Recommendation on negative scanner

[aesop]

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     ...apart from flat-bed scanners, are there any competent medium format film scanners on the market?

[dimm]

8 minutes ago, aesop said:

     ...apart from flat-bed scanners, are there any competent medium format film scanners on the market?

Like was said here - Plustek OpticFilm 120. If you are ready for the slow workflow and able to pay $2000+ for that scanner. It was discontinued and last time I saw it only on eBay.

[aesop]

1 minute ago, dimm said:

Like was said here - Plustek OpticFilm 120. If you are ready for the slow workflow and able to pay $2000+ for that scanner. It was discontinued and last time I saw it only on eBay.

 

            ...discontinued? That'll be a quick "no, thanks".

[dimm]

2 minutes ago, aesop said:

 

            ...discontinued? That'll be a quick "no, thanks".

yep. They had two versions of this scanner: OpticFilm 120 and OpticFilm 120 Pro. I bought first version, because second one, according to many angry reviewers was prone to banding. Anyway, now both versions are discontinued and Plustek sells some kind of consumer automatic scanner for 35mm

[Lord Wilmore]

On 8/18/2022 at 1:09 PM, dimm said:

yep. They had two versions of this scanner: OpticFilm 120 and OpticFilm 120 Pro. I bought first version, because second one, according to many angry reviewers was prone to banding. Anyway, now both versions are discontinued and Plustek sells some kind of consumer automatic scanner for 35mm

Thanks for all the insightful feedback. 

I ended up buying a Noritsu 1800. It covers my 35 and 120 needs perfectly. I scan each roll of film in about 40 seconds. 

[dimm]

19 minutes ago, Lord Wilmore said:

Thanks for all the insightful feedback. 

I ended up buying a Noritsu 1800. It covers my 35 and 120 needs perfectly. I scan each roll of film in about 40 seconds. 

Wow! That's quite impressive! They are only for Windows, aren't they?

[jakontil]

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4 hours ago, Lord Wilmore said:

Thanks for all the insightful feedback. 

I ended up buying a Noritsu 1800. It covers my 35 and 120 needs perfectly. I scan each roll of film in about 40 seconds. 

Are the noritsu quite serviceable? 
sooo interested with this… sticking my 120 with flatbed which do decent job, but still tinkering my 135 with either DSLR scan or plustek 

dslr scan might be quick but i found plustek 8200 more consistent and pleasing with the end results 

[Lord Wilmore]

On 10/13/2022 at 11:51 PM, dimm said:

Wow! That's quite impressive! They are only for Windows, aren't they?

Yes. 
bought a dedicated widows PC with it. Has to run on windows XP so they’re quite cheap. 

[Lord Wilmore]

20 hours ago, jakontil said:

Are the noritsu quite serviceable? 
sooo interested with this… sticking my 120 with flatbed which do decent job, but still tinkering my 135 with either DSLR scan or plustek 

dslr scan might be quick but i found plustek 8200 more consistent and pleasing with the end results 

I suppose it depends on the area where you live but where I am I managed to get in touch with an experience technician for service. It’s definitely not a diy kind of repair device. But with more and more labs opening everywhere, there should be more demands for techs. 
that’s how I found mine. I called my local lab and asked them who does their repairs. Most labs use Noritsu now.

 

by the way, I have a Plustek before. The Noritsu makes it look like total garbage. I don’t know how I used to satisfy myself with the results of the 8200. It adds the digital world into the film image. 
 

If the Noritsu is out of your budget, I also got a Pakon 135 before the Noritsu and the results are so lovely. 
It scans the entire roll on it’s own. Slower than the Noritsu, but huge upgrade nonetheless from the optek. 

[jakontil]

2 hours ago, Lord Wilmore said:

I suppose it depends on the area where you live but where I am I managed to get in touch with an experience technician for service. It’s definitely not a diy kind of repair device. But with more and more labs opening everywhere, there should be more demands for techs. 
that’s how I found mine. I called my local lab and asked them who does their repairs. Most labs use Noritsu now.

 

by the way, I have a Plustek before. The Noritsu makes it look like total garbage. I don’t know how I used to satisfy myself with the results of the 8200. It adds the digital world into the film image. 
 

If the Noritsu is out of your budget, I also got a Pakon 135 before the Noritsu and the results are so lovely. 
It scans the entire roll on it’s own. Slower than the Noritsu, but huge upgrade nonetheless from the optek. 

OMG, i so worship the plustek right before my DLSR scan

now i feel in vain…

i used to have scans from labs using either noritsu or frontier.. i thought they were okay, but im not pixel peeping and i didnt know which noritsu they were running on

[1joel1]

I use a Nikon 9000. I had the 5000 in the past. It takes two adapters inline, but it works flawlessly on my iMac, 2020.

Joel

[IanH]

I use the Nikon Coolscan V for 35mm with the film strip holder (SA21). Works well with Vue scan on my Mac. I used to have an Epson v700 and V750 flatbed at different times, which would scan more negative images in a batch and 120mm. I prefer the Nikon file output and process. The Nikon is also easier to store away when not scanning. 

Edited October 20, 2022 by IanH

[Danno_photoguy]

We all have different needs and approaches to our work.  I use two scanners for my 35mm and 120mm work.  The Minolta Dimage Pro and Nikon Coolscan 8000.

I do not batch scan, I use them to produce high quality scans of selected negatives.  I also have a darkroom, so mainly us them to scan B&W negatives that have challenges that are too difficult for my analog printing.   Again not (a workflow) for everyone, but I am highly impressed with both of these scanners.  

[thrid]

One way to speed up the selection process of what you are actually going to scan is to use your camera phone or a USB camera that you can switch into 'invert' or 'negative' mode to get a quick preview of your negatives. You can get a cheap USB camera or microscope off Amazon. Just make sure the magnification isn't too high so that you can't frame your negative properly. You'll also to make sure it supports inverse / negative mode from the supplied software or another program.

Works like a charm. Recently I went through my archive of film negs and that setup made an enormous difference and saved tons of time. 

For scanners I second Plustek or Reflecta. Nikon Collscans are out there and among the best, but the 5000ED / 9000ED are getting really expensive and they are 15-20 years old.
The Coolscan 8000ED works, but it is really slow.

If money is no object there's the Hasselblad X1/X5, but that's serious cash for a serious piece of gear. But these are also out of production.

I have a Kodak Pacon scanner. Blazing fast and can burn through entire rolls of uncut film in seconds, but the resolution is limited etc. It also takes some tinkering to get it working, since this is a piece of vintage computing gear.

DSLR scanning is probably the future and there are all sorts of solutions out there. 

Edited October 20, 2022 by thrid

[UliWer]

The whole thread illustrates that a new dedicated film scanner is overdue by the company which is still producing cameras for film…

[adli]

I have both the Nikon 5000 ED and 8000 ED.

The 5000ED is very convenient for 35mm film, especially with the roll film adapter.  But the 8000 ED gives better results, albeit very slow.

The 5000ED has also scratched my film a couple of times 😮, seems to be a problem with the transport in the film holder.....

[fotomas]

vor 10 Stunden schrieb UliWer:

The whole thread illustrates that a new dedicated film scanner is overdue by the company which is still producing cameras for film…

Yes - Leica should buy Imacon and provide us with the scanners we need for the new M6 😉

Edited October 21, 2022 by fotomas

[hdmesa]

12 hours ago, UliWer said:

The whole thread illustrates that a new dedicated film scanner is overdue by the company which is still producing cameras for film…

In the meantime, small film developing and scanning services need to start scanning exclusively with digital cameras.

[thrid]

When my scanner finally kicks the bucket I'll probably end up building a DSLR scanner. In an ideal world I would use a Leica Monochrom for my black and white negs, but that's an expensive option. You could also use the Monochrom to scan color negs, but would have to make three passes with R,G,B filters in front of the lens.

Edited October 23, 2022 by thrid

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[madNbad]

1 hour ago, thrid said:

When my scanner finally kicks the bucket I'll probably end up building a DSLR scanner. In an ideal world I would use a Leica Monochrom for my black and white negs, but that's an expensive option. You could also use the Monochrom to scan color negs, but would have to make three passes with R,G,B filters in front of the lens.

This took a few years to put together:

 

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