What's the best film scanner for U/W work?

[alexeames]

I recently bought a cheap film scanner, which worked fine for transparencies, but when I tried to scan fuji superia iso 100 negatives, the results were BAD. (worse than taking a macro shot of the printed photo using my digital camera)

Obviously with trannies, the scanner just scans what is there. But with negs, it has to "translate" the colors. So the optics were OK on this scanner, but the software filter for negative to postive was too hard to use.

I tried fiddling with the settings for about 4 hours and then took the damned thing back to the shop for a refund.

Which film scanner do people recommend for U/W work with negatives? I'm talking about something that would be easy to find the right settings on within a few minutes for each shot.

I've looked at the Minolta DIMAGE SCAN DUAL 2 FILM SCANNER, but it seems quite expensive.

 

[Scubaroo]

I had a similar question in this thread. Never got around to buying anything - still using ordinary negative film for now.

 

[vlada]

It came with the Adobe Photoshop 5.0 - love both the scanner and the software - never tried the negatives though. For negatives, my local photostore is hard to beat - they scan them at 300 dpi and put on CD forvery little money - i can later play with them in Adobe Photoshop.

On DIMAGE i can scan slides at the max resolution (results in the 31 meg file) and print them in any size i want. Full letter size (11x8.5) is all that my printer would allow, but the results are better than i would have got in a local photostore, 'cause this way i control the output.

DIMAGE lets you to adjust the scan settings before you scan using the index scan, but you better have a lot of RAM on your PC if you are working with max resulution files. What i do is scan the slide with max resulution without adjustments and then play with pics in Photoshop.



You can see the results in my Webshots album (Carib Explorer 1) - that's scanned at home from slide anf saves at much lower resolution

webshots album

 

[alexeames]

Thanks for replies guys

I assumed that it was because I bought a cheap scanner that I had problems with negs.

Has anyone actually used the Minolta
DIMAGE SCAN DUAL 2 FILM SCANNER with negs? (either U/W or not)

If it's a common problem to scan negs and get the settings right, which software makes it easiest?

I wanted it for web use. I was under the impression that scanning negs with a film scanner would give better pics than scanning prints with a flatbed.

In the end I got a nice quick result by using my Fuji Finepix 1400 to photograph the prints. Oddly enough, this was better than scanning the prints, or the negs.

Perhaps I'll just stick to that method

 

[Zept]

to your question, but... I have a Nikon CoolScan IV ED film scanner. I use it to scan negatives since I prefer to work with print film. No problems with the colour translation, which the scanner software does automatically. Results are much better than I get by scanning prints on my flatbed (which is old, so no surprises there).

I don't take pictures underwater -- don't have either the equipment or the desire at the moment -- but I haven't had any problems scanning pictures with lots of blue sky.


Zept

 

[scorpiofish]

A nice drum scanner. There is a scaled down version by Imacon that does 5760dpi for a measely $8500.

For home use, I have a Nikon Coolscan 4000. It works pretty well for both slide and negatives, but you must use the negative holder to achieve good results. It's probably the best out there right now.

It's not perfect. The more sophisticated the scanner, the more options you have. Scanning film is not a one setting fits all type of proposition. I fiddle with all the curves for each slide in order to get the best scan for each slide. I still get frustrated sometimes.

This model runs about $1550. The Cooscan IV runs about $850 for 2900dpi.

The Dimage Scan Elite II is also a contender at $660 for 2820dpit, but with the ability to scan at 16 bits vs. Coolscan 4000 at 8 bits.

 

[diveaway]

If you on a budget, consider the Epson Perfection 1650 Photo. It comes with built in slide/neg scanning and has a pretty decent quality, especially if you 'work' the pictures with photoshop or Adobe. Getting good results is not to hard and the conversion logic for negs seems to work pretty well (same colors as negative print outs)

I spent 170 bucks at Circuit City and I'm pretty excited about the results ... :money:

Ray

 

[vlada]

I just used my Minolta Dimage to scan negatives for the first time. Funny enough i had both underwater and topside on the same film (beautiful sunset when we were getting out of water).

The scan quality is amazing - if i scan at max resolution (2880 dpi) - i can print the letter size sheets.

COmparing scanning slides and hegs - negs actually scanned beter and did not need too many adjustments.

2 pics attached were scanned from neg and re-saved at the lower resolution. Macro is from lake SImcoe in Ontario, Canada

 

[vlada]

picture

 

[Zugzug]

I'd like to also recommend the Nikon Coolscan IV ED. Its a nice unit, gives very good results. I've been using it since it came out. Personally, I just wish the unit used USB2.0 instead of firewire.

On the flip side if you have a problem and need tech support good luck. When I first installed the unit I had some issues with a grainy effect (due to some simple settings in the software). I called tech support and they pretty much told me to snail mail them the photos I was having a problem with and they would compare them to what I was getting and see if they could reproduce the problem. We are talking weeks here to solve a problem...gezzz....Pretty lame. I just said screw it and starting testing every setting under the sun. I was able through trial and error finally figure out the problem. No thanks to Nikon tech support.

For quick cheap results I've got the HP Photosmart 20 film slide scanner also. Its limited on quality, but if you are just doing web stuff and don't need high quality results, its good for the money.