Film Scanner - Maybe too late....

binglemybongle

TPF Noob!
Joined
May 23, 2005
Messages
156
Reaction score
0
Location
Manchester, UK
Hi all,


I've just bought a HP 4850 flatbed scanner with a facility to scan negatives.

(See http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06b/5043-5683-5687-5687-5719-12158582-34757253.html for scanner spec)


What are everyones initial thoughts?

Does anybody have one already? If so, what kind of results do you get?


I know it's not going to be the same quality as a dedicated film scanner and I know if I print the results then there not going to be the best quality either. But it's all I could afford.

I bought it because I want to cut down on costs of processing.
My idea is to just develop the negatives, scan them to my PC then if i like the results, print selected images (from negatives) at the lab.

Im hoping it will reduce developing/processing costs by about a third. Sound about right?


Basically, have I done a good thing for the reasons I bought it? More importantly feedback from users of HP 4850s if any.
By the way I got it for about £50 new from a closing down sale.

Thanks in advance.
 
For £50 you can't really go wrong, can you? I paid a lot more than that for my Nikon Coolscan V, which is 35mm negative/slide scanner, for exactly the same kind of reasons as you, but I've been a little disappointed with the results.

On the other hand, compared with making contact prints it is a lot less trouble, and if all you are doing is identifying the negatives you want to have printed then the quality doesn't need to be top notch, does it?

Thomsk
 
Sounds like a very reasonable price! I'm sure it will serve you well.

As ThomThomsk pointed out, image quality directly out of a scanner can be somewhat disappointing, so be prepared for some post-scan Photoshop work to achieve printable results.
 
DepthAfield said:
Ooops! Just noticed that you said your scanner was a flatbed unit. Did it come with a film carrier?

Yeah, it takes 4 slides or a strip of 6 negatives.

I know they wont be of the highest quality but should serve well enough to see if theyre worth printing.

This maybe a very silly question but when the negatives are scanned, does the scanner (well the software) convert it to a real image?
 
I have a HP and if you mean by real image invert it then it does inverts the colours.

Mine is older than that and works pretty well. Only just recently figured out how you actually use the neg scan feature hahaha.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top