Advice on 35mm film digitisation

[billtils]

A few weeks ago I posted an image of my 50-year-old Canon AE-1. The time has come to stop looking and start using!

Step 1 was to insert a new battery and check out the various function and all looks to be well.

Step 2 is where I need help please! What are my options for digitising the images captured on the film? Have them scanned from negatives (B&W and colour) or have them printed and then scan?

Thanks in advance for all your help - I know I could have simply searched on the web, but I'll have much more confidence in advice from CIC members.

[Mike Buckley]

Another question to ask is whether to scan from positives (slides)?

[billtils]

Another question to ask is whether to scan from positives (slides)?

Yep, that should have been included.

[tao2]

Scan fae slides/negatives not prints. Do ye have yer own scanner, Bill? If so, ah often use the colour negative setting on B+W negs, gives ye more tonal range fae the start.

[billtils]

Thanks Boab.

I have a two scanners but the hi-res one is a flat bed and the one that scans slides is low-res ... Thought I'd use a pro print shop for the first few goes until I see if this is just going to be a fun trip down memory lane or something more serious.

Although the OP says I have more confidence in advice from here than from the wilds of the web, I did look there and found several places that recommend doing it with a digital camera, macro lens, and stitching software - I'll give that a go too.

[Donald]

If so, ah often use the colour negative setting on B+W negs, gives ye more tonal range fae the start.

What scanner is that with, Boab.

[JohnRostron]

I use a Nikon LS50/Coolscan V scanner. I think that this is no longer made, but is on sale around £800-£1000. The Plustek OpticFilm8100 seems to be a well-reviewed current scanner at around £220.

I use Silverfast for software, which scans at 3555 by 5252 pixels from a 35mm slide. I find the Silverfast/Nikon combination very effective and convenient. You can also scan with VueScan.

John

[billtils]

Thanks John. I saw that the Plustek had received good reviews on the Wex site, with some interesting comments on Silverfast (very good once you get it set up ...).

[xpatUSA]

I bought a Canon Pixma MG8120 swayed by the prospect of scanning 35mm color negatives from a Praktica MTL3/Zeiss 50mm f/1.8 Pancolar.

See here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRIN...MG8120.HTM#spe

(scroll down to scanner specs).

Here's one from long-ago Canukistan:



Image is as-scanned with no post-processing other than conversion to JPEG from BMP. No idea what film I used or ASA, sorry.

The snap is for information, not C&C.

[pnodrog]

I have an Epson V700 flat bed scanner and before that a Canon 2710? film scanner. I far prefer the flat bed scanner as I can scan several film strips at once and also different film sizes.

Scanning from slides/transparencies seems to work best. Colour negative film has different colour base depending on manufacturer etc and needs to be adjusted for.

[Geoff F]

Yes, different makes of film had their own colour preferences so a bit of colour balancing is required. I try to get it reasonably correct with the scanning software Curves/Levels adjustment before the final scan.

There is a bit of a steep learning curve with scanning negatives/slides but nothing overly complicated.

I have the Epson V800 scanner which easily does all sizes from 35 mm to medium format.

On occasions I have sandwiched slides between two pieces of card with a suitable size slot cut out and held vertically then placed a daylight quality lamp behind the slide so I could photograph the slides instead of scanning.

[loosecanon]

I use a canon 9000f II. At about £160 good value, gives good scans athigh resolution. I found cheaper/mid range Epson scanners had limited depth of field so not so good for mounted slides. I am very pleased with the monochrome scans of film, such as Pan F which is a very contrasty film (the way I developedd it).

Why not go the whole way and develop your own film - with black and white film you will be able to get the full quality from the film, often commerciall development is "safe" to give more latitude rather than exploit the tonality of the film, the very thing which film its individual quality.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Bill - I see you have a D750 and a Tamron 90 macro lens listed in your sig.
I'd suggest giving those a try to see what you can come up with.
I did a makeshift type of arrangement with my D7000 and an old Micro Nikkor lens and got pretty good results. I've since updated my 'system' so I can make use of my A7ii w/Micro Nikkor 55 2.8 lens and a Nikon slide copy attachment I picked up off of the Goodwill auction site. Haven't done much with it yet, but I did get one really good reproduction of a slide from 1974 that let me know when I do finally get around to spending some serious time on it, I'll be happy with the results.

[george013]

Bill - I see you have a D750 and a Tamron 90 macro lens listed in your sig.
I'd suggest giving those a try to see what you can come up with.
I did a makeshift type of arrangement with my D7000 and an old Micro Nikkor lens and got pretty good results. I've since updated my 'system' so I can make use of my A7ii w/Micro Nikkor 55 2.8 lens and a Nikon slide copy attachment I picked up off of the Goodwill auction site. Haven't done much with it yet, but I did get one really good reproduction of a slide from 1974 that let me know when I do finally get around to spending some serious time on it, I'll be happy with the results.

In your image you use flat filmstrip. Is it possible to use it for framed positives too?

George

[billtils]

Bill - I see you have a D750 and a Tamron 90 macro lens listed in your sig.
I'd suggest giving those a try to see what you can come up with.
I did a makeshift type of arrangement with my D7000 and an old Micro Nikkor lens and got pretty good results. I've since updated my 'system' so I can make use of my A7ii w/Micro Nikkor 55 2.8 lens and a Nikon slide copy attachment I picked up off of the Goodwill auction site. Haven't done much with it yet, but I did get one really good reproduction of a slide from 1974 that let me know when I do finally get around to spending some serious time on it, I'll be happy with the results.

Thanks for that idea Alan - I hadn't thought about using a slide copier. BTW, you say you hooked it up to your D7000 but the body in the image says SONY.

[billtils]

Film ordered. Will get the digitising done by a pro shop to give me a baseline, then have a play with the D750 and Tamron macro as suggested by Alan.

Thanks to all who have contributed - much appreciated.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

-013 - Yes, it works very well with slides.

Bill - That is my 'updated' setup. My original one with the D7000 involved a tripod, laptop, and piece of sewer pipe pvc. It was very crude compared to what I have now, but it worked! I'm not sure (can't remember actually) if the D7000 fits this rig or not. The Sony offers better resolution so I'm not too worried about it not working with it.

[billtils]

I have started the PP part of the journey by using the D750 and Tamron combo to capture a couple of shots from a strip of colour negatives. There's a long was to go yet and they ended up in the deleted images bin. However, converting from colour negative to positive by inverting the black and white points in Levels was fun, and I tried it out on a landscape:




You can see the original here.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Have fun!

[pendennis]

If I can jump in:

I bought an Epson V850 several months ago, when I decided to digitize my multi-format slides and negatives. I've tried several scanning software packages , and I've also purchased a custom 120 film scanning frame. While a drum scanner would be preferred, the Epson does a very credible job, especially with the medium and large formats.

After having a roll of 120 transparency film developed and scanned, I calculated that the savings on the scanner would far offset the cost of developing and scanning.