Digitizing Kodak 400NC Film

[darrell_catmull]

<p>My photographer gave me the negatives for my wedding photographs. I would like to learn of scanners, methods, and other resources for digitizing these negatives.<br>

Thank you in advance for your experience and help.<br>

Ciao<br>

Darrell</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

The bes thing to do, unless you are willing to spend weeks learning how to scan well and then days scanning the film, is

to hire it out. http://www.nancyscans , http://www.westcoastimaging.com , or http://www.eigerstudios.com are highly

recommended.

[ken_kuzenski]

<p>Darrell, Ellis is right that there is a bit of a learning curve. But doing it for yourself is actually quite simple; a scanner that does negatives (Epson V500) and a bit of practice, and you can get good scans for yourself. The 400CN film is very easy to scan compared to some other B&W films. So if you DO want to do it yourself, it really isn't hard. </p>

[larrydressler]

<p>The folks at this place all use different types of scanners and can help you with the learning curve.<br>

https://www.flickr.com/groups/isf_scanner</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

The height and length of the learning curve is up to you and depending on the quality you want it will tke anywhere

between five and fifteen minutes per frame with a good to excellent scanner as each

Negative, unless nearly identical in content and exposure should be treated as a semi-unique problem to solve.

 

The most important thing regardless of the scanning hardware and software you choose us setting the end points

correctly to maximize the scan's dynamic range to that of the negative or transparency (AKA SLIDE) content. Looking at

the histogram of the image in the scanning software, you want the endpoint closest to the densest part of the film set to

either 0 in the case of transparencies or 255 in the case of negatives and then drag the end point closest to the thinnest

part of the film (the absolutely brightest highlight on a transparency or film base in the case of a negative - -in either

case the clearest part of the film- to just about five points beyond the clear film value.

 

Do color and tonal corrections, or in the case of negative film tone curve inversion , in your image processing program of

choice,

 

Ideally you also want the film held extremely flat and at the distance the scanning device focuses at.

 

Less than n that you get crappy scans.

[glen_h]

<p>I believe 400NC is the successor to Vericolor, similar to 160NC. It should scan about as well as Kodacolor.<br>

If the film is still in whole rolls, many labs will do it for less than if it is cut into shorter strips. It is a fair amount of labor to position each and such.<br>

If you only scan the ones you are ready to print, it doesn't take all that much time. Or you can do some each day.</p>

[ken_kuzenski]

<p>Whoops, my bad! I was thinking of Kodak 400CN, a B&W C-41 film that was very handy at times. I wanted to mention the time/effort issue: Both of my Epson scanners had negative carriers and slide carriers, and you could load (I think) 12 negs or 6 slides in the 2450, set the settings, and click a button on the computer. The Epson software would scan all the slides or negs automatically. I've scanned hundreds of my father-in-law's slides and my mom's old negatives in automatic mode, with decent results. You may want a manual scan for particularly important shots. I've found that I can let the scanner run in auto mode while I do something else, so it doesn't take much time.</p>

[Dave Luttmann]

Send it to Richard Photo Lab and call it a day.

[JDMvW]

<p>It's not practical nor economically feasible to gear up for scanning for just a handful of negatives.<br>

If you are still shooting film yourself and want to scan lots of future images, then it's worth the trouble, but still a steep learning curve to do it close to right. <br>

Some relatively cheap flatbed scanners like the Canoscan 9000F do an 'OK' job and are usable as flatbed platen scanners as well as for film. Just follow the instructions.</p>