Film scanners.. renting? Recommendations?

[azonicbruce]

I know this gets asked alot, and I've read through some of the archives to see previous recommendations (seems the Konica Minolta Dimage 5400 is good "bang for your buck", IF you can find one...), but I'm wondering if I can add a different spin to the question.

Does anyone know of a place that I can RENT a scanner?
Anyone who has a scanner that I could pay to scan images, or a place who offers scanning services (at a reasonable, economical price)?

In reality, all I want to do is digitize the film images that I do have. I don't plan on shooting anymore film, so I'd hate to go out and buy a scanner only to not use it after finishing all my scanning.

Any other suggestions?

[Photo-John]

Bruce-
Got your Christmas e-mail - thanks!

I've never heard of anyone renting a film scanner. Your best bet is to look for a local pro photographer who has one and see if they'll let you use it and pay by the hour. Personally, I think it might be easiest to buy one. Buy a used one or buy one of the new Epson flatbeds. I guarantee you don't want to scan everything now. Scanning is way too time-consuming. It's better to have a scanner available in case you need a scan, and do it then. Because it's a huge time sink trying to scan a large number of slides or negs - especially if you don't know when and what you might actually use.

[azonicbruce]

Thanks John. Hope you had a great holiday. Did you do any riding?

Yikes! You're not kidding about this being a HUGE time investment. I just went through and (quickly) counted my negatives and I have roughly 750 strips. With 90% of them being 4 frames, that's roughly 3000 images! Assuming that I had a wad of cash to blow and bought a Nikon Coolscan V ED, and @ 38sec/scan, that's almost 32 hours of scanning. Not including setup time. Also assuming I only had 4 hours every weekend to spend working on this project, that's almost 2 months.

Now, I obviously probably don't want all 3000, but I for sure know that there are about 1000 of those that I want to have scanned. Still, a large time investment.

I looked on the net for a few scanning services. Assuming I only wanted around 1000 scans, that's going to run me about $1000. So in that case it seems a better choice to buy/rent. I'm guessing I could at least sell the scanner if I did buy one outright and get some of the money back

Here's another question, though. As far as resolution, I'm only looking to get scans good enough to match the quality of the stuff I'm currently getting from my D30, so I only need 3 megapixels worth of resolution. What's that in terms of dpi that I need? Does that open my options for choices for choosing a scanner?

[danag42]

Here's another question, though. As far as resolution, I'm only looking to get scans good enough to match the quality of the stuff I'm currently getting from my D30, so I only need 3 megapixels worth of resolution. What's that in terms of dpi that I need? Does that open my options for choices for choosing a scanner?

What film are you trying to duplicate? A Kodacolor 400 negative has a lot less detail than a Velvia slide.

I usually scan anywhere from 2400 to 3600 dpi. That gives me all the detail on the film.

I scanned some 120 film at 4000dpi, and got a HUGE file with a clear image of every single grain (dye-cloud) in the image! Obviously, that was overkill.

Do some tests to see what works for you.

[azonicbruce]

Yeah, I'm just scanning regular old Kodak or Fuji pro film. No slide film.

My main concern is dust and scratches. It seems like only the higher end scanners have something for reducing/eliminating them.

What about the flatbeds? Do they even compare to the regular scanners or is there one that can compete?

I'll research more on those Epson flatbeds and see what I find.

[azonicbruce]

Looks like the Epson Perfection 4490 PHOTO would be in my price range. It has the Digital ICE feature. How would this compare to the Nikon Coolscan V ED in terms of what I'm trying to accomplish?

[xvvvz]

The 4490 is quite a value for its price point but if you are only scanning 35 mm you will probably be happier with the extra bit of sharpness provided by a dedicated film scanner. Think about a Nikon V. When you are done scanning your archives, you can turn around and sell it. If you do it within a few months of buying it (so that it still has plenty of warranty left), I bet the difference betwee what you paid for it and what you sell it for will be very close (or less) than what a 4490 costs. Of course, you won't have a scanner at that point ;)

Doug

[molaselake]

I just bought a canon 8600F, and it seems to work pretty well. I use photoshop (the spot healing tool) to get rid of the dust and scratches. The only qualms I have are that the black areas in some of my pictures looks quite pixelated. Other than that, I like it. I've attached an example...

[freygr]

Thanks John. Hope you had a great holiday. Did you do any riding?

Yikes! You're not kidding about this being a HUGE time investment. I just went through and (quickly) counted my negatives and I have roughly 750 strips. With 90% of them being 4 frames, that's roughly 3000 images! Assuming that I had a wad of cash to blow and bought a Nikon Coolscan V ED, and @ 38sec/scan, that's almost 32 hours of scanning. Not including setup time. Also assuming I only had 4 hours every weekend to spend working on this project, that's almost 2 months.
clip.....

I have a Nikon Coolscan, yes it about 38sec but what of the time it takes for the prescan, crop select, and then if you use GEM or ICE that takes time also. I timed it from loading the strip and scanning the four or six negative strip through unloading the negative strip and putting away the negative, its more like 3 minutes per photo overall.

[freygr]

I just bought a canon 8600F, and it seems to work pretty well. I use photoshop (the spot healing tool) to get rid of the dust and scratches. The only qualms I have are that the black areas in some of my pictures looks quite pixelated. Other than that, I like it. I've attached an example...

Set the file save up as TIF or BMP not JPG and the pixelated areas should not be a problem. You can use PhotoShop or another program to save it to JPG at custom setting to prevent pixelated areas, it you need to disk space.

[molaselake]

Thank you, Frey, I'll definitely do that with the next set of negatives I scan