Advice On Film Scanners?

[jyl]

I'm trying to get back into film photography, but dropping off three rolls of B&W at the photolab gave me sticker shock. Yikes it costs a lot to develop and print B&W nowadays. I'm not going to pursue this at $16/roll. I have all my old darkroom stuff in storage, but don't have room for a darkroom. So I was thinking about just getting negatives (either pay for developing, or rent lab time and develop myself) and then using a film scanner as the core of a "digital darkroom". Would give me another reason to get a G5 iMac!

So, can I get some advice on film scanners? I mostly need to do 35mm, but would really like to do 120/MF negatives too. Some of my old 120 negatives are pretty badly curled, so I'd need to be able to use a really good, glass negative carrier. I want pretty good resolution, though I'm just a hobbyist, not going to make a living at this. Its gotta work with a Mac. I've heard of the Minolta products, but I see Nikon also makes some. I'd like to keep the cost under $1,000, would really prefer under $500. I'm happy to buy used gear. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[djmcmath]

I've been using a ScanWit 2720S for a few years now, with pretty reliable results. It used to be Acer, but they sold the design to BenQ (Korean knock-off). All the optics are the same, and the scans come out pretty good, if I bother to get the negs clean before I scan. Max resolution is 2700dpi, which is more than enough for my hobby, and the cost is super-low, at a whopping $350ish. It won't do your MF stuff, but then, I didn't find anything in my research that would do MF for less than about $3000.

FYI, you don't need a dark-room to process negs -- just a changing bag. They run about $20 most places, and a lot of used spots ought to have some real cheap. Try mpex.com -- they usually have stuff if you call that isn't listed on the webpage. With the bag, you zip the film and dev-tank inside, then shove your arms in the sleeves and transfer them. Everything else is just chems in and out, and you can do it in your bathroom (Assuming your SO is alright with that...). I started processing negs that way while the Navy had me living in a hotel. Rough life.


But with no further ado, a pair of sample scans:




Hope that helps,

Dan

[jyl]

Nice images!

Okay, so some more research this morning and I'm thinking about this plan - anyone feel free to tell me if it sounds loopy:

- Buy a used Minolta DualScan Multi for <$500. This is the older version of Minolta's 35mm / medium format film scanner. The current version costs $1,900 + tax, pretty rich for my blood.
- Buy a SCSI-to-Firewire adapter for $90. The old DualScan Multi is a SCSI device while the Mac only has Firewire. (The new DualScan is a Firewire device.)
- Buy VueScan scanning software for $60. The reviews of the current Multi say that the Minolta software is geared toward slides and does a bad job on negatives, but that with VueScan it will do well on negatives. Anyway the software that comes with the old DualScan Multi surely isn't native to Mac OS X.
- So, a 35mm / medium format film scanning setup for <$650. Not the latest and greatest specs, but still pretty good.

Sound sensible or kludgy?

[RickM]

Here at work I have an HP 7450C Scanjet which I occasionally use for scanning documents. I've used the XPA Slide/negative adapter that comes with the unit (for slides) and have been very happy with the results. It has a USB interface and also comes with a document feeder.

Cost is relatively low and there's a $50 rebate till 09/25.
http://pcworld.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=415314/

[yellow911turbo]

Just ordered a Dimage Scan Dual IV from newegg.com I've read reviews on Minolta scanners for a time now and it seems that for me that is the best deal for the money. I will let everyone know how the performance compares to my expectations.

Cheers,
Serge