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Scanner advice

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Scanner advice

I have long wanted to scan all my negatives and possibly the new year would be a good time to start.  With this in mind I need a new scanner as my Epson DX3850 won't scan negatives AFAIK. 
On QVC this morning there was a Kodak all-in-one but a quick squint of the reviews suggests that it is not all that good which is a pity because the price was reasonable and it was nice and compact.
With all the photography fans on here does anyone have a suggestion for a decent scanner that will do negatives?  I don't have slides BTW.
20 REPLIES 20
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Scanner advice

I have an Epson 3490 photo  which will do slides - all in ones are totally useless for that - but the quality is not up to that you get from a proper slide scanner
I don't know about negatives but I suspect I would need to use Photoshop to convert them back to a positive
Looking on Amazon there are a lot of items which will do what you want - prices £40 upwards
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: Scanner advice

I bought one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Epson-Perfection-V300-Photo-Scanner/dp/B001H1WRG6 for my wife's birthday this year, results seem to be very good and the price isn't bad either. Depends what you want it to do I guess, but I'd recommend that one.
HairyMcbiker
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Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: Scanner advice

To scan negatives (or slides) you really are better off with a dedicated slide scanner. The main issues with scanning using a scanner is getting LOTS of light on to a small area, where as scanners are aimed at scanning an A4 (mostly white) sheet you want to scan a dark 35mm area.
Not applicable

Re: Scanner advice

It is mainly for negatives although I have old photographs too. I liked the idea of the Epson as mentioned by Matt because I have always used Epson products.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Scanner advice

That is only a bit better resolution than my scanner and scanning slides won't be very good although it depends on the quality you are prepared to accept.
But AFAIK it won't natively scan negatives unlike these http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_16?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=negative...
Not applicable

Re: Scanner advice

Yes, the types that are in the link, and more particularly the Ion make are the ones that I have had a quick glance at.  The review that I read regarding the Ion said something about no drivers for W7 although this is not too much of a problem so long as there are drivers for Vista.  Alternatively I could plug it into my Ubuntu installation and see what happens.
Anyway, will need to do a bit more checking reviews before making a decision.
Strat
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: Scanner advice

Thanks for finding me something else to spend money on Roll_eyes
I also have loads of negs and slides going back 40+ years and was looking to scan to disc. I like the looks of the Veho VFS-008 linked to by Jim.
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Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
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Re: Scanner advice

So do I
I think I have found something to use my Amazon vouchers on  Grin
Not applicable

Re: Scanner advice

Well, you two go and get one, do all your scanning then I will be happy to take it off your hands!  Grin
* Just had a look again and wondered which one would be best?  A number of my negatives are Instamatic ones and this is mentioned by name on the cheaper (£41) one.  However, I fancy the higher price one (£62.99) because it is 5 megapixel.  Advice please!
wisty
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Scanner advice

Poppy,
I can't comment on the scanners - I have an old Minolta Diamage 4000dpi SCSI scanner - last drivers were Win2K. But 5m pixels is equivalent to only 1800dpi on a 35mm frame. The  4800 and 9600dpi ones will probably give better results (and much bigger files).
I would however caution you that its a VERY SLOW process if you care about the quality of the results.
You need to get the negatives/slides scrupulously clean and free from any dust, load them into the scanner ( one or six at a time), scan them, post-process them in photoshop, catalogue and store them. Doing several thousand slides is a full time job for quite a long period. I seem to remember it taking me 3-4 minutes  per slide as long as the shots were perfectly exposed and all taken on the same film stock (15-20/hour). I could do about 100  if I settled down on a very good day before my eyes gave out and boredom set in.
Not applicable

Re: Scanner advice

I had heard before that it was a slow process which is probably why I fancy having one now because we are stuck in the house due to bad weather anyway.
Also, if I manage to get one before the holiday (doubtful now) it will pass time on when fed up with the Christmas television repeats.
Can you tell me what is needed to clean the negatives please?  They should not be in too bad a condition because they are stored in their wrappers in the top of a wardrobe and have not been handled too much.
I think that I am going to go for the Veho VFS-002 Slide & Negative Scanner for 35mm & 110 Instamatic Negatives  because of the latter element but am a bit concerned about the megapixels that you referred to. Having said that, I am not looking for fantastic quality, just acceptable pictures.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Scanner advice

I did wonder about the 002 but with 10 1 star reports I decided against it
pierre_pierre
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Scanner advice

I have one similar to the QVC one, works a treat on 6 x 4, not done any negs on it yet,  also got an older one with a neg carrier, use that on colour negs, and it doesnt nead any other prograns, it converts to positve itself
Cliff_Jordan
Grafter
Posts: 228
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Scanner advice

Do you have prints of the original negatives?
The reason I ask is that I have an Epson Perfection 3170 Photo Scanner (flatbed) which will scan negatives up to 4800dpi and produce positive images (using W7), but have found it much, much quicker to scan the prints on the flatbed and the results seem better.
Also my only experience of Veho products (a USB record deck) was that it was no better than a toy and it went straight back to Amazon with that comment.
Sorry to be so negative Roll_eyes