Film Scanners

[kevlightyear]

I'm coming to you guys, because I know you'll come through. . .

I got a Nikon N75 for this past Christmas, and while I absolutely love it, I miss the features of a digital camera in it. I'm looking for a film scanner so I can continue the digital aspect of it all. Unfortunately, I know absolutely nothing about that area. I'm not looking to spend too much--definitely under $1000, but I would still like a decent resolution.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Does anyone have any experience with film scanners? What brands are best?

I'm used to having a 3.2 megapixel digital camera, but I would like to improve at least a little bit.

Thanks in advance for all the help you can give!

 

[PhotoDave219]

DONT - DO NOT - Buy a flatbed with a negative adapter. They have too much noise and lose some major shadow detail.

Polaroid Sprint Scan neg scanners are pretty good, as well as the usual Nikon, Canon crowd. Save the money and get it right the first time.

 

[cloudboy]

What kind of film are you using - positive or negative (slides or print)? Keep in mind that resolution is a lot more important since you will be scaling up. And make sure that the resolution you are lookng at is the actual (optical), not interpreted (which is just software making an educated guess).

If you are just doing snapshots, then realistically the newer flatbeds aren't much worse than the basement model slide and negative scanners. But if you are looking for quality photos, look to resolution. I have had fairly good luck with Cannon and Nikon scanners, although the cannons did have a few problems working with the computer systems and additional flatbed scanners. But I would do a web search for the latest models.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Trust me on this one, a flatbed with a neg scanner adapter just is horrid. Dropping a lil more coin to get something thatt will give you the desired results is the way to go....

 

[NowInc]

Originally posted by PhotoDave219
Trust me on this one, a flatbed with a neg scanner adapter just is horrid. Dropping a lil more coin to get something thatt will give you the desired results is the way to go....

I second that. The adapters are really not worth it. You'll spend tons of time photoshopping, and you STILL wont get a decent result out of it.

 

[kevlightyear]

Originally posted by cloudboy
What kind of film are you using - positive or negative (slides or print)? Keep in mind that resolution is a lot more important since you will be scaling up. And make sure that the resolution you are lookng at is the actual (optical), not interpreted (which is just software making an educated guess).

I guess I wasn't very clear on that--I was looking to scan in my negatives.

Good advice, you guys. I wasn't looking to get an adaptor for a flatbed (we don't even have one of those). From what I've heard from others, spending around $900 is standard. There was one I was reading about--a Nikon--that uses LED lights instead of regular bulbs, which makes sense, because I won't have to replace them. How does that sound? Also, should the loading of the slides make a difference--i.e. tray loaders, or free loaders.

Thanks for all your help so far, everyone!

 

[cloudboy]

How careful are you? Multi-slide holders are great if you want to scan more than a couple of slides at a time, and I think you need one to be able to scan negative if you don't chop them up, but they do have this minor little tendency to break or break the machine when someone accidentally hits it while leaving it sticking out. But if you are doing negatives you probably want tomething that you don't have to chop the negative up into individual frames.

LEDs actually work a little better - the light from an LED is a little more directional, so gives better results.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Originally posted by kevlightyear
I guess I wasn't very clear on that--I was looking to scan in my negatives.

Good advice, you guys.

Nikon CoolScan or CanoScan are available for great quality for around $1000.

 

[cloudboy]

We had the Canoscan 1000 (is that the model?) and it gave great results! The problems we had were that it did not like being hooked up with other devices (we ran ours SCSI), and be careful of the slide holder sticking out - it gets hit as people walk by it., usually sending the thing to the floor or breaking the holder.