Transparency Scanners

Perhaps it wasn’t the Perfection 2400 I was looking at. It was approaching a year ago now, but the one I had in mind held 12 x 35mm and, IIRC, any size of single negative.
It was definitely an Epson Perfection but that presumably covers a substantial range.

Bit two:

Re: Recommendations?

Originally posted by ajdawson
I’m looking for a film scanner to do film cells that are slightly larger than the standard 35mm – I’d also like to blow some of them up to A3 size or more.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a suitable film scanner for this?

Andy

A flat bed with a transparency head woul be best. I took the Sea Hawk on Fuji Velvia with a Mamiya 645 at Lee on Solent in 1995. Scanned it on an Epson flat bed with a tranny head that I tried and sent back (because I didn’t like the software). I have just downsized it so it will fit here but have also just clipped a bit out at full resolution.

Hang on, I thik I may have to post the clipped pic under another header.

MH

I’ve tried a couple of the flat-bed scanners with adaptors with standard slides and negatives and they tend to produce perfectly respectable results if you want images for the web, or to produce 6×4/A4 images. For anything larger they were rather a waste of time.

I’d assumed that I’d have to buy one of the more expensive film specific scanners for the job at hand (yes, thats the correct one you are thinking of Eddie) as I’ve not been able to produce what I need with anything else so far.

Has anyone had good (or bad) experiences with any particular film scanner that they’d care to share?

Andy

Andy – I’ve tried the aforementioned Jessops scanner (the low res type) on some film that shall we say… sounds very similar to the ones you’re talking about 😉

The results were reasonable, although I’d say it would be better with the more expensive, higher resolution version.

Recommendations?

I’m looking for a film scanner to do film cells that are slightly larger than the standard 35mm – I’d also like to blow some of them up to A3 size or more.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a suitable film scanner for this?

Andy

I’ve been looking at the Epson Perfection 2400, it looks interesting.
However, as I already have two perfectly serviceable, non-transparency scanners, it’s difficult to justify. If my Mum ever finds my Dad’s negatives, that would be a good excuse.

One thing I found scanning black and white from negs was that the blacks sometimes flooded. I got much better results from scannone mono negs in colour and then converting on Photoshop (after all you are only converting a grey to a grey!). That and the clunky software are the only criticisms of my one. Apart from the fact it won’t play at the moment (having to downgrade to an earlier photoshop!)

MH

I have the HP Scanjet 3970 and have been very pleased with how it’s scanned negatives/transparencies.

This is from a negative showing W/O Pat Coleman of 41 Squadron on the wing of his Spit XIV, fall of 44. Turned out well I think

Dan

I have an Epson perfection 2400 photo ,it does Negs,photos ,slides http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/DirResults.html?s=epson_perfection_2400_photo

I can recommend it and no i don’t work for either Epson or nova tech 🙂

I bought an Epson filmscan a few years back and it is OK. It is not a pro-quality scanner using that and good film is still way better than any digi-camera I have seen or used. The software is not that brilliant for me as I cannot scale things to an exact size (for book layouts) but just after I got it i scanned a slide on Fuji Velvia. I cranked it up to higest resolution, chose a small area of the slide and pressed the tit. The subsequent file was huge but I could blow it up ad get to the film grain before it pixellated.

That one cost me about £280 as I remember.

MH

Jessops do their own brand film scanner. It’s about 130 quid I think.

Have a look here, sounds pretty good value for money to me.