Scanning Negatives

As above explained, when scanning documents with a flatbed scanner, documents are laid on a glass panel, the light is coming from under the glass table as in an ordinary office copying machine, the lid has a white panel.

When scanning transparencies, you use an auxiliary light source located in the cover, the white cover being removed.

Friends tried a Canon flatbed to no avail.

Even if for slides, a 35mm dedicated scanner should normally work better, there is no alternative for the big sized transparents (slides or negatives)

I am just in the beginning of using my Epson but I can already state that, contrary to what was written of the French FoxAlpha photographic forum, the first tests with 35 mm slides are at least of the same quality as the scans of my very old (ten years) Nikon Coolscan II.

According to the Epson manual, the sizes for transparents read as follows:

68 x 236 mm (2,7 x 9,3 inches).

Frames are provided for 35mm film strips, four mounted 35 mm slides or 6×12 cm film frame.

The only thing, so far, not matching the manufacturers’ specs is the scanning speed at 4.800 dpi.

Regards

Willy

Seafire,

I’ve got a Canon D660U flat bed scanner which has a mask/holder that holds both 35mm mounted slides and 35mm neg strips. It scans at up to 2400 dpi (IIRC)quality, which seems to work reasonably well for my needs. I guess I could construct alternative masks to suit other formats too.

Currently it seems unhappy to work with my new PC and I’m about to try new drivers for it (new PC is Windows XP O/S rather than Win ME on my old PC) but a new-buy scanner would be Okay with all current o/s.

I only paid ca. £125 (new) for it some four years ago, so shop around and you may find something suitable at a reasonable price.

Paul F

Rocketeer,

Thanks for clearing that up for me. It sounds as though the Epson 4490 is just what I need, but I see that Jessops are currently asking £200 on their web-site, so I might have to shop around a bit.

Like HunterXF382, I’d wondered about using a nornal flat-bed and gave it a try last night. The result was rubbish!

Thanks again for the advice.
Seafire47

Seafire47, I bought the Epson 4490 from Jessops, it is superb and will scan all formats of negatives. It has various ‘masks’ covering slides and negatives (you could make up other masks for other formats and override the ‘auto identify’ to scan other negatives.

Hunter XF382, you need a scanner with a ‘back light’ in the top opening section of the scanner.

The 4490 is good value at £125 and has been used on all formats…I bought it to do my Grandads negs and slides as I did not wish to send them away!

Question on negative scanning process….

Sorry to sound a bit ignorant – this topic caught my eye…..

Can someone explain to me why a normal flatbed scanner cannot be used for B&W negative scanning please? I have a collection that I am interested in adding to my online photo albums, but can’t afford to get anymore specialist equipment… I have Paintshop Pro software which I use a lot on pics, and that has the ability to convert negative to positive etc, so I’m a bit lost as to why a normal scanner cannot process a film negative, especially a B&W one????

Pete B

I use a canon 10d for scanning large format negs and the quality is amazing.

Thanks for the advice.

Can you clarify for me whether the 4490 has the flexibility to handle any negative size / format up to a max size? Or does it expect you to be scanning one of today’s standard formats? I’ve tried asking in my local photographic store (which sells scanners), but they couldn’t help. As I have a range of different formats dating back many years, I need the flexibility.

Sorry if this is a daft question, but this is new territory for me and I don’t want to splash out on something that doesn’t do everything that I need. Initially I just want to scan in the negatives and convert them to positives so that I can figure out what they are and whether they’re worth investing anymore effort on.

I am afraid that for larger negatives you have to purchase a flat bed with option for negatives and slides such as Epson Photo. The quality is of course lower than a dedicated slide scanner. I just purchased an Epson 4490 Photo for the same purpose.

Willyu