Converting Negatives/Slides To Digital

[McCormack]

I've got some 35mm negatives and slides that I'd like to convert to digital images - a while back I had a local processor convert some of my negatives to photo-CD, but I wasn't all that impressed with the resulting image quality. Am I expecting too much, or is there perhaps someplace I can send my negatives and slides that will give me the quality I'm looking for?

[GB1]

I haven't tried any places myself, as I own an expensive scanner (Nikon Coolscan 9000) to get the quality just as I want. Scanning takes awhile though, so if you don't have a lot of free time I think you're right in going the outsourcing road. I do recall others using online scanning companies and remarking how well a job they did - try a quick Google search (scan film, scan slide). Sorry I can 't personally vouch for any of them.

[McCormack]

OK, thanks for the advice. I'll do a Google search and see what I come up with. You seem to be satisfied with the job that your Nikon 9000 does, so maybe I'll buy a used one, convert my slides to digital, and then sell the scanner.

[GB1]

It's a tough choice. The Coolscan 9000 was $1900 when I got it years ago. If you were here in S Cali I'd just let you borrow it if you didn't have a mountain of scanning to do. It has a firewire interface so you would have to add a card to your computer for that. Also, I just upgraded my computer to Windows 7 64 bit and then found that Nikon provides no 64 bit version of their software, though they do refer people to another after market scanning application. I haven't tried it yet, being too busy with other things. I do need to address that soon.

G

[Iguanamom]

I can't attest to the Coolscan 9000, but I've had a Nikon Coolscan IV for years and it works very well. They've probably only made them better in the intervening years.

[mjs1973]

I have a little experience with outsourcing my film. I used the company www.scancafe.com and I was very happy with the results. I was a little apprehensive at first since this company sends your film overseas to have it scanned. In the end, it all worked out great and the scans were very nice. One of the podcasts I listen to has Scan Cafe as a sponsor so if you do use the, you can use the promo code FOCUS to get 20% off of your first order, no matter how big the order is. (Sorry if this sounds like an add.) I actually won a gift package from them so it didn't cost me anything to have over 200 slides and negatives scanned.

I have also had a friend scan a few slides for me using his Nikon Cool Scan and the quality was very good. When my friend did it, he batch fed them into the scanner and let the scanner do all the work. I think the folks at Scan Cafe take a little more time with each scan to make sure the quality is the best it can be.

Derrick Story did a podcast and wrote a pretty good article comparing 3 companies that will scan your film. You can listen to the podcast here. You can read the article here. Lots of great info that should help you out.

[McCormack]

It's a tough choice. The Coolscan 9000 was $1900 when I got it years ago. If you were here in S Cali I'd just let you borrow it if you didn't have a mountain of scanning to do. It has a firewire interface so you would have to add a card to your computer for that. Also, I just upgraded my computer to Windows 7 64 bit and then found that Nikon provides no 64 bit version of their software, though they do refer people to another after market scanning application. I haven't tried it yet, being too busy with other things. I do need to address that soon.
G

Your offer to lend me your Coolscan if I lived in the area is a very kind one.

I did some checking on Google and found a bunch of scanning service companies, so that might be an option, and I also did some research and found that Epson is supposed to make a pretty good scanner that sells for considerably cheaper than a Coolscan, so that also might be an option.

But I'm not in any big hurry - I still have to sort through my slides and figure out what I want scanned (I hate sorting slides :cryin: ) - so I'll do some more pensive pondering and figure out what my best option is.

Thanks mjs1973 and Iguanamom for weighing in with your recommendations. Much appreciated.

[Franglais]

I've scanned thousands of my negatives and slides (I've stopped now - it's too boring).

I tried the local minlab service once - it was rubbish. If you want to get good results then you - or the operator - has to spend time on it. It's like making a print in the darkroom - the slide/negative is just the starting point. In order to get a finished image that corresponds to your vision you may have to work on exposure, colour balance, contrast, curves, etc. The time to do this is when you scan the original when you're working in 12 or 14 bits per pixel per colour and you can make quite wide adjustments without it looking false. The JPG you output has only 8 bits per pixel per colour and quickly looks artificial when you start to adjust it.

The major problem when scanning prints and slides is dust and scratches, which are very visible in the final result. Fortunately the best scanning systems have automatic dust removal by doing an extra scan by infra-red light. This works fine for colour negatives, chromogenic black and white (XP2) and most slide films but it is totally unusable for classic black-and-white films and Kodachrome.

There are two types of film scanning systems:

- the dedicated shoebox type. The Nikon Coolscan series are the best. They are very sharp, the software provides full control over what you're doing, and all the recent ones ahve infra-red dust removal. The 9000 is the top (allows you to do medium format) but my Coolscan IV ED is much cheaper and provides almost the same results for 24x35
- classical flatbed scanners with special illuminator back. Epson and Canon dominate the market. I can scan medium format, or a whole series of slides placed on the flatbed, most models have infra-red dust removal - but I find the result is not as sharp as the shoebox type, and the software is not so sophisticated. However it's cheaper and you can use the scanner as a normal one if you put the standard back on it

[McCormack]

Thanks for the education on scanning. My #1 priority is sharpness, so it sounds like the dedicated shoebox type scanner is the one that I want. I'll have to check out that Coolscan IV ED - maybe that'll be just what the doctor ordered.

[Franglais]

The Coolscan IV has a theoretical resolution of 2900 dpi (dots per inch). This is enough to resolve the grain of just about any film I've ever used.

The Coolscan 5000 has a theoretical resolution of 4000 dpi. It can resolve the grain even better, but lets face it, unless you're shooting Tri-X and you want all that grain to appear on the photo, most of the time you're trying to eliminate grain and have a clean image.

That's one of the tricks that the Nikon scanners know how to do - they can smooth out film grain in software then sharpen the image so that it starts to look as good as the image from a digital camera.

My flatbed scanner has a theoretical resolution of 3200 dpi but I find that mushes out before really resolving film grain. There's little to be gained in going beyond 2400 dpi. However it is 6-7 years old. The newer ones might be better.

[McCormack]

Thank you for posting the additional information. For my purposes I want sharpness and not grain, so the Nikon's ability to smooth/sharpen the image would be an attractive feature for me.

I came across a review of an Epson scanner, and it fared somewhat favorably in comparison to the Coolscan stuff.

[GB1]

I agree with Franglais that in order to get what you really want you almost always have to do it yourself. There's also the risk of another entity losing or damaging your work. You'll have to compare the hassle and expense of doing so vs. lower cost and convenience of a company.

One thing to clear up though in that the 9000 can scan Kodachrome and black and white with DIGITAL ICE. It has a selectable setting for that so that the relief/indentation is not mistaken for dust or scratches during the scan.

Given all that's been said here, I'd suggest that you try a few scans by scancafe and perhaps others just to see what you get. If it's acceptable, you may save yourself a lot of money and hassle.

Scanning slides and negatives is NOT an quick and easy process btw. Yes the Nikon's have a batch scan capability; I've never used it but as far as I know it can only process one tray's worth at at time - that's 5 slides! And, realize that one size must fit all if you batch process. I like to examine each negative/slide and change settings depending on what's needed, so batch wouldn't work for me.

Finally, note that Nikon's scanners are very expensive compared to the others out there. If the Epson produces comparable results.... why not?

G

[McCormack]

I think I am going to give Scancafe a shot with a few of my slides to see how they turn out. I don't really have all that many slides that I need scanned - around two hundred color slides - and they're all in great shape with no scratches or dust problems, so if a place like Scancafe can give me the sharpness I'm looking for, then like you say in the long run that would probably save me a lot of money and hassle.

[Marc2B4]

I've got a Nikon Coolscan IV ED, it's fantastic. I've done all my own scanning of both negs and slides, I've invested a ton of time into the project. I usually only use it now scanning images for customers. Paid for itself many times over. I don't use the Nikon software, I use the Photoshop plug-in and import the file directly into Photoshop. Make any corrections, balance, or fixes in photoshop.