Film Scanner - aftermarket attachment?

Dweller · Mar 6, 2005

I bought an Epson Stylus CX4600 printer/scanner and have really enjoyed it.... until I realized that I would get better quality scans if I was coming straight from the negatives.. or am I wrong in thinking that?

Anyway, I am wondering now if I can find a film scanner attachment for it. Anyone know if this can be done after the fact or did I miss the boat and need to look at another option?

Perhaps a dedicated film scanner..?

Thanks for your input

oriecat · Mar 6, 2005

Looking at the website for it, it does not appear to have negative capability.

Kodan_Txips · Mar 6, 2005

There was a giant prism thing that acted as a slide and neg scanner, available maybe 2 years ago. Sold separately for about 10 pounds, IIRC.

Maybe that would do?

fadingaway1986 · Mar 7, 2005

Don't buy a cheap one...

I bought a scanner off ebay... and this is one of the better scans I get out of it...

Rob · Mar 7, 2005

You'll get better results scanning prints until you start spending some serious money on a negative scanner.

I bought a Nikon Coolscan V and it's not really possible to tell which are scans from neg and scans from prints (using a cheap CanoScan LiDE 30). The software for the Nikon is truly awful and it goes strange a lot.

Big Mike · Mar 7, 2005

I've heard that Minolta has some good film scanners that aren't too expensive. I read somewhere that Epson had some of the best flatbed scanners with film scanning capabilities...

That was a while ago though...technology is hard to keep up with so check around before you buy.

Rob · Mar 7, 2005

Two points to add as well:

Check how long it takes to go from turn-on to a scanned image from negative. I find that the Nikon takes about two cigarettes, one cup of coffee, three reboots and a lot of swearing. Some manufacturers quote really impressive load/scan times which may be worth taking into account if you're going to be doing a lot of work getting your collection onto the computer.

Check the quality of the software. Canon's cheap scanners come with a program called CanoScan Toolbox which is easy to configure and use with XP and PS. Nikon's CoolScan software I have found to be a problem. I work in IT and quite honestly when you're paying £400+ for a hardware device, you expect a better-written bit of software.

The white/mirror reflector adaptors for flat-beds don't really give a great image, although I haven't tried one recently. I have used them with HP ScanJet scanners and not really had results worth using. You certainly couldn't submit the images to stock libraries or customers as they are not up to pro-quality. FadingAway's image illustrates this perfectly.

R

sillyphaunt · Mar 8, 2005

I recently bought a Epson perfection 2580 photo scanner, that also has the capablity to scan negatives. After figuring it out, it does decent scans. Not the BEST, but enough to display on the web (after a bit of contrast adjustment in PS).. here's one from it that I scanned last nite: