# Entry level large format film scanner



## rlhess (Sep 2, 2008)

Hi, I'm new to Lightroom and this forum, but I thought I'd try this question here. I hope it's appropriate.

I've been shooting since the mid-196's and have shot mostly 35mm for all that time. I'm trying to digitize everything and then use Lightroom to see what I really have and sort and select and then display it--but that's getting into my other question.

As you can see in my sig, I didn't scrimp on a scanner for the bulk of my work, but I have about 7' 3.5x5 old Kodak "Picture Postcard" negatives that my Dad shot in the 195's as that format was becoming obsolete. I want to scan these and they're too broad for my Epson Perfection 166' Photo.

I also have a few 4x5 and 5x7 negs and transparencies I shot before I decided I didn't like large format, but I do want to scan this material. If anything becomes critical, I could have it re-scanned when it is needed.

For reference, I'm not doing full-quality scans of the slides or negatives. Since the negatives are mostly family snapshots, I'm scanning those at about 6 MP (17 MB TIF files) and I'm scanning the slides at about 12 MP (33 MB TIF files). My son (who thought of doing this with the family photo negatives) scanned about 25'' negatives this summer, and I've interleaved with him and scanned about 1',''' slides.

My plan is to go back and scan the top 1''-5'' 35 mm images as 133 MB files, but I don't think I have anything in the larger formats (except perhaps one or two B&W images) that would warrant this.

So, here are the options I'm considering:
 (a) An HP Scanjet G4'5'
 (b) Using my Nikon D2'' with a 6'mm F/2.8 Micro-Nikkor 
      and my Chroma5' fluorescent light table

(b) is a royal headache, and I would hope that I'd get as good or better results with (a) for <$2'' investment.

Thanks for any or all suggestions. I know one answer is the Epson V-7'' or V-75', but that is too big an investment for the use. I plan on using the HP 559' with document feeder for the approx 5'' images we have only in print form (mostly from others) that we wish to archive with our family images.

Cheers,

Richard


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 2, 2008)

Hi Richard, welcome aboard.  Good to see you posting here.

You could throw the Epson v5'' into the mix, which you're there.  I've been pretty impressed with it, for its price.


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## rlhess (Sep 2, 2008)

Hi, Victoria,

Thanks so much for responding. The Epson V5'' would definitely be on my list, but I think it has the same limitation as the older Epson Perfection 166' Photo that I have...a limit to 2.25 inch width (medium format). I tried the 166' with my light table on top of it and it got very confused in its software.

Perhaps I'm misreading the spec sheets. The HP G4'5' has templates up to 4x5 and it says the Transparent Materials Adapter (TMA) is "Full Bed" and I'm trying to confirm with HP if that means it will do 8.5 x 11 inch transparencies (as in the old-style "foils" that we used to use with overhead projectors before PowerPoint--and 8x1' glass negatives of which I have a few in my collection. 

Click here for an example of some of the old photos I have inherited. While I did this from contact prints, I have glass plate negative sets of these and would rather work from first generation, but the 8x1' capacity of the TMA is more important than the resolution (after all these are 194's glass plates and even 3'' dpi gets me 7.2 MPel and 6'' dpi gets me 28 MPel scans). It's the larger TMA capacity that would force me to go to the V7'' or V75' in the Epson line, while it appears that the HP G4'5' has a "full bed" TMA.

I am impressed with my Epson 166' and only recently got the HP 559' because (a) it was on a very attractive special locally and (b) it has a sheet feeder and I tend to scan technical papers for my day job of audio tape restoration as well as the sheet feeder seems like a good idea for random family print scanning.

Cheers,

Richard


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 2, 2008)

Yep, you're right, a strip of medium format is the maximum on the v5'', sorry.


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## topanga (Sep 2, 2008)

I have been using a Microtek AritxScan 18''f for a couple of years for my 4x5" negatives and would recommend it. If it is not available, I would recommend whatever replaced it as the next generation. I have been using a Microtek ArtixScan 12'tf for 12' slides/negatives for 5+ years with no problems. I also recommend using SilverFast scanning software with any scanner you decide on.

Just my 2 cents.  

Best,
Darr


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## Brad Snyder (Sep 2, 2008)

For that small number of scans, is that something a service bureau/job shop could do?

Side Note:
I had an HP5x'' with an auto photo feeder, and that was the worst piece of crap I ever owned. It never once fed more than one photo, and that was rare when it worked. After about a year the electronics crapped out too. I've worked with HP gear all my life (laboratory, scientific and data acquisition as well) and am normally a quite a fan.
Hope you have better luck with your feeder, than I did.


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## Anthony (Oct 3, 2008)

hello Richard,
I have just posted a new thread along the same lines before noticinng your posted question ...so if you dont mind I will tune in to some of the answers you are getting..
In essence I am looking for a means to scan old '12''roll film B+W negs  [lots and lots of them.

My existing canon scanner gives adequate quality scans on my 35mm negatives..

suggestions please....

Tony


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## neelin (Dec 29, 2008)

321 bad haircuts & funny glasses
My solution using my MicroTek i8'' scanner was to not use the inserts provided & instead put the negs tight together & cover with a piece of glass to flatten them (not a perfect solution, possible newton rings, flare, etc.).  Scan a full page & store as a single 85meg scan.  Open with CS2 & individually crop & save/as a jpg. Not very elegant, but these were web quality, and with the intent to go back & re-scan the "masterpieces" 

One interesting thing kind of inadvertantly I found was that by naming the files by film format_mmsize in the file name, I could kind of gather the photos taken by each camera, and kind of date the photos.  If I knew one person in the photo, I could guess their age, and build a time-line for the photos.  This of course was for odd photos & formats (127, 12', 616, etc.).  The intent was to put them up for family to comment & fill in the details.

Might be nasty for colour though.
good luck, Robert
p.s. I wasted quite a bit of time trying to get my scanner to recognize the indiviual negs (with/without the proper holders), and finally gave-up and did it like above.  I use Viewscan.


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## Brad Snyder (Dec 29, 2008)

neelin, wow, someone in the family owes you big time. Nice project!  

I don't do a lot of scanning, but for I what I do, I agree, there's Vuescan, and everything else second.


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 29, 2008)

Wow, what a task!  Great job though.


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## neelin (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks, it was just enough to know I don't want to tackle the colour negs. any time soon. 

robert


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