Scanning photo negatives.
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I bought a cheap slide and negative scanner from Aldi for 30 something quid a year back. It did a fantastic job on the slides, which was what I had bought it for as my parents had hundreds from when we were kids and before. Throughput was very fast and results clear although the screen needed cleaning often, this was because the slides were none to clean themselves. I did have a quick go with scanning negatives too, and that was far less successful, the results were poor in image quality (especially colour), although I didn't mess with the settings at all, and it was very fiddly to do as each strip had to be loaded into a caddy before feeding through the scanner. So, that is of no help at all.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
ChrisElston wrote:
So, that is of no help at all.
Not at all. Two replies at the time of writing and I'm better informed about the process than I was half an hour ago. Thanks. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
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ChrisElston wrote:
So, that is of no help at all.
Not at all. Two replies at the time of writing and I'm better informed about the process than I was half an hour ago. Thanks. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
I will say I really enjoyed doing it as these were photos from when my mum and dad first met in the early 70s (including their honeymoon) to when I was about 7 or 8 and they hadn't been seen for a long, long time. I don't even know if their projector still works, but they don't have a plain white wall suitable for projecting onto anymore.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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ChrisElston wrote:
So, that is of no help at all.
Not at all. Two replies at the time of writing and I'm better informed about the process than I was half an hour ago. Thanks. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
PHS241 wrote:
Two replies at the time of writing and I'm better informed about the process than I was half an hour ago.
Are you sure this is the Lounge?
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I've got heaps of 35mm negatives I'd like to scan. My printer is a Kodak ESP 7 which doesn't have a negative holder unlike some other printers from HP, for example. Has anyone been down this road before and could offer some advice to me? Would it be worthwhile buying another printer that can do it or should I give them to a specialist company that could do them? Is the converted image quality okay or would you need to edit and enhance them? That sort of thing.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
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PHS241 wrote:
Two replies at the time of writing and I'm better informed about the process than I was half an hour ago.
Are you sure this is the Lounge?
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I've got heaps of 35mm negatives I'd like to scan. My printer is a Kodak ESP 7 which doesn't have a negative holder unlike some other printers from HP, for example. Has anyone been down this road before and could offer some advice to me? Would it be worthwhile buying another printer that can do it or should I give them to a specialist company that could do them? Is the converted image quality okay or would you need to edit and enhance them? That sort of thing.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
My Dad did a lot of this, his experiences were similar to ChrisElston's. It seems that negatives have colour differences (in the orange overlay?) that result in a cast when scanned. His scanner had a setting to choose the film type with a color-correction profile, which fixed this, but it only covered the major brands. This does beg the question how did they physically print these things at developers, given each brand must have needed its own colour filter for proper results, and I doubt they had an automatic way of determining the film type. Other than this, the main drag was the fact the scanner didn't auto-feed the negatives so it was labourious work. My guess is taking your negatives in to the shop might be better, if more expensive, just due to the hassle saved. [Edit] You might find this useful: http://www.jeffreysward.com/editorials/colorneg.htm[^]
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
PHS241 wrote:
Two replies at the time of writing and I'm better informed about the process than I was half an hour ago.
Are you sure this is the Lounge?
Bugger! You just raised a valid point. I'll now assume that all previous advice and that which follows is intended to misinform and decieve me.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
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Bugger! You just raised a valid point. I'll now assume that all previous advice and that which follows is intended to misinform and decieve me.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
Good idea - assume all advice in this thread is here to deceive and do the opposite of what it says. Including this message.
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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I've got heaps of 35mm negatives I'd like to scan. My printer is a Kodak ESP 7 which doesn't have a negative holder unlike some other printers from HP, for example. Has anyone been down this road before and could offer some advice to me? Would it be worthwhile buying another printer that can do it or should I give them to a specialist company that could do them? Is the converted image quality okay or would you need to edit and enhance them? That sort of thing.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
I scanned over 6000 of my negatives using an EPSON V500. This is, doubtless, a labor of love. I ran the scans at 3200 dpi, but it'll go finer than that. These equate to 12 MP images. The results, using the Kodak Digital Ice technology that's built in, exceeded my expectations, and if you take color into account, could actual be superior to the original*. The negative carrier holds two 'strips' at a time, which could be as many as 12 negatives. These are rendered as thumbnails and can be individually corrected with some very decent color-correction tools (hues, levels, curves). This is important because, as promised on the film carton, the dies do change with time. The digital ice technology is awesome, though only works for color film and slides. It takes a relatively quick scan with Infrared. This doesn't see the film or dies but does see the dust and scratches. Then, the regular scan is done. The IR map is used to determine which items are not really part of the image and they are interpolated away. This includes dust so small you'd swear the negative was clean - but the resolution on this scanner is amazing. Tradeoff: scan time/negative - without digital ice is roughly 1 min; with digital ice, 3 1/2 minutes. The time is spent in calculation, and, if you've a faster PC (I used a comfy chair & 2 MHz Celeron powered laptop) you'll get better results. Since it holds strips of negative, the long-time scanning isn't quite so much a burden: I'd set up 8 (2 strips of 4) and then come back about half an hour later. It's a lot of work, but no commercial site knows (1) what you saw; and (2) cares about the results beyond getting you to accept them. Good luck with the ultimate rainy-day project. * You can balance the colors to how you saw them rather than the color errors that film endured if, for example, you took a shot in a forest. This is a philosophical decision, but I decided that the pictures are supposed to be representations of what I saw.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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I scanned over 6000 of my negatives using an EPSON V500. This is, doubtless, a labor of love. I ran the scans at 3200 dpi, but it'll go finer than that. These equate to 12 MP images. The results, using the Kodak Digital Ice technology that's built in, exceeded my expectations, and if you take color into account, could actual be superior to the original*. The negative carrier holds two 'strips' at a time, which could be as many as 12 negatives. These are rendered as thumbnails and can be individually corrected with some very decent color-correction tools (hues, levels, curves). This is important because, as promised on the film carton, the dies do change with time. The digital ice technology is awesome, though only works for color film and slides. It takes a relatively quick scan with Infrared. This doesn't see the film or dies but does see the dust and scratches. Then, the regular scan is done. The IR map is used to determine which items are not really part of the image and they are interpolated away. This includes dust so small you'd swear the negative was clean - but the resolution on this scanner is amazing. Tradeoff: scan time/negative - without digital ice is roughly 1 min; with digital ice, 3 1/2 minutes. The time is spent in calculation, and, if you've a faster PC (I used a comfy chair & 2 MHz Celeron powered laptop) you'll get better results. Since it holds strips of negative, the long-time scanning isn't quite so much a burden: I'd set up 8 (2 strips of 4) and then come back about half an hour later. It's a lot of work, but no commercial site knows (1) what you saw; and (2) cares about the results beyond getting you to accept them. Good luck with the ultimate rainy-day project. * You can balance the colors to how you saw them rather than the color errors that film endured if, for example, you took a shot in a forest. This is a philosophical decision, but I decided that the pictures are supposed to be representations of what I saw.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Cheers for this. I was having a look at the V700, but the cost of the thing stopped me from looking further. But if the (much cheaper) V500 is as good as you say, then I may buy that model instead.
I Dream of Absolute Zero
If you decide to go with the V500, hints are available free-of-charge. An aside: when scanning and viewing the results, I found myself coming to regret whenever I used ASA 400 instead of ASA 100 film. Blown up on my monitor far larger then the originals, the grain difference becomes very evident.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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I've got heaps of 35mm negatives I'd like to scan. My printer is a Kodak ESP 7 which doesn't have a negative holder unlike some other printers from HP, for example. Has anyone been down this road before and could offer some advice to me? Would it be worthwhile buying another printer that can do it or should I give them to a specialist company that could do them? Is the converted image quality okay or would you need to edit and enhance them? That sort of thing.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
I bought an HP 3500 scanner just for its negative capability. I like it.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous
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I've got heaps of 35mm negatives I'd like to scan. My printer is a Kodak ESP 7 which doesn't have a negative holder unlike some other printers from HP, for example. Has anyone been down this road before and could offer some advice to me? Would it be worthwhile buying another printer that can do it or should I give them to a specialist company that could do them? Is the converted image quality okay or would you need to edit and enhance them? That sort of thing.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68).
I used to have a special scanner for slides and negatives more than ten years ago. I used it mostly for black-and-white negatives. It was fine for slides, but I was never happy with the results from color negatives. I'd offshore the work.
