my purposes by itself, so I use the glassless film carriers that came with the scanner. The Epson does have a variable focus facilty, which allow you to use film holders of various thicknesses - I think this is a handy feature. The scanner did come with Silverfast - it may have been my error, but I seem to recall difficulty keeping the same settings to scan a series of pix. I simply use the Epson software and aim to get a low-contrast scan with a full tone range.</p>

[jim_benson]

<p>Thanks everyone.</p>

<p>I have ordered and received a 750 M, and am waiting for the film holder.</p>

<p>This seems like a bush league question, but how do I best protect and clean the glass.</p>

<p>I've always been sort of casual about that, since all my cleaning would be of the inexpensive UV filter over my lenses, which I will now have to improve upon with the view camera lenses anyway.</p>

<p>Any particular products or procedures people would recommend?</p>

[jim_benson]

<p>Thanks to everyone for their advice.<br>

I have purchased a 750 M and betterscanning film holder.<br>

This is sort of a bush league question, but what is the best way to take care of and clean the scanner glass?</p>