Can anyone recommend a *film* scanner?

curtw · 05-06-2011, 05:08 PM

Not looking to scan my books--I've got lots of old still film I'd like to digitize. I see a couple of models on Amazon for under $100 that get thumbs-up for slides, but I have B&W/Color negatives. Any suggestions?

dwig · 05-06-2011, 05:46 PM

Espon's line of flat bed scanners that are designed for film would be my recommendation. I use a v700 which is excellent. The less expensive v600 might be fine, though.

The reason I recommend these for someone in your position is that they handle formats other than 35mm. The v700 handles 35mm, 120 (6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 & 6x9), 4x5 and 8x10 "out of the box". With a little ingenuity, you can also scan 110, 126, & 127 (common amateur formats) in addition to a number of older & larger roll film formats (116, 616, 00, ...). The less expensive v500/600 scanners (out of the box 35mm & 120) are limited to the 120 formats at the largest, but can still be used, with home-made masks, for 110, 126 & 127.

Witchbaby · 05-06-2011, 10:56 PM

I use the Epson 700 too. It works really well!

GlenBarrington · 05-07-2011, 07:54 AM

at the advanced amateur market have gone away. All that's left are the simpler ones that produce scanned images of 5 megapixels or less, and pro quality devices of great cost and don't produce much more than 5 megapixels themselves but have great features for bulk scanning and fine control over output.

That being said, 5 megapixels is plenty if you don't intend to enlarge a photo to the size of a barn. You will still be able to see film grain in the scanned images if you enlarge the image to a big enough size (depending on original negative size, of course). So the original 'grainyness' of a photo will also limit your ability to enlarge the scanned photo.

For snapshots, most any scanner will work, they will produce an image that will allow you to do all the things you could do otherwise with snapshot photos. For more 'serious' photography, I wouldn't buy a flatbed scanner that can do film if it produced an image of less than 3 megapixels.

If you won't be scanning on a regular basis, but have a specific, but modest amount of negatives to scan (say Less than 1000-2000 negatives), you might get better results by having a photolab do them for you. It's kind of a skill to do excellent scanning, and if you are a perfectionist, you might be happier faster by having a pro do it. It might be cheaper than buying a higher quality scanner too.

Hope this backgrond info helps.

jbcohen · 05-07-2011, 08:03 AM

Personally I would look at PC Magazine and PC World as the get paid to test these sorts of things and give an unbiased opinion.

05-06-2011, 05:08 PM	#1
curtw Outside of a dog Posts: 871 Karma: 4457646 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston, TX Device: Kindle Voyage	*Can anyone recommend a film* scanner? Not looking to scan my books--I've got lots of old still film I'd like to digitize. I see a couple of models on Amazon for under $100 that get thumbs-up for slides, but I have B&W/Color negatives**. Any suggestions?

05-07-2011, 07:54 AM	#4
GlenBarrington Cheese Whiz Posts: 1,986 Karma: 11677147 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Springfield, Illinois Device: Kindle PW, Samsung Tab A 10.1(2019), Pixel 6a.	Most of the scanners aimed. . . at the advanced amateur market have gone away. All that's left are the simpler ones that produce scanned images of 5 megapixels or less, and pro quality devices of great cost and don't produce much more than 5 megapixels themselves but have great features for bulk scanning and fine control over output. That being said, 5 megapixels is plenty if you don't intend to enlarge a photo to the size of a barn. You will still be able to see film grain in the scanned images if you enlarge the image to a big enough size (depending on original negative size, of course). So the original 'grainyness' of a photo will also limit your ability to enlarge the scanned photo. For snapshots, most any scanner will work, they will produce an image that will allow you to do all the things you could do otherwise with snapshot photos. For more 'serious' photography, I wouldn't buy a flatbed scanner that can do film if it produced an image of less than 3 megapixels. If you won't be scanning on a regular basis, but have a specific, but modest amount of negatives to scan (say Less than 1000-2000 negatives), you might get better results by having a photolab do them for you. It's kind of a skill to do excellent scanning, and if you are a perfectionist, you might be happier faster by having a pro do it. It might be cheaper than buying a higher quality scanner too. Hope this backgrond info helps.

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05-06-2011, 05:46 PM	#2
dwig Wizard Posts: 1,613 Karma: 6718541 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Paradise (Key West, FL) Device: Current:Surface Go & Kindle 3 - Retired: DellV8p, Clie UX50, ...	Espon's line of flat bed scanners that are designed for film would be my recommendation. I use a v700 which is excellent. The less expensive v600 might be fine, though. The reason I recommend these for someone in your position is that they handle formats other than 35mm. The v700 handles 35mm, 120 (6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 & 6x9), 4x5 and 8x10 "out of the box". With a little ingenuity, you can also scan 110, 126, & 127 (common amateur formats) in addition to a number of older & larger roll film formats (116, 616, 00, ...). The less expensive v500/600 scanners (out of the box 35mm & 120) are limited to the 120 formats at the largest, but can still be used, with home-made masks, for 110, 126 & 127.

05-06-2011, 10:56 PM	#3
Witchbaby Connoisseur Posts: 64 Karma: 1044 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: San Diego Device: Kindle2	I use the Epson 700 too. It works really well!

05-07-2011, 08:03 AM	#5
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	Personally I would look at PC Magazine and PC World as the get paid to test these sorts of things and give an unbiased opinion.

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