Equipment Film Scanning- Augh.

So I've got my shots back from Austria and much beautiful is held within my precious slides, but after two consecutive days and a final conclusion that the schools scanners are just awful, I've given up. So now I have to look to other means of scanning these.

1# Slide copying adapter for my camera. This seems a pretty stupid option as it removes the point of the higher resolution slide film offers over my digital camera.

2# Find the cheapest place I possibly can to have my slides scanned professionally. Bear in mind that I won't be doing these in bulks of any more than 40. And although I am moving more towards film these days so in the long term this could prove to be very costly.

3# Suggest to me a scanner! Although I will have this particular roll scanned because I am desperate to get some stuff to work on, this will probably be the most useful in the long term. But after my experiences over the last two days, I'm not totally convinced with the quality of 'amateur' scanners. However, going by the recommendations of dear Mr. Rockwell, I'm thinking the Epson V700-750. This would be good for my inevitable move to medium format film, but I don't want to have to spend yonks processing the photos before I actually have something that is usable for 'real' editing. I won't be able to buy this for quite a while though.

So what do y'all reckon? I can cope with shooting on my poor old K100D for the time being until I can get a scanner, but I don't know whether this is going to be the most economical option for me...

Of course, if any of you would be willing to scan just this roll of film for a small charge, that would be just great

Regards, Jack

 

How much film do you shoot and scan? I wouldn't bother buying a film scanner - just have your local lab send it off to get scanned. It'll be cheaper and probably better quality than what you'll achieve with consumer gadgets.

-monkey

 

instant credibility loss.


FWIW, look at Nikon's 9000 ED

 

Whenever I have to scan in film or slides, I use dads old Minolta D'image scan dual. The quality is good enough, but it takes around 4 minutes per frame. You could probably pick up one of the older SCSI ones quite cheaply.

 

I know... Half of the practical skills stuff he talks is utter bull, but his reviews are on the whole pretty good I find.

And I hope you realise the 9000 is up there in the £2000 range and the other scanner I showed was in the £500 mark.

And I realise I'll get better scans from sending them off, but at £8.99 a pop, I feel I'm going to spend alot more money in the long term. And I typically shoot between 2 to 3 rolls a month, but that's going to increase with time.

 

Well, assuming you send off 3 rolls per month at roughly £9 per roll, then the £2000 scanner would be paid off in approximately 6 years. You indicated that you'll be shooting much more in the future, to include a possible expansion to medium format. That will shorten the investment period. Are the costs/savings worth it to you?.

If you're going to spend a large sum of money on a film scanner - and I would consider £500 a large sum - you might as well get the best quality you can reasonably afford.

However, if this is just to hold you over until you get a "better" digital camera, you might be better off saving a bit more and spending the money on that instead.

-monkey

 

supermonkey talks sense. If you really are going to be using film more and more, buy the best scanner you can for your budget. If not, see if you can strike a deal with the local guys to have discount due to higher than normal custom.

I guess its kinda up to you in the end.

 

I'm not planning on upgrading from my K100D currently for various reasons. Namely because the rumour mill speaks of a full frame Pentax DSLR coming about which is very interesting indeed and because I find film is just a lot more fun to work with. I take a lot more time to compose my shots and all the usual reasons. Most importantly though, the ladies love a romantic old skool photographer!

I'm thinking buying a scanner is probably going to be the best bet then. I guess it will also mean I can archive all my dads old work as well if I ever bring my self round to do it. And thus the search for something tasty begins! Any hints as to what I should look for before I venture off into google yonder?

Thanks guys by the by! This is all very helpful it has to be said