Plustek vs camera "scanning"

[Besprosvet]

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Hi,

I want to scan my 35mm film, budget wise (400/500 bucks) I have, I guess, two options:

- Buying a frame holder + macro lens to adapt on my M240 (or M246 for black and white film), or even my Canons (5DmkIV, R6).

- Getting a Plustek (8100, 8200, 8300...).

Given that the price point would be similar, which options gives the best results?

I'm mostly interested in color depth and nuances, not only sharpness.

Thanks!

[blackdot]

I’ve done it both ways and stuck with camera scanning. It took a lot of time and effort to sort it out, but the results are ultimately superior. I’m not sure about the Leicas for scanning, as I haven’t tried them for that, but worst case scenario, used Sony cameras aren’t that expensive. Also look at Sigma ART lenses. 

[Aryel]

I switched from plustek to camera scanning and have 0 regret. Works faster and to my eyes, the results are better.

i went with a Valoi easy35 and it find it great (in case you can stretch your budget a bit).

[hansvons]

What @Aryel says.

Besides the indispensable Valoi easy35, a very good 1:1 Macro in the range of 60mm to 100mm is a must. 

The negative conversion from camera raw to a positive can conveniently be done in LR with a plugin, eg Negative Lab, or for best result and full control manually in C1 or PS. To figure this out takes some stamina but it's worth it. 

Edited March 11, 2024 by hansvons

[Besprosvet]

Thank you guys!

Do you think that the JJC ES-2 can be a good alternative the the Valoi? I don't like the ida of paying over 200 euro for a 3D printed little thingy.

In both cases, I especially question the quality of their LED lights... I've never stumbled in my photography life into a led light source that didn't make colors look weird, as they usually lack consistency in the light spectrum.

[250swb]

If I were you I'd absolutely use the Canon 5D with a macro lens for best quality scans. For ease the Valoi gets a vote, but if you ever want to copy larger negatives or prints the price eats into what you could have spent on a copy stand and an LED light pad. But either way you will find camera scanning gives far better quality than the Plustek and the workflow is much, much faster.

If you are having problems with LED lights you aren't using the right ones. For example the Kaiser Slimlite Plano pad has a set colour temperature of 5000k which you set your camera to match and there is no problem with colour fidelity.

[Besprosvet]

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13 minutes ago, 250swb said:

If I were you I'd absolutely use the Canon 5D with a macro lens for best quality scans. For ease the Valoi gets a vote, but if you ever want to copy larger negatives or prints the price eats into what you could have spent on a copy stand and an LED light pad. But either way you will find camera scanning gives far better quality than the Plustek and the workflow is much, much faster.

If you are having problems with LED lights you aren't using the right ones. For example the Kaiser Slimlite Plano pad has a set colour temperature of 5000k which you set your camera to match and there is no problem with colour fidelity.

I was referring more to the leds implemented in the Valoi and the JJC models. The idea of having a ready set for 35mm is appealing. At the moment I don't shoot medium format... at the moment at least

[Besprosvet]

19 minutes ago, 250swb said:

If I were you I'd absolutely use the Canon 5D with a macro lens for best quality scans. For ease the Valoi gets a vote, but if you ever want to copy larger negatives or prints the price eats into what you could have spent on a copy stand and an LED light pad. But either way you will find camera scanning gives far better quality than the Plustek and the workflow is much, much faster.

If you are having problems with LED lights you aren't using the right ones. For example the Kaiser Slimlite Plano pad has a set colour temperature of 5000k which you set your camera to match and there is no problem with colour fidelity.

Valoi and JJC claim to have led lights with a CRI value over 95, while Kaiser Slimlite Plano around 88. On paper Valoi and JJC seem better, if they state the truth

[blackdot]

1 hour ago, Aryel said:

I switched from plustek to camera scanning and have 0 regret. Works faster and to my eyes, the results are better.

i went with a Valoi easy35 and it find it great (in case you can stretch your budget a bit).

Be careful with the Valoi. The light source does not evenly cover the neg, which is apparent on thin negs or just negs with shadows near the edge . The manufacturer is aware and does nothing to warn users that it does not work universally. I pulled the light out of mine and push it against a larger panel, and that works well, but I do consider it a failed product at a high price. 

[Besprosvet]

5 minutes ago, blackdot said:

Be careful with the Valoi. The light source does not evenly cover the neg, which is apparent on thin negs or just negs with shadows near the edge . The manufacturer is aware and does nothing to warn users that it does not work universally. I pulled the light out of mine and push it against a larger panel, and that works well, but I do consider it a failed product at a high price. 

That's a big drawback. At this point I might get the JJC version with no led light and just use my 2021 iMac 24" screen as a light source

[Umfundisi]

I can't speak for results from a Plustek, but after a lot of to and fro I've decided to stick with my NIKON CoolScan V for scanning 35mm film. The downside of the CoolScan is that it crops about 1mm off the long side of negative area of your scan - this is a real bummer. But then the scans are better* than what I have managed to achieve with my Nikon Z7 and either a Micro-Nikkor 2,8/55  or a Zeiss 2/100mm Macro-Planar. 

For medium-format and large format I have opted for camera scanning. No way that an Epson flatbed can get you sufficient sharpness and detail ... 

* better as in: Overall crisper detail. The same effect that you would achieve when using a condensor-based enlarger vs. a diffused-light version. Just a matter of what you want from your negatives/scans, not really a question of quality.

[Aryel]

1 hour ago, blackdot said:

Be careful with the Valoi. The light source does not evenly cover the neg, which is apparent on thin negs or just negs with shadows near the edge . The manufacturer is aware and does nothing to warn users that it does not work universally. I pulled the light out of mine and push it against a larger panel, and that works well, but I do consider it a failed product at a high price. 

Do you have some examples? I haven’t faced such issue and corners always look even to me, including shadows in the edge. I scanned a lot of rolls since getting mine. Really happy with it. 

Edited March 11, 2024 by Aryel

[250swb]

4 hours ago, Besprosvet said:

Valoi and JJC claim to have led lights with a CRI value over 95, while Kaiser Slimlite Plano around 88. On paper Valoi and JJC seem better, if they state the truth

Why does it matter if you set the camera to match the light source? It's no different than setting a digital camera to match a tungsten light source etc. Likewise why would it matter if one light source was a bit brighter than another, is a tiny fraction of a second exposure increase really going to speed up your workflow?

Edited March 11, 2024 by 250swb

[TomB_tx]

I find I'm not patient enough for camera scanning of negatives. Even though I can get nice results, it takes me a lot more computer work to get there on each image. The exception is color slides, where camera scanning is usable with minimal post.

I shoot a lot of B&W. and love how I can load 24 exp on my Epson 850, click a couple times and get very usable scans of all while I do something else. I usually scan directly to jpg and skip post processing.

But I'm from the age of mainly color slides, where what you capture is what you show.

[Doug A]

6 hours ago, blackdot said:

Be careful with the Valoi. The light source does not evenly cover the neg, which is apparent on thin negs or just negs with shadows near the edge . The manufacturer is aware and does nothing to warn users that it does not work universally. I pulled the light out of mine and push it against a larger panel, and that works well, but I do consider it a failed product at a high price. 

That has not been my experience with the 50+ rolls of B&W film I have scanned with my easy35 since I received it. I have seen no uneven coverage regardless of the density of the negatives or the distribution of light or dark areas of the image. 

Edited March 11, 2024 by Doug A

[hansvons]

7 hours ago, blackdot said:

Be careful with the Valoi.

Interesting. I cannot corroborate that. 

[hansvons]

52 minutes ago, Doug A said:

That has not been my experience with the 50+ rolls of B&W film I have scanned with my easy35 since I received it. I have seen no uneven coverage regardless of the density of the negatives or the distribution of light or dark areas of the image. 

Same here. Plus tons of colour negs. 

[hansvons]

2 hours ago, TomB_tx said:

I find I'm not patient enough for camera scanning of negatives. Even though I can get nice results, it takes me a lot more computer work to get there on each image.

Not my experience. I mount the Valoi to the Macro lens, let the AF and aperture priority do their job, tether the camera to C1, have a Style ready and digitise 37 negs with the Valoi easy35 in 2 minutes at the longest. The quality of Epson 800 and proper DSLR scans is (almost) night and day.

[pgk]

y set up: 

which works well and wasn't expensive. Light source is an LED lightbox but virtually any even illumination should work fine provided it is a fairly even continuous spectrum which can be adjusted for. The stand is made up of RRS bits I already had but a tripod is fine to hold the bellows unit. This competes with most other solutions pretty wellincluding scans I've had made (Scitex) and those I have made myself (Coolscan 8000).

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[blackdot]

12 hours ago, Aryel said:

Do you have some examples? I haven’t faced such issue and corners always look even to me, including shadows in the edge. I scanned a lot of rolls since getting mine. Really happy with it. 

I deleted all the tests shots a while back. It's easy to recreate, though. Just shoot something at night so that the negs are thin, especially color negs. You will have orange haze in the scan, especially toward the right side where the thumb indentation is. You won't notice it with fully exposed daylight negs, which is what the manufacturer is counting on you doing (they told me this). That's a pretty harsh restriction. If you search around online, you'll see many others have confirmed this, so it isn't just me. I'll also add that this issue was more apparent with Portra 400 than other films.

Edited March 11, 2024 by blackdot