Film Scanners?

Alright, I want to upgrade to a digital, but I just can't seem to come up with close to enough cash to get a setup comparable to what I already have for film... so I was wondering what you guys suggest for scanners? Either film scanners or print... pros/cons of each? All I really have is 35mm, so no real need for it to be able to scan medium format, though that would be a plus as I would like to get into that a little bit sometime soon. Suggestions/comments?

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Originally Posted by belloscurita

Alright, I want to upgrade to a digital, but I just can't seem to come up with close to enough cash to get a setup comparable to what I already have for film... so I was wondering what you guys suggest for scanners? Either film scanners or print... pros/cons of each? All I really have is 35mm, so no real need for it to be able to scan medium format, though that would be a plus as I would like to get into that a little bit sometime soon. Suggestions/comments?

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The best film scanners are the dedicated (shoe-box) kind made by Nikon or Minolta. These can get out all the detail on the film right down to the grain, and they have hardware to remove dust (very important). The trouble is that they cost almost as much as a low-end DSLR and when you take into account film and processing costs over 3 years, the switch to all-digital was easily justified (in my case anyway).

The alternative is classic flatbed scanner with an illuminator back so you can scan transparent things like film. The trouble is that the low-end ones don't do a very good job (no dust removal) and the high-end ones cost almost as much as a dedicated film scanner..

Charles

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Originally Posted by Franglais

The best film scanners are the dedicated (shoe-box) kind made by Nikon or Minolta.

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Canon makes top quality film scanners as well. I used to use the FS4000U which was fantastic and had better and more stable software than Nikon.

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Originally Posted by belloscurita

Canon AE-1 Program
Canon EOS 50
Canon FD 24mm f/2.8
Canon FD 35mm f/2.8
Canon FD 50mm f/1.4
Canon FD 85mm f/1.8
Canon FD 300mm f/4L
Sigma FD 80-200mm f/4
Canon EOS 35-80mm f/3.5-5.6

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You are in a quandary here. You have great glass that is not supported by the new digital technology however I found having to scan and clean film images to be a time a consuming process. In my book I'm glad I bought digital and I was vested in FD glass myself.

It's a real time saver and any time saved at the computer processing digital images is less wear and tear on me.

Bottom line I recommend biting the bullet and going to a digital body. I wish the FD glass could be used with an adapter, but the mechanics don't work out. :(

Tim

Any of a number of Canon, Nikon, or Minolta scanners will do nicely.

Look for some form if infared dust cleaning, 'FARE' or 'ICE.' Beware some modele that rely on software - it just doesn't work.

Check out:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWor...mScanners.html

4000 DPI (real not interpolated!) will extract most of the available detail from 35mm film. If $ is tight, a good ~2700 dpi unit will produce fully usable images.

Here are a few examples of what various scanners can produce:
http://www.terrapinphoto.com/jmdavis/

Yea, touchup time is a PITA. The dust cleaning helps greatly, but never seems to get _all_ of the dirt/dust. Cropping, color adjustments, contrast tweaking, etc. also take time. (True with a DSLR as well!) How much of a PITA this is will depend on the volume of worthwile images you produce. I shoot maybe two rolls per month on average, and wind up with maybe 20 images that are worthy of printing. At 10~30 min. of post processing per image, it's not an unreasonable 'burden.'

Whichever scanner you get, you'll probably want a noise reduction program like Neatimage (around $50) to knock down chroma noise and reduce visible film grain and grain aliasing noise.

I'm in the same boat - owning gobs of FD lenses, and a several bodies. All the equipment still works and, due to the 'obsolete' build quality, will likely continue to do so for some time. A DSLR would be nice, but the replacement cost, even if I were to loose all reason and trade everything in, is still too steep to justify. Amazingly :smilewinkgrin: , film still works - thank you very much! It meets my needs and then some, so I'll continue to use it.

-Greg