Suggestions For Film Scanners?

~AutumnMayhem2010 Nov 17, 2012

I've been wanting a film scanner for a while now, and now that Christmas is coming up, I think it might be one of the things that I ask for. However, I don't know of any decent models.

I'm looking for something that's under $100. It doesn't have to be fancy, I just need something that's going to last and that scans everything accurately without warping the colors. I'm just tired of having to pay for CD's. I'd rather just pay for processing, scan everything directly to my computer, and use the money that I would have used on a CD on the prints that I actually want.

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Devious Comments

~DRunkCoWBoy69 Nov 28, 2012 Professional Digital Artist

That 2nd link is a edited picture btw, other 2 arent.

~DRunkCoWBoy69 Nov 28, 2012 Professional Digital Artist

i have the Epson V500, love it to death. Have some images uploaded from it if you want to see. 35mm film. I develop my film at a local pharmacy and then scan it myself, its worth it because i could never find a company that would scan it at the resolution I wanted and when I did it was about $30 or so a roll, way to much. The V500 will scan at resolutions higher than you will ever want to use.

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~AutumnMayhem2010 Nov 30, 2012

Thanks for the links!

~nonotmuch Nov 18, 2012 Photographer

While it's out of budget, I second the Plustek recommendation. I have an Opticfilm 7600 (which is a dedicated 35mm scanner), and it works fabulously. It also comes with a free copy of Silverfast, which is essential for scanning in my opinion.

~AutumnMayhem2010 Nov 19, 2012

Thanks for the suggestion. Yeah, it looks a tad bit pricey at a glance...

=Kaltenbrunner Nov 18, 2012

Maybe you could show us any results ?
I'm scanning photographs ( not negs ), with my printer, decent quality in good resolution, what would be the benefits of a film scanner ?
Moreover, the scanners you're talking about have a resolution of 5 mpx, no ?

~photomark Nov 18, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

you are far better of scanning from negatives.

Negatives are the originals where as a print is a copy from that original negative.

When you scan a print you are making a copy from a copy with each generation getting worse.

Where are you getting 5 MP from ?

~phoenix-enigma Nov 18, 2012

Flatbed scanners have the light source and CCD on the same side of whatever you're scanning, and work via reflected light.

This doesn't work for negatives (or slides, for that matter). Those require the light source to be behind the negative and shine through it to the CCD on the other side. This means either a dedicated film scanner (like the PlusTek OpticScans) or a flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter (like many of the the Epson Vxxx series)

In theory you could have everything printed and then scan the prints, but that involves both a potential loss of quality, and making or having made prints for every frame, which has costs in money, storage, and possibly effort.

~photomark Nov 17, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

There realy is not a big choice if you need to scan larger than 35mm and Epson is I think the only choice there as well .

I use an Epson V500 and will soon be upgrading to the V700 for large format .

I find the scan quality to be excellent.

Most of the photos in my gallery are scans from 6x6 medium format on a V500

The V500 with scan up 6 x 12 negs and there is also a V600 that will scan up to 6 x 23 negs or the V700 that will scan 8x10 negs

~AutumnMayhem2010 Nov 19, 2012

Yeah, I don't anticipate scanning anything larger than 35mm any time soon, but I'm questioning whether or not I should make the investment just in case. I'm more interested in film than digital now...

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