Medium format scanner

[DirkR440]

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Hi all,

 

after I bought my first medium format camera (Rolleiflex) recently I'm now start thinking about a buying a medium format scanner. Until now I've started scanning with a Reflecta RPS 10M and after using that for a while I change to a Nikon Coolscan 5000.

 

It is not so easy to find a Nikon Coolscan 9000 for a reasonable price and I also read that it does have a USB connection. I heard that the Reflecta MF 5000 should be also a good scanner for medium format. I just wonder if anybody here is using it and can share some experiences? Beside that I'm also open for any other suggestions on scanner. Basically I'm searching for a medium format scanner in the price range up to 2k USD that has a very good picture quality and is able to scan a film strip with three 6x6 negatives.

 

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

 

[Photon42]

Hi all,

 

after I bought my first medium format camera (Rolleiflex) recently I'm now start thinking about a buying a medium format scanner. Until now I've started scanning with a Reflecta RPS 10M and after using that for a while I change to a Nikon Coolscan 5000.

 

It is not so easy to find a Nikon Coolscan 9000 for a reasonable price and I also read that it does have a USB connection. I heard that the Reflecta MF 5000 should be also a good scanner for medium format. I just wonder if anybody here is using it and can share some experiences? Beside that I'm also open for any other suggestions on scanner. Basically I'm searching for a medium format scanner in the price range up to 2k USD that has a very good picture quality and is able to scan a film strip with three 6x6 negatives.

 

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Hi Dirk

 

Haven't seen you for a while - maybe we should refresh ....

 

I occasionally use a Nikon 8000 scanner with a Firewire/Fhunderbolt adapter for my Macbook Air. It is not the fastest one, but gets the job done, if the quick mode is avoided (I always get some streak artifacts with the quick mode). Scanning speed for me would be critical today. Maybe I will try scanning the next film with my Olympus and the HiRes mode. Should at least be a proper application for it, as nothing moves during the shot.

 

Cheers

Ivo

ZH

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[vhfreund]

Hi I am using it, however it has a firewire connection, at least I use it with firewire.  There is only one socket on the rear side. The scanner is fine!

 

Best regards Theodor

[gbealnz]

Dirk,

I was happy dipping my toe in the water using a BEOON and and APS camera to "scan" my 35mm, and M/F negs and slides.

 

I progressed to the Plustek 8100 for 35mm and was very happy, but continued with the BEOON for M/F.

 

Recently I found an older Epson scanner 4870, so a flatbed. I had always been skeptical about using them for "scanning", but tried it. I could not be happier, and the M/F (mainly 6x6, but also some smaller and larger) have been exceptional.

 

Perhaps try an older, so cheaper, Epson of some description first?

Gary

[EoinC]

I agree with Gary, Dirk. I have an OpicFilm 120 (currently on a slow boat back to Taiwan for repairs), and like it very much, but don't know that it's any better than a flatbed for what I do (particularly with the state of the old 120 slides I've been scanning of late.

The primary question is what is the end use? If it's for posting on the interwebby, a good flatbed will give you what you want (plus the ability to use it as a document scanner). If it's for printing, scanning is probably not the best pathway, anyway.

[250swb]

I would rule out Nikon scanners for the simple reason they can no longer be serviced, although another reason would be there is a direct alternative plus a 'nearly as good as' alternative.

 

The 'as good' option is the Plustek 120 capable of everything between 35m and 6x12cm, it's a great machine but expensive and if you are only dipping your toe in the water the better option may be the Epson V800 (V700, V750) flatbed. The scan quality isn't as good as the Plustek 120, but it is still good enough for most things. It can scan 35mm through all medium format sizes to 4x5" and 8x10" sheet film. As such it is very versatile, although because of the nature of the diffused light source it doesn't scan 35mm very well. With 120 this isn't a problem and you'll get exhibition quality prints.

 

Before I had a Plustek 120 my setup was split between a Plustek 7400 for 35mm and an Epson V700 for MF and LF, this is a very workable solution because older 'New Old Stock' Plustek 35mm scanners are pretty cheap, only the bundled software tends to change. Now I use the 120 with my V700 which cover the same range of sizes but with slightly better quality and speed.

 

Steve

[chris_livsey]

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Despite the paywall for some reason this in depth review seems still available, a long read and some bias, which review does not carry a warning?

 

https://luminous-landscape.com/epson-v850-pro-scanner-context/

https://luminous-landscape.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-New-Epson-V850-Pro-Scanner-Final.pdf

 

 

Epson V850 V750

Nikon  5000

Sony A6000

Minolta 5400

[Photon42]

How long does the Plustek take for a 6x6 color and BW respectively? Does anyone know?

[EoinC]

How long does the Plustek take for a 6x6 color and BW respectively? Does anyone know?

You can do a preview scan in about 15-20 seconds (which shows a positive inversion of the negative). I usually scan as colour (even for B&W), and. 2-pass scan + IR takes a couple of minutes. You can batch scan 3 frames but, if scanning to RAW DNG, Vuescan will prompt each frame for whether you want to save. JPEG's or TIFF's will save without the requestor. I tend to tutu around on something else (like browsing LUF) whilst scanning.

With Hasselblad 6x6, the framing doesn't quite suit the adjustable carrier frame - I guess Victor didn't take that into consideration when creating his masterpiece.

[gbpost]

How long does the Plustek take for a 6x6 color and BW respectively? Does anyone know?

I used the Plustek 120 with a computer with 8 cores, 24 GByte RAM running Windows 7. Resolution was set to 5300 dpI, 16 Bit High Dynamic Range.

 

The scanning time depends on the software and the orientation of the images. If the images are in Hasselblad or Rollei style, which means that the horizon in the images is perpendicular to the long axis of the film strip, a BW scan takes about 2.5 minutes. If the images are in Mamiya 6 or Mamiya 7 style, which means that the horizon in the images is parallel to the long axis of the film strip, silverfast will turn the images 90 degrees, which takes about 2.5 minutes too. So we have about 5 min with this setting. Remember, a BW scan of a 6x6 is about 250 MBytes big. Vuescan does only mark the image as turned, the orientation does not change the processing speed and it is the same as for Silverfast without turning.

 

For color, the scanning time is the same. But usually you would like to scan an infrared channel (IR) too, so you have two scan passes which double the time. The time for turning the image is a little longer too, so you have about 6 minutes for a Hasselblad style image and about 9 minutes for a Mamiya style image in Silverfast. A color scan of a 6x6 is about 1 GByte in HDRi.

 

If you want to scan slides you may use Multiexposure and have two passes for RGB + a third one for IR, which adds about 4 minutes because the second Multiexposure pass is slower..

 

So the time to scan 3 negatives in BW is about 8 minutes in BW without turning. To scan 3 color negtives with infrared and turning is about 20 minutes.

Edited October 14, 2016 by gbpost

[Photon42]

Your scanning times sound very promising and quite different what is said here for 5300 ppi: http://www.filmscanner.info/en/PlustekOpticFilm120.html. I know your HW configuration is different, though. What ppi did you chose? Any other reason for the differences?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[gbpost]

Your scanning times sound very promising and quite different what is said here for 5300 ppi: http://www.filmscanner.info/en/PlustekOpticFilm120.html. I know your HW configuration is different, though. What ppi did you chose? Any other reason for the differences?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Silverfast needs a lot of RAM, especially when turning the image the 90 degrees. I think the RAM might be one reason.

 

When I "develop" the HDRi files in Silverfast HDR, the process of removing the dust on the basis of the infrared channel used all 8 cores of the computer with about 80% power for about one or two minutes per image. So maybe in the filmscanner review they did not scan to HDRi but directly to a TIFF or JPG with dust removed on a computer with less computing power and less RAM.

 

The ppi was 5300, which seems to be the native resolution of the scan line. This makes about 11000 pixels per direction  or 121 Mpixels.

Edited October 14, 2016 by gbpost

[philipus]

I don't take issue with any of the below except the highlighted part. I know that Ffordes, which is one of a few shops that do not hike up prices on used Coolscans, do have their units serviced as necessary by Nikon prior to sale. Whether spare parts are available is another matter, but if none are needed it is possible to service these scanners.

 

 

I would rule out Nikon scanners for the simple reason they can no longer be serviced, although another reason would be there is a direct alternative plus a 'nearly as good as' alternative.

 

The 'as good' option is the Plustek 120 capable of everything between 35m and 6x12cm, it's a great machine but expensive and if you are only dipping your toe in the water the better option may be the Epson V800 (V700, V750) flatbed. The scan quality isn't as good as the Plustek 120, but it is still good enough for most things. It can scan 35mm through all medium format sizes to 4x5" and 8x10" sheet film. As such it is very versatile, although because of the nature of the diffused light source it doesn't scan 35mm very well. With 120 this isn't a problem and you'll get exhibition quality prints.

 

Before I had a Plustek 120 my setup was split between a Plustek 7400 for 35mm and an Epson V700 for MF and LF, this is a very workable solution because older 'New Old Stock' Plustek 35mm scanners are pretty cheap, only the bundled software tends to change. Now I use the 120 with my V700 which cover the same range of sizes but with slightly better quality and speed.

 

Steve

[250swb]

I don't take issue with any of the below except the highlighted part. I know that Ffordes, which is one of a few shops that do not hike up prices on used Coolscans, do have their units serviced as necessary by Nikon prior to sale. Whether spare parts are available is another matter, but if none are needed it is possible to service these scanners.

 

Dusting out the inside and lubricating the gears isn't my idea of servicing. For the amateur owner Nikon scanners only need servicing when they go mechanically wrong, so a new owner could get lucky and have a machine last forever, or not as the case may be. It is the long standing dominance of Nikon 9000's that fuels the current hype, owners swearing by them without having tried other options, I can think of one particular camera forum that perpetuates this.

[wattsy]

Dusting out the inside and lubricating the gears isn't my idea of servicing.

 

I don't know about Ffordes but Fixation can service (as in repair) most nikon scanners (they currently make an exception for the LS4500).

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