Photo negatives, slides copier recommendations?

[Johny B Good]

Keep in mind though, a print cannot capture the full contrast ratio of film (Monochrome or colour negative and slide films). You'd be doing well to get a 30:1 contrast ratio out of a glossy print whereas the orginal film typically manages in excess of 100,000:1, maybe as high as a million to 1 contrast ratio.

Extracting all the detail from the negatives or slides is the name of the game. You only resort to scanning from prints when you can't get access to the original negatives or slides. Mind, you do need at least

15 bits per channel to capture the full contrast range (hence, typically, scanners rated with a total combined bit depth of 48 or more).

[John Rumm]

In which case, flatbed is probably going to be the way to go. Dedicated film scanners are good with bulk slides (especially if you have an autofeeder), but not as much use on random sized bits of film or plate.

I found a cardboard box stuffed full of old family negatives, of all different shapes and sizes - and just being able to slap a selection on the bed and grab them made it much easier.

[Mike Clarke]

I'm looking for something similar to replace an ageing Microtek Scanmaster X6. I need something that can can cope with 6x6 film format as well as 35mm. To have both a dedicated slide copier and a flatbed scanner would be far too extravagant for my needs so I'll need to compromise with a flatbed with transparency capabilities, although not as good as a dedicated slide copier a more modern flatbed will be much better than my current 600ppi scanner.

The only reasonable priced ones that I've found so far that can cope with 6x6 transparencies at a reasonable price are the Canon 9000F and Epson V550 but I'm running FreeBSD so need something supported by SANE which rules out Epson V550.

Has anyone here had experience, good or bad, with the Canon 9000F?

[John Rumm]

Some flat bed scanners with the option of doing transparencies have a second focal point option to compensate for that. Mine can focus either on the surface of the glass, or 2.5mm above it.

[John Rumm]

I used to home process colour film in a Jobo processor, but once I had the developed film I scanned rather than printed it in a traditional way.

Although the scanning software will deal with the colour mask on negatives, you can also do it manually in photoshop etc.

[Bill]

In message , Bill writes

After lots of listening to you all and a bit of Googling I settled on an Epson Perfection V750 Pro. I've had it a week now and so far found no problems with it. Basic scanning is very quick, negatives and slides take a little longer. I even put a glass negative, about 1910 vintage through it and considering the deterioration on the plate it came out very well.

The image quality appears very good, so all told I'm a happy bunny. Thanks for all your comments and advice.

[Huge]

I've just spent about 3 minutes (during a very dull meeting) tidying that up with The Gimp. Hopefully your email address works ...

[Bill]

Address worked, I saw the email before the above posting. Thank you.

I have been playing with scanning various negatives and photos, the next thing is trying to tidy them up, scratch and dust removal etc. My current estimate is that I may have finished sometime next centaury.

I have a copy of Photoshop that I was going to use, but also a copy of Gimp on a laptop, although all I ever use it for is creating images from photos for screen savers on some radios. So may give Gimp a try.

I'm glad that I provided you with a distraction during your meeting. :-)

[Huge]

You're most welcome.

[John Rumm]

One trick you may find handy, is that the software usually estimates the exposure required based on the content of the rubber banded box you draw. So if you have a section of very dark or light background around a photo, its better to crop it just out of the scan or it will end up compressing the dynamic range of the scan.