Tom R Posted January 30, 2016 Share #1 Posted January 30, 2016 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have several Leica bodies and a fair selection of older lenses, having used Leica cameras since the late 1970's. Recently, I purchased a used M8.2 as I'm thinking that I need to have at least some digital option (didn't have the time or interest to invest in an M9, owing to some chatter I'd heard about sensor corrosion, etc.). Anyway, I thought that this forum would be a good place to pose a question or two about maintaining some capabilities to use film. I am currently living in a setting where in-house processing is difficult, at best---hence, the subject line of this post. I assume that many subscribers have some thoughts about high-quality scanners that I could consider. Printing is less of a problem, as I am seeing fewer requirements for physically large prints, whereas I see more demand for high-quality digital files, etc. Moreover, I've become pretty comfortable with the Capture One software and I do like some of the capabilities that this medium provides, such as spot removal, etc., which was labor intensive when required of silver gelatin prints. I have many books of negatives that have been stored in strips of five or six that I'd like to convert to high-quality digital image files. I mention how they have been cut because this might be relevant to choosing a scanner. I'd like to think that I could scan negatives (mostly black and white, think Tri-X here) with a sufficient quality to equal or exceed the resolution that I currently have with only 10 megapixels. I appreciate any input from the forum as to their experiences with scanners, and which they consider best for the task as I've described it. Tom R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 30, 2016 Posted January 30, 2016 Hi Tom R, Take a look here Scanner Suggestions. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
vanGeist Posted January 30, 2016 Share #2 Posted January 30, 2016 You may check out the reviews here http://www.filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html. Whats's your budget? You can pay a couple of hundret Dollars up to a couple of thousands. What formats do you want to scan? Only 35mm or also 120 film? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Pope Posted January 30, 2016 Share #3 Posted January 30, 2016 I recently bought a Plustek 8200 scanner. I'm very pleased with the results I have had from it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sblitz Posted January 30, 2016 Share #4 Posted January 30, 2016 +1 on plustek. It is currently being made and that puts ahead of older equipment not longer manufactured Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madNbad Posted January 30, 2016 Share #5 Posted January 30, 2016 Another vote for the Plustek. You may be able to find a second hand one from someone who wanted to digitize the family slides. Good luck and welcome to the forum. It's a great place for answers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom R Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share #6 Posted January 30, 2016 You may check out the reviews here http://www.filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html. Whats's your budget? You can pay a couple of hundret Dollars up to a couple of thousands. What formats do you want to scan? Only 35mm or also 120 film? Well, I'd keep it under 1500 dollars (US), if possible. I'm scanning only 35mm films. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted January 31, 2016 Share #7 Posted January 31, 2016 Advertisement (gone after registration) Well, I'd keep it under 1500 dollars (US), if possible. I'm scanning only 35mm films. A Plustek scanner is ideal, good quality and doesn't cost too much. Later if you find making digital contact sheets a chore (the Plustek is cumbersome for doing a whole film of thumbnail pictures) you could perhaps add an Epson V700. The Epson can do 35mm scans anyway, but not even close to the top quality of the Plustek, but for thumbnails and medium format negatives it is brilliant. Remember not to embark on a full scanning regime until you've practiced a lot, and read a lot of guides, and asked a lot of questions. Scanning for the first time is a big learning curve and you don't want to get yourself into the position of 'could've scanned them better' after a few hundred. Good luck. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramesh Posted January 31, 2016 Share #8 Posted January 31, 2016 +1 for Plustek 8200 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_livsey Posted January 31, 2016 Share #9 Posted January 31, 2016 Tom, Whichever scanner, and I am in the Plustek camp, ( the 8100 which is less expensive than the 8200 because it does not have the IR channel which is not used for B/W) but why I have selectively quote you is to question the wisdom of scanning "many books". If you scan one film, a full sheet you are looking at an hours work just to scan without post work. Work that out. Is that how you want to spend your time? You need to sit there as the Plustek is manual feed. Mt advice would be to go through your files and spend that time being ruthless. What do you need to scan, the question is really why. For archive you have a perfectly good set of books of negatives, if you want to print some selects, find them and do a great individual job that's fine, if you want to post to Flickr, forums etc then as you should have found with your M8, good choice BTW, for posting same but for mass scanning go shoot new stuff instead If you still want to scan sheets go for a flatbed, Epson V850, that sets up three strips at a time and works unattended, you can load the next carrier and just swop them out taking in a book while it works. I have many books of negatives that have been stored in strips of five or six that I'd like to convert to high-quality digital image files. I mention how they have been cut because this might be relevant to choosing a scanner. Tom R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB_tx Posted January 31, 2016 Share #10 Posted January 31, 2016 As Chris says, for higher volume scanning the Epson flatbed scanners make sense, although dedicated 35mm film scanners can give higher quality. I use the Epson V700 Photo for my B&W negatives as I process film. It will load 4 six-frame 35mm film strips and scan them automatically. Originally I just planned to use it in place of contact sheets, to pick the ones I wanted to wet-print. Yet the scans are much better than I expected. Color is trickier to scan, as I get tired of all the computer time needed to tweak and adjust. The Epson also comes with 120 film masks, and can scan prints and documents also. It is quite good for digitizing old photos. Of course,it takes up more desk space than a Plustek or similar unit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
indergaard Posted January 31, 2016 Share #11 Posted January 31, 2016 I can't recommend the Plustek Opticfilm 120 enough. Then again, I shoot 35 and 120. It performs excellently on both, and for 35mm it's almost up there with Imacons and drumscans! I would check out the new Plustek Opticfilm 135 if you only want to scan 35mm. It can do batch processing and scanning, unlike the 8100/8200/7xxx series where you have to advance the film manually and scan one frame at a time: http://plustek.com/usa/products/opticfilm-series/opticfilm-135/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_livsey Posted January 31, 2016 Share #12 Posted January 31, 2016 Just to add a little and clarify what Tom says, which is correct: The V8** series I mentioned have a more robust holder that takes 3 strips not the 4 of the V7** series which TomB quotes I have just scanned some legacy colour and had no issues at all BUT they were slides/transparencies. Both Velvia and Kodachrome spot on out of the box (literally) C41 is obviously different and I assume TomB is referring to that sub-species. Kodachrome 64 from 1989 Straight out of Epson Scanner software no further post work done. As Chris says, for higher volume scanning the Epson flatbed scanners make sense, although dedicated 35mm film scanners can give higher quality. I use the Epson V700 Photo for my B&W negatives as I process film. It will load 4 six-frame 35mm film strips and scan them automatically. Originally I just planned to use it in place of contact sheets, to pick the ones I wanted to wet-print. Yet the scans are much better than I expected. Color is trickier to scan, as I get tired of all the computer time needed to tweak and adjust. The Epson also comes with 120 film masks, and can scan prints and documents also. It is quite good for digitizing old photos. Of course,it takes up more desk space than a Plustek or similar unit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom R Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share #13 Posted February 1, 2016 A Plustek scanner is ideal, good quality and doesn't cost too much. Later if you find making digital contact sheets a chore (the Plustek is cumbersome for doing a whole film of thumbnail pictures) you could perhaps add an Epson V700. The Epson can do 35mm scans anyway, but not even close to the top quality of the Plustek, but for thumbnails and medium format negatives it is brilliant. Remember not to embark on a full scanning regime until you've practiced a lot, and read a lot of guides, and asked a lot of questions. Scanning for the first time is a big learning curve and you don't want to get yourself into the position of 'could've scanned them better' after a few hundred. Good luck. Steve From what I am hearing, it's best to select just those negatives that merit inclusion in the current catalog, etc. I already have contact sheets (boxes of them, cross-referenced to the books of negatives), so choosing just the handful of negatives that I need at a given time is reasonable. Having the scanner also makes it possible to continue shooting film (albeit in smaller batches), which is more familiar to me. Thanks to everyone for their timely and cogent suggestions on this. Tom R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobbu2 Posted February 2, 2016 Share #14 Posted February 2, 2016 Another option is a refurbished Pakon F135, a 35mm scanner purchased on eBay from AAA Imaging Solutions for $375 plus shipping with a 90 day warranty. These tabletop scanners used to live in drugstore minilabs and can scan a 36 exposure roll of color or B&W negative film (no transparencies) in five minutes, or can do strips. The quality is great, you can check out the Facebook and Flickr pages with info, forums, and posted photos dedicated to this scanner. I have one and I love it; it's what's kept me shooting 35mm. The downside: the supplied software can only run on Windows XP. There are workarounds for newer operating systems, but I don't know the details as I had an old XP laptop laying around that I could dedicate to it. But there's plenty of info on YouTube describing how it's done. It's definitely worth checking out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted February 2, 2016 Share #15 Posted February 2, 2016 I already have contact sheets (boxes of them, cross-referenced to the books of negatives), so choosing just the handful of negatives that I need at a given time is reasonable. If you don't need contact sheets then all you need is a 35mm Plustek. If you shoot any more film, or want to try medium format, you can reassess things later. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tatetate Posted February 3, 2016 Share #16 Posted February 3, 2016 +1 Plustek 8200 , The only thing i personally dont like is amount of time involved, however results can be great. Lately i have done great re-search on Kodak Pakon 135+ , they are old school kodak mini lab machines and are amazing at producing great results. However sourcing one and parts could be a problem. Joy of this machine is that it can scan entire roll in 4 mins with digital ice on. Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted February 3, 2016 Share #17 Posted February 3, 2016 Just to stress again, digital ICE and an infra red channel in a scanner is pointless if scanning B&W, it can't be used. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadside Posted February 3, 2016 Share #18 Posted February 3, 2016 You can use Irfanview to create a contact sheet from your scans. Irfanview/File/Thumbnails Really easy and free! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
derphilipp Posted February 12, 2016 Share #19 Posted February 12, 2016 definitely a Pakon 135+. It's the only reason why I still shoot color 35mm. I have tried a ton of scanners and this is the first one that's really capable of producing decent results - and that even without much hustle. My entire portfolio is scanned on that machine: http://www.philippwortmann.com/ I think my Istanbul series (http://www.philippwortmann.com/istanbul) and the stuff from the west coast (http://www.philippwortmann.com/southwestcolor) demonstrate very nicely what this thing is capable of PS: Oh and of course it's also pretty awesome at black and white -> http://www.philippwortmann.com/southwestbw ... all Kodak Tri-X with orange filter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tatetate Posted February 13, 2016 Share #20 Posted February 13, 2016 No Wonder your Pakon results are amazing. I have a pakon that is back to use over Plustek, My worry is again the parts if it dies definitely a Pakon 135+. It's the only reason why I still shoot color 35mm. I have tried a ton of scanners and this is the first one that's really capable of producing decent results - and that even without much hustle. My entire portfolio is scanned on that machine: http://www.philippwortmann.com/ I think my Istanbul series (http://www.philippwortmann.com/istanbul) and the stuff from the west coast (http://www.philippwortmann.com/southwestcolor) demonstrate very nicely what this thing is capable of PS: Oh and of course it's also pretty awesome at black and white -> http://www.philippwortmann.com/southwestbw ... all Kodak Tri-X with orange filter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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