Any old film scanners?

[columbus]

I'm looking for a cheap film scanner so I can cut down the cost of getting prints. I don't really know anything about film scanners other than the fact that new ones are extremely expensive. Are there any low end or old models that could be found for less than $200?

 

[dl4449]

I bought a Cannon 4400f it does 35mm film and slides. it did a great job on all of my very old film and slides. I think they are down to 99.00
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Canon-CanoScan-4400F-Scanner-1306B002/dp/B000HDWZLC/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t[/ame]
Hope this helps
Troy

 

[djacobox372]

For 35mm? The plustek opticfilm 7200 scans with incredible quality and cost less then $200 new.

 

[columbus]

Yea, I should've specified. I'm looking for a 35mm scanner

 

[elemental]

For 35mm? The plustek opticfilm 7200 scans with incredible quality and cost less then $200 new.

I am so frustrated that these aren't Mac compatible. It's just not worth the effort to run it in Boot Camp. Oh well, the 7300 is, so I'll just wait for it to get a little cheaper. Or something like that.

 

[Helen B]

Just as an aside, the Nikon Coolscan V is no longer being manufactured. That's a shame because it was a very good scanner for the price.

Here's a list of discontinued Nikon equipment: link.

Best,
Helen

 

[bhop]

I use an Epson 4490.. it looks like it's $113 now on amazon.com It also scans 120 size film if you ever want to get into that. I've printed up to 8.5x11 prints from its scans with nice results. You can probably print larger still if you're looking for that.

here are some sample scans from this weekend

 

[columbus]

I use an Epson 4490.. it looks like it's $113 now on amazon.com It also scans 120 size film if you ever want to get into that. I've printed up to 8.5x11 prints from its scans with nice results. You can probably print larger still if you're looking for that.

Wow, those scans look fantastic. And I thought that flatbeds were pretty crappy...I'm seriously considering this scanner now. I'm sure it's not close to a dedicated film scanner, but for that price, you can't go wrong....hmmmm

 

[bhop]

Thanks, Yeah, i'm on a budget myself. The Nikon Coolscans earn a lot of praise, but they're just not within my budget, so I opted for this. I have learned to get some decent results from it and am pretty happy with it overall. I should also mention that it's 400iso film so there's a little grain there. If it were a slower film, it might be a little smoother.

 

[KD5NRH]

I use an Epson 4490.. it looks like it's $113 now on amazon.com

$109 shipped as a refurb from Epson

 

[Muffinabus]

Also was looking to get a 'decent' 35mm scanner, and those Epson 4490 scans looks pretty damn good for the price.

Cutting down the costs of film development is a big one for me right now, it's going to be nice just to have to get the negatives developed then do the rest on my own

Bhop, are all of your photos scanned using that scanner?

 

[bhop]

Bhop, are all of your photos scanned using that scanner?

Yes. I shoot with a variety of cameras, just for kicks.. (F100, FE, Canonet, Yashica Electro, Holga, d70) With the exception of the d70 obviously, all my flickr shots are scanned by me with the ol' 4490.

I use the epson scan plug-in for photoshop, scan b&w at 16bit with default settings (sharpening and all those other options are off, I do that later if it needs it in PS) color at 48bit. I convert my final files to 8bit, mostly for disk space. I've noticed that converting it doesn't make enough of a visible difference in quality, especially when printed, compared to the file size difference, but if you scan at 8bit (instead of 16) there is a difference in quality, so it's worth the extra steps to convert it later (hope that makes sense). Sometimes I have to mess with levels or colors in the pre-scan stage, but it's pretty easy.

 

[djacobox372]

Wow, those scans look fantastic. And I thought that flatbeds were pretty crappy...I'm seriously considering this scanner now. I'm sure it's not close to a dedicated film scanner, but for that price, you can't go wrong....hmmmm

The only trick with a flatbed is getting the scan height just right... I use a v700 for most of my scanning and love it.

 

[KD5NRH]

Also was looking to get a 'decent' 35mm scanner, and those Epson 4490 scans looks pretty damn good for the price.

FWIW, I ordered this shot from SmugMug as a 9x14, and it looks fine. Developed in my kitchen and scanned on the 4490.

There was some level work and dust removal in GIMP, but with color, it does a fairly good job of auto-fixing the colors and levels. BW seems to confuse it a bit, but of course, with only one channel to fix, manual adjustment is easy.

It will faithfully reproduce dust you'd need a microscope to see, (do *not* use its dust removal settings on anything you want big prints of, and I don't recommend the software's built-in unsharp mask for most shots, either) and you will want to keep some eyeglass-type wipes handy to get fingerprints off the glass, but overall it's a good way to get better scans than most 1 hour places will give you on the PhotoCDs.

If possible, have the lab cut your negs in 6 frame strips, as this does make the scanning go much faster. It will scan two strips of up to 6 frames at a time, with 12 frames taking 30-40 minutes at max quality (4800dpi) but the automatic detection of the frames is pretty reliable, so it's a matter of setting everything up in about 5 minutes, starting it, and watching TV or playing games until it's ready for another pair of strips.