What 35mm film scanner to buy?

[MikeMyers]

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I now have a new M8.2 in addition to my old M2 and M3 bodies, and after seeing how much I enjoy shooting RF again, I'm thinking of dusting off my old bodies and once again shooting film. However, all my darkroom gear is long gone, and I have no desire to get back into that.

 

The obvious option is to shoot film and scan the negatives. I've been told that many photo processors will return my developed film along with a DVD of the images, but the one example of this that I examined just didn't look "sharp". My definition of "sharp" is whether or not you can clearly see the film grain. If so, great. If not, move on.

 

 

I guess I have two questions. First, how "good" a scanner would I need to equal the capability of a M8 or M9? I've found advertisements for lots of different scanners, but I want to spend well under $1000, not way over that.

 

Second, do any of you have 35mm only scanners, that you would recommend? I don't really need "high speed", and I certainly don't need the ability to scan larger film sizes. Any advice would be welcome.

[Bo_Lorentzen]

Hello Mike,

 

That is a pretty big question, but the answer is very quickly becoming shorter as more and more film scanners disappear from the market.

 

I tried the film-processer to scan path but was not particularly impressed and ended up with a Nikon CoolScan, they are off the market I think, but can still be found second hand. the cool-scan did way better than the service processor. check my side by side of some of those at BoPhoto.com: Scanning - its in the details

 

The cool scan swallows a full roll of film in one gulp and deliver 36 high-rez scans in roughly 1 hour 15 minutes depending how dense I shoot the negatives.

 

if you are ok with a more relaxed pace, the Epson 700 series deliver very nice scans for a fladbed with negative scanning.

 

Hope this helps. Im sure others have loads of more knowledge than me, but I figured this is one datapoint at least.

 

.

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[nhabedi]

I agree with what Bo said. Some good info about the Epson scanner can be found here:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/film-forum/106188-any-reviews-comments-epson-perfection-v700.html

[stunsworth]

The cool scan swallows a full roll of film in one gulp...

 

Just to clarify what Bo said. The Nikon Coolscan V cannot take more that 6 frames at any one time in a single film strip. The Nikon Coolscan 5000 can take a whole roll of film, but only if you purchase the optional adaptor. As shipped as standard it can take a maximum of 6 frames on a single film strip.

 

I have the Coolscan V and it's excellent, I imagine the 5000 is better due to its increased dynamic range.

 

Regarding mounted slides, on the Coolscan V each slide has to be inserted individually. I imagine the 5000 as shipped is the same, though that scanner has the option of a bulk feeder to enable a whole roll of mounted slides to be scanned as a single batch.

[marcusperkins]

There is (or was) a roll feeder for the Nikon 35mm scanner, but that scanner has now been discontinued, although you may find old stock as new, and there are used versions floating around. Nikon now only make the multi-format Coolscan 9000.

 

 

There appears to be little commitment on the part of Nikon to develop another scanner, although I hope I'm wrong.

 

There must be a market for a decent modern scanner which can deal with curved film and black and white. Most of what's good and available now was developed in 2001. It still does the job, but it's all getting a little dated, and is painfully slow when a maximum quality scan is required.

[earleygallery]

I've got an older Epson the 4870 and I'm pleased with the quality of scans I get from it, perfectly good up to A4 and the few A3's I've done with it look fine too. I've had problems with some colour films, but I'm not sure if that's down to the film, the software or just me!

 

It's probably a bit more dust prone than a film only scanner and ultimate quality would be better with a film scanner, but I also shoot MF and it copes very well with that too. For you budget I don't think you can go too far wrong.

 

The other option is a s/h scanner. Minolta produced some well respected models, and of course the Nikons are highly regarded.

 

It seems odd that the scanner market is now so small. I wonder, with the amount of people who still choose to shoot film, especially as they seem to be the more serious and discerning photographers (I mean as opposed to happy snappers, not versus digital before anyone starts!) if the manufacturers will re-think their strategy and we'll see some new models coming onto the market in the near future?

[MPJMP]

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I've got the Nikon Coolscan V and have been pleased with it, but as others said it has been discontinued. I often think about this topic as I still shoot film and wonder what I would do if my Coolscan ever broke down. As far as what is currently available for less than $1000, it sounds like an Epson flatbed is the way to go. Several years ago I tried the Epson 4870 model and it was painfully slow-- maybe 10 minutes or longer per frame for a full-res scan with Digital ICE enabled (a must for film scanning, IMO, or else be prepared to spend forever in Photoshop spotting your scans). Hopefully the current crop of Epson V700 series scanners is faster.

 

-Mike

[earleygallery]

Several years ago I tried the Epson 4870 model and it was painfully slow-- maybe 10 minutes or longer per frame for a full-res scan with Digital ICE enabled (a must for film scanning, IMO, or else be prepared to spend forever in Photoshop spotting your scans). Hopefully the current crop of Epson V700 series scanners is faster.

 

-Mike

 

My 4870 isn't that slow, it's not what I'd call fast but high res scans take a few minutes each on average. I just load it up, hit the button and do something else until it's finished.

 

ICE doesn't work on traditional B&W films, but there is a 'dust removal' option also. I think it just blurs the image slightly so I don't bother with it unless I'm just scanning for web.

[Adrian Lord]

I have the Coolscan V which I find excellent, especially for B & W.

 

The slowness doesn't bother me - if I wanted instant images I d be shooting digital!

 

The Flickr shows some results, compressed of course.

[Bo_Lorentzen]

The CoolScan 4000 and 5000 both can do roll scans, there is a link in the above blog post to a hack, basically inserting a piece of wire into the backside plug which will let it do full rolls rather than the 6 frame it is born with.

 

.

[MPJMP]

My 4870 isn't that slow, it's not what I'd call fast but high res scans take a few minutes each on average. I just load it up, hit the button and do something else until it's finished.

 

ICE doesn't work on traditional B&W films, but there is a 'dust removal' option also. I think it just blurs the image slightly so I don't bother with it unless I'm just scanning for web.

 

James,

Not sure why my 4870 was so excruciatingly slow. Seriously, it would take 40-45 minutes to scan a strip of 4 color negatives. The same strip on my Nikon takes less than 10, and that's with ICE enabled. Perhaps it was a hardware/software incompatibility (that was back when I ran a PC with Windows XP, I'm on a Mac now).

 

For traditional B&W I just go under the assumption that I will have to spot in PS. It's often worth the effort for the final result, though.

 

-Mike

[andybarton]

I wish I'd learned about the hack to the SA21 years ago

[MartinEB]

I bought a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 a bit over a year ago. (My plan was to go digital in stages, but that is another story.) I have been very pleased with it and use it at its slowest setting to maximise quality (I can wait. The ICE function is particularly useful and effective). A word of warning - whatever you get you need to check that the scanner software is supported on your PC/Mac - e.g. I am not sure that software updates are available for the 5000 to go with the latest operating systems. My 5000 works OK with my iMac running Leopard OS - I don't know about Snow Leopard, but am doubtful. Also, I don't think it works with Vista, let alone 7. Others may know more/better.

[Adrian Lord]

I bought a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 a bit over a year ago. (My plan was to go digital in stages, but that is another story.) I have been very pleased with it and use it at its slowest setting to maximise quality (I can wait. The ICE function is particularly useful and effective). A word of warning - whatever you get you need to check that the scanner software is supported on your PC/Mac - e.g. I am not sure that software updates are available for the 5000 to go with the latest operating systems. My 5000 works OK with my iMac running Leopard OS - I don't know about Snow Leopard, but am doubtful. Also, I don't think it works with Vista, let alone 7. Others may know more/better.

 

Coolscan V works with Vista, don't know about Win 7 though.

[stunsworth]

My 5000 works OK with my iMac running Leopard OS - I don't know about Snow Leopard, but am doubtfu

 

There are several of us that use Vuescan - VueScan Scanning Software - I've used Vuescan from around 2000. I think I bought my first Nikon scanner in 1999 - a Coolscan III. Shortly after that someone recommended Vuescan and I've been using it ever since - I've never bothered to load or use the Nikon software since then.

 

I've found Vuescan to be cheap and feature rich - the interface is a bit of a challenge at first, but it's difficult to see how so much functionality could be included in a simple interface. As I say I've been using it for 10 years or so, and after the initial purchase every subsequent upgrade has been free - and the same serial number works on all platforms.

[cocker]

A word of warning - whatever you get you need to check that the scanner software is supported on your PC/Mac - e.g. I am not sure that software updates are available for the 5000 to go with the latest operating systems. My 5000 works OK with my iMac running Leopard OS - I don't know about Snow Leopard, but am doubtful. Also, I don't think it works with Vista, let alone 7. Others may know more/better.

 

Nikonscan runs under Snow Leopard as does Vuescan and Silverfast.

[holmes]

OK, I'll jump in with my impressions of scanners. I laid out a bundle for a couple of Micron scanners. One was strictly film, noisy and rather slow. Without telling anyone they decided to get out of the general photo field and now only are found in the medical field. So much for updates, firmware. I had purchased a flat bed scanner that would do a lousy job with photos but fine for print material. So I didn't scan for a couple of years. Then I said that they have to be good(great) scanners by the major players, Canon, Nikon. I went looking and comparing and wound up with a Canon CanoScan8800F. This is a flat bed film scanner: 35mm, mounted, negatives, in prints, in strips. Also medium format color or B &W in strips or prints, negatives. I was given to understand it will also 4x5. That I'll never know as I don't shoot 4x5, but I do shoot 6x4.5, 6x6 and 6x7. I just received my first test roll of B&W 35mm from A&I in 4x6 prints. A&I did their usual great job except for several of my plain mistakes. Now I've just finished scanning in two of the 4x6 prints into my Mac then printed them on 8.5x11 paper. I'm impressed, I used one of my two R6.2s( just serviced in Wisconsin) and my R 35-70 f 4. Puts has some very excellent comments about that zoom. Well I see that I far exceeded what the question was: which scanner to buy. I can only answer the CanoScan8800F.

[cidereye]

Hello Mike,

 

That is a pretty big question, but the answer is very quickly becoming shorter as more and more film scanners disappear from the market.

 

I tried the film-processer to scan path but was not particularly impressed and ended up with a Nikon CoolScan, they are off the market I think, but can still be found second hand. the cool-scan did way better than the service processor. check my side by side of some of those at BoPhoto.com: Scanning - its in the details

 

The cool scan swallows a full roll of film in one gulp and deliver 36 high-rez scans in roughly 1 hour 15 minutes depending how dense I shoot the negatives.

 

if you are ok with a more relaxed pace, the Epson 700 series deliver very nice scans for a fladbed with negative scanning.

 

Hope this helps. Im sure others have loads of more knowledge than me, but I figured this is one datapoint at least.

 

.

 

As said, the big problem is really lack of choice in 2009 when it comes to new deicated film scanners. As good as some of the old Minolta's & older Nikon's were/are I doubt many would work with the latest O/S - I don't think a lot of the Minolta's even worked with XP never mind 7 though (can't speak for Mac use mind) using software such as VueScan instead should solve that problem for many units apart from the SSCSI ones I should wager.

 

I did use the PlusTek 7200i 35mm scanner for a while but soon found it's limitations and was then left with the same dilemma so plumped for the Epson V700 Pro as suggested in this post - Overall I'm very happy with it and it scans pretty quickly I think but getting the colour balance and real look right for Fuji Velvia for instance has been a big pain for me .... so much so that I've started using Kodak Ektar C41 instead which scans beautifully. So all in all a big thumbs up for the Epson V700 Pro.

[Bo_Lorentzen]

Holmes,

 

Did I understand you right..? you print to 4x6 from the 35mm neg/positive and then scan the 4x6 for further printing to 8x10.?

 

.

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[holmes]

Bo,

I don't do any wet lab work anymore. I may have given the false impression of my flow system. I do my thing as a photographer. It's either 35mm or 120 MF. I send the exposed roll(s) off to A & I in Hollywood CA. Then they send me back whatever I had requested. Negative, positive filmstrips, mounted chromes, 6x4 prints either color positive or B&W. The same holds true for any contact sheets requested are also available. That covers the film processing. I just received on Saturday a package from A&I of a series of 24 B&W 4x6 prints. I picked out (subjectively) the 4x6 prints I wanted to scan into my Mac. Using my new Canon CanoSCan8800F and the included some good software scanned both prints in less than a minute each. From the Mac to the Canon Pro 9000 printer I had 8x10 B&W prints of the original 4x6 prints developed by A&I.

I've posted both on my Leica gallery album under my name Dave Olson.