Best photo-negative scanner?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-14 02:34am

OK guys, who knows anything about scanners? I want a scanner that will do a good job on 35mm film negatives without breaking the bank. Any suggestions?

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-14 05:46am

The Canon FS-4000 for $900 is supposed to be really good; it specializes in film negatives, but can be used for other stuff too. If you want more of a jack-of-all-trades that's also good at negatives, then I don't know. I'll look into it.

EDIT: You can probably find that one for less than $900; that's just the first price I saw when I checked on it.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2003-01-14 06:58am

*Scanners?

Umm to be honset I'm drawling a blank, never realy used the things

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-14 09:42am

Robert Treder wrote:The Canon FS-4000 for $900 is supposed to be really good; it specializes in film negatives, but can be used for other stuff too. If you want more of a jack-of-all-trades that's also good at negatives, then I don't know. I'll look into it.

EDIT: You can probably find that one for less than $900; that's just the first price I saw when I checked on it.

Just to clarify: this is for home use, so the budget is less generous than it would be for an office application.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-01-14 09:51am

There are several decent scanners for under 150 clams us, and some good ones can be found in the sub-$100 range...

The one I am using is a Memorex 6136.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-01-14 05:00pm

I've heard good things about HP's ScanJet series, particularly their 5490C. It does have a film adapter, but it's only for 35mm (which should be fine for you). I used to have a ScanJet, and I was quite pleased with it, but when I got my most recent scanner, I went with a Canoscan. Canon's another solid choice.
I've never actually scanned film negatives, so I can't say anything about performance in that area.
You'll be able to find pretty much any home-use flatbed scanner for between $70 and $125 USD.
I don't know if they have Fry's Electronics back east, but they'll probably have a decent selection with good prices.

EDIT: Huh. I just found out that Fry's Electronics only exists in California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and Texas. I'm sure The Wiz or Best Buy is comparable.

Next of Kin · Post by **Next of Kin** » 2003-01-14 06:28pm

I know that some people at work bought a Minolta photo negative scanner for around $600. I don't know if that is too rich for your tastes Darth Wong.

Here's a product review for it:

http://www.computingreview.com/pscScann ... 57crx.aspx

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-01-14 07:23pm

Darth Wong wrote:OK guys, who knows anything about scanners? I want a scanner that will do a good job on 35mm film negatives without breaking the bank. Any suggestions?

I had a good experience with my Umax Astra 2200, which had a built-in negative scanner, when I owned it. I'd still have it if Umax hadn't become a bunch of dipshits who screwed a good percentage of their customers with nonexistent support for Mac OS X.

Now, I use an Epson Perfection 1250. I didn't get the photo attachment, so I really can't tell you about its negative scanning capabilities. If you plan on developing your own photos with a consumer scanner, I'd recommend against it unless you don't mind shitty output. You'll end up doing a lot of color correction, and you'll most likely have to scan at an extremely high resolution to get a full 4x6 photo from negatives. Not to mention the huge amounts of dust and shit that will show through much more clearly on a negative than on a regular piece of paper of photo print.

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2003-01-14 07:40pm

I've never done any film scanning nor looked into the technology in detail but, at first glance, scanning film negatives using a conventional flatbed scanner would not seem to be a good idea. Most flatbed scanners have a real resolution of 600x1200dpi; good enough for full-sized pages but unfortunately getting reasonable detail out of 35mm negatives requires 2500dpi or more.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-01-14 10:56pm

At one time I actually knew what I was talking about when it came to scanners. I'm all thumbs now. However, my dad just purchased an Epson Perfection 1660 scanner. It has a holder to scan slides and negatives. I've seen the slide scans and they kick ass. It went for about $179.99 at Circuit Shitty. So, you might want to look into it.

His Divine Shadow · Post by **His Divine Shadow** » 2003-01-15 03:07pm

I've got a HP4500 but I dunno what the heck negative scanning is, but IIRC there's some addon for it that allows you to scan transparent pictures too.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-01-15 03:10pm

His Divine Shadow wrote:I've got a HP4500 but I dunno what the heck negative scanning is, but IIRC there's some addon for it that allows you to scan transparent pictures too.

A negative scanner allows you to scan already developed 35mm negatives.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Best photo-negative scanner?

Best photo-negative scanner?

Re: Best photo-negative scanner?