Scanning film: Plustek 8300 vs. Sony camera + Valoi easy35?

[hansvons]

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14 hours ago, andym91 said:

DSLR Scanning?

nothing more than Humor at best  😊👍

You clearly and don't have prejudices Seriously, I thought so too. Now I use my SL2-S with the Sigma 70mm macro and the Valoi Easy35, plus Capture One and can't have it better in any regard. Speed, size, and quality. 

And as you emphasised your competence: I never sold any gear but used a lot, among them for a good decade Rank Cintel, Ursa and Bosch cine scanners, both wet and dry, and I can assure you the above-mentioned workflow comes eerily close regarding results. 

Edited April 7, 2024 by hansvons

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[andym91]

Fair enough.. I grew up with Linotype, Crossfield and Sceeen drum scanners.

then came Scitex flatbed.

changed a lot in image input.

Maybe I should take another run at it, have a Nikon D750 somewhere.

fair comment 🙏

[hansvons]

20 minutes ago, andym91 said:

Maybe I should take another run at it, have a Nikon D750 somewhere.

Try this only if you have a proper 1:1 macro that allows for tack-sharp corners of a flat surface (no-brainer 😉) and a proper film holder, plus an even light source. In my opinion, you cannot have it better for 35mm with the Valoi Easy35, as it assembles the film holder and the light source in one ingenious device. 

Otherwise, you’ll be confirmed that conventional scanning is miles better. 

[Smudgerer]

8 hours ago, Antonio C said:

Another happy user of a dedicated scanner here (Plustek 8200i).

In the past I’ve been thinking of moving to using a DSLR to scan but was not a fan of the cumbersome set-up, in terms of space needed on my desk. The Plustek is small, basically just a box, can be stored away and won’t take hardly any space.

What really made a difference was moving from a workflow entirely based on Silverfast (a painfully slow process, even at 3600dpi) to Silverfast + NLP. I now scan an entire roll as DNG, without even previewing, import in LR and batch convert. It changed my (scanning) life.

I agree. Use a Plustek 8200i, and have but not used much a Nikon CoolScan 4000 ED which gives very good B&W scans but  I wish I was still able to run the original software on a recent iMac, and yes I know there are some work-arounds but I like things to be simple if possible........I also have a Reflecta RPS 10M that I like if only because you can scan a complete strip of 36 exposure film pretty much automatically, set it up and walk away. This is great for making an initial low resolution scan of a complete roll then return to your "picks" for a higher resolution scan of chosen frames.....The Reflecta can do that too after the initial low resolution scan, just make your selects and re-scan at a higher setting without removing the film strip, it can automatically go to the chosen frames, handy....

I make a digital "contact print" of each roll using a "retired" Panasonic GH4/7Artisans 60mm MFT Macro lens and a LED light-pad.....But I am thinking to bring back to some kind of useful life an Epson 700 series flat bed for the contact printing tasks, does anyone here use that scanner or it's more recent updated versions for such jobs?....Scan directly with the film strips in a clear sheet rather than load up the nasty / fiddly Epson negative/film carriers.

An A4 printed contact print, ( inverted in LrC ), is good to have along with the filed negatives.

Although I do have a Nikon D810 with the Nikkor Macro that I can task with scanning large-ish mp sized files I also at times use the GH4, ( 20mp ?? ),set-up to make full scans using an Essential film holder with 35/6x6/6x9 masks and the MFT GH4 delivers surprisingly good results, I have even made a couple of A1 size prints from the GH4's files, ( a proviso here, I am not a pixel peeper or a resolution/sharpness hound so what would pass for me I am sure would not do so for some others, the image is the important thing, it's the emotion rather than it's technical details that means more to me ).

Edited April 7, 2024 by Smudgerer