Film/dias scanning

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Hi.

My old dad borrowed a very cheap film scanner (something bought at a Walmart store or something), with the intention of spending some time scanning his film and dias, but he couldn't get it to work. I tried on his relatively new Dell all-in-one desktop and failed too but got it to work on an old Thinkpad. The results were horrible, really not worth spending the time on. I doubt he wants to spend a lot of money on it, but I thought I would ask the experts here: Is there are simple and resonably cheap way to scan film and dias and get a decent result? I'm not expecting top quality at all, but something where you at least are actually able to see who the persons on the scanned images are

[Bjørn Rørslett]

A quick setup using a light table for the slides (or equivalent evenly diffused backlighting), a mask to keep out stray light, and a Micro-Nikkor or similar capable of flat-field rendition at 1:1 should do the trick.

In order to get decent quality from slides otherwise, you need a dedicated film scanner. Nikon and Minolta made such devices, but price tends to be high and some use (to our times) esoteric connections (SCSI, Firewire and USB devices exist as well). Epson have some USB-connected flatbed scanners that do the job adequately for prints and are not expensive. In their time, Agfa flatbed scanners had a good reputation for quality results (I still have one of their bigger units and although slow, it delivers beautiful copies. It used SCSI).

Whatever solution you end up with, do make sure the work flow is streamlined. It is unbelievably tedious and tiresome to scan slides when these run into the hundreds or more. You need a large disk to keep working copies of the files before they are processed and ready for archiving.

[Frank Fremerey]

Bjørn. This is the third thread in which we currently discuss the topic. I feel it could be more effective if we would all discuss it in one place. Yet I do not know how to gather the efforts.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I noticed the same. However, sometimes the better solution is discussing a specific approach rather than merging everything into one large thread.

One could also consider this a plea to use the search functionality of the site before launching a new thread?

[Bjørn J]

Jørgen, I suggest you buy an Epson flatbed scanner with integrated transparency unit (light in the lid).
A dedicated Nikon or Minolta film scanner will give far better quality film scans, but flatbed scanners have evolved a lot, and I am surprised of the quality these Epson scanners can provide.  For your needs as you describe them, I believe you will be perfectly happy with an Epson scanner, like the V550 Photo:
http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/overview/12443

[Erik Lund]

Yes the Epson flatbed suggested is really nice and the software easy to use.

[Lars Hansen]

SilverFast software could in some cases be a better choice than the native software - you might be able to buy the scanner bundled with dedicated SilverFast software at a small extra price.   

I've been looking at the options myself - the site below has some interesting tests that also considers SilverFast instead of the native software.

Here are some prices on Epson scanners with and without SilverFast:
http://www.scandig.com/filmscanner/epson/index.html


E.g. a test of Epson V600:

http://www.filmscanner.info/en/EpsonPerfectionV600Photo.html

In the test they conclude:
For scanning slides, negatives or photographic (paper) prints, the optional scan software SilverFast is higly recommended.

...for scanning slides and negatives, the increase in image quality by means of Silverfast is very remarkable. Not only will you get far better colors, but also the automatic dust-and scratch removal is vastly superior.

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Thanks for all the replies, that was quick. I thought everyone was on holiday

The Micro-nikkor solution is not a workable solution. That would require my dad to buy camera+lens at least. It seems a flatbed scanner is the way to go. That Epson sounds like a good option for a decent price and it sounds like that SilverFast software is worth getting as well and perhaps even the Plus version:

Please, choose above, below the price information, between the SilverFast version SE, SE Plus and SE Archive Suite. The essential difference between the SE and the SE Plus version is the multi-exposure function of the SE-Plus version. Multi-exposure means that a photo is scanned with different exposures and that an optimal image is computed from the different scans. This partly leads to a significant increase of the image quality of the scans.

I probably should have searched for it, however I just did a search now and didn't find any threads that really answered my question, what I found was more expensive options.

[Lars Hansen]

..nothing better than reading photo stuff on Nikongear during a Christmas holiday 

I might be wrong, but please note that my understanding is that the bundled SilverFast software will only support the scanner model it is bundled with. You might want to check that. 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Your assumption is correct.

[Jørgen Ramskov]

I would certainly buy it as a bundle as suggested, it's much cheaper.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I suggested the micro+camera approach as these items are commonly used by our members. Clearly a flatbed scanner is a more viable alternative if no lens/camera is available.

[Frank Fremerey]

Can anyone comment on the quality difference between SilverFast with or without HDR function?

[afx]

I would certainly buy it as a bundle as suggested, it's much cheaper.

I would forgo SilverFast and get VueScan instead.
Bought a lifetime license 10 years ago for my slide scanner that now can be used for the Epson V550 (ordered it today, no delivery date from Amazon yet ;-(
Silverfast is licensed per scanner Model. VueScan just does them all and if you grab the right targets cheaply from Faust, profiling is a breeze (and absolutely worth it).

cheers
afx

[Jørgen Ramskov]

The right targets?

Do you have experience with both? What about the features of the software? Ease of use?

I just tested the cheap scanner again together with my father yesterday to show the quality of the scans. He wasn't impressed, just like I wasn't. We will likely buy an Epson scanner soon, but first my dad will check the quality of his dias.