Scanning large negatives

Thanks very much Truc for this detailed reply. I have quite a lot of negatives to scan, so I might get the Epson V500, which seems to be the best in terms of quality/price.

l.garey

If you don’t have a lot to do and don’t want to invest in another scanner here is a work-around that has worked for me.

Scan your negative in 35 mm chunks with overlaps – just like doing a multiple shot panorama with the camera and then stitch them back together again with a stitching program.

Quick and easy FREE one is from Microsoft and is call ICE – Image Composite Editor. Link below.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/

There are other programs out there including Photoshop etc. that will do the same thing. ICE works fast and is free so I have no problem with recommending it.

Another way around requires a light-box – you put the negative on the light-box and photograph it with your digital camera – and run it through a program that accepts the image as a negative and process. I have done this with a program called “Vue Scan” – you have to pay for it but it is reasonable and it works with a variety of different scanners.

If you have more than just a few then you will need to get a scanner capable of the size you need.

I shoot up to ULF – Ultra Large Format film cameras – I have to develop my own black and white negatives – 10 inch x 12 inch size. I have 2 scanners that will take those size negatives – an Agfa Duoscan T2000XL – and a Microtek Scanmaker E6 with full size light lid. The Duoscan has the best resolution and tray system that makes it easy for me to scan 35mm, 120, 4 x 5, 8 x 10, and 10 x 12. It’s a huge commercial system – cost about $9000.00 new – a whole lot less on the flea-bay place if you can find one close – shipping will not be inexpensive as it is very heavy.

Both of these require SCSI drives so can’t be easily used with modern computers – Ms XP Pro is what I use to drive them.

These do what I want, so have no idea as to what might be available in more modern scanners.

If I really need to get detail from a negative I will very often print it – I can enlarge up to 6 x 6 cm black and white – so can crop to size and then print an 8 x 10 photo that I can then scan with an ordinary reflective scanner. Surprising how much detail comes out when you optically enlarge and print using the old fashioned wet process. Of course this is not for everybody.

For color negatives I sometimes send them in and have them enlarged like the black and white ones above. Just make sure you get a shop that will print with sufficient resolution for you to get a decent scan. The standard resolution for color is 150 dpi – which means that if you try to scan the print at a higher resolution than printed it doesn’t get any better. Most ordinary shops can only do the low resolution print format so you might have to find a better shop. Better still if you can find a shop that will do it with the enlarger and wet process – but they are getting really hard to find now.

Hope this helps a bit.

Truc

you can make you own mask using black card

there are also lots of after market ones available check ebay

hope it helps

Thanks for the reply. I’ve tried fiddling with extra lighting and various tricks, but it seems I can only scan a 35mm wide strip of any large negative. That is fine in some cases where there is a lot to crop. but where I want the whole frame it’s not on. I guess I shall have to look around at a new solution!

Looks like the V350 won’t do 6×6 negs and larger. There seems to be slide adapter which takes 5×5 slide mounts, maybe you could play around with that to scan parts of large negs otherwise it’s a new scanner or use a public library scanner or commercial camera shop.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&infoType=FAQ&oid=72363&prodoid=63059196&foid=153463&cat=30980&subcat=30982