Best Scanner for Negatives

[Joe]

I have a great deal of old family negatives and photos that I want to
capture digitally. I would like to know what is the best method to scan in
negatives? Are regular flat bed scanners with attachments on the lid for
negatives and slides any good or should I consider getting a dedicated film
scanner? Any help provided is appreciated. Thank you.
Joe

[Mark Kelepouris]

Post by Joe
I have a great deal of old family negatives and photos that I want to
capture digitally. I would like to know what is the best method to scan in
negatives? Are regular flat bed scanners with attachments on the lid for
negatives and slides any good or should I consider getting a dedicated film
scanner? Any help provided is appreciated. Thank you.
Joe

Hi Joe,

It depends on how much you have to spend and how high a quality you want.
Since you want to scan Photos and Negs, a scanner that does both is an ideal
way to go.
You said 'old family negs' so some are likely to big larger than 35 mm.
A dedicated neg scanner for larger than 35 mm is expensive and it cant scan
photos either.
Buy a decent flatbed ($1000plus) and that should do your needs.
If all or most a the negs are 35mm, you'll need both. (especially if
archiving etc)

Mark K.

[Phil Ardussi]

In all due respect, may I suggest less than $250 for an Epson V500? I have a
Nikon LS5000 and find the Epson easier to use for prints, negatives, and
occasional newspaper clippings. Then I go into Picasa, if needed (most of
the time) and sharpen, increase contrast, and brighten up the white areas.
Picasa is free and low tech so it's an approachable application.

Phil

Post by Mark Kelepouris

Post by Joe
I have a great deal of old family negatives and photos that I want to
capture digitally. I would like to know what is the best method to scan
in negatives? Are regular flat bed scanners with attachments on the lid
for negatives and slides any good or should I consider getting a dedicated
film scanner? Any help provided is appreciated. Thank you.
Joe

Hi Joe,
It depends on how much you have to spend and how high a quality you want.
Since you want to scan Photos and Negs, a scanner that does both is an ideal
way to go.
You said 'old family negs' so some are likely to big larger than 35 mm.
A dedicated neg scanner for larger than 35 mm is expensive and it cant scan
photos either.
Buy a decent flatbed ($1000plus) and that should do your needs.
If all or most a the negs are 35mm, you'll need both. (especially if
archiving etc)
Mark K.

[Nigel Feltham]

Post by Joe
I have a great deal of old family negatives and photos that I want to
capture digitally. I would like to know what is the best method to scan in
negatives? Are regular flat bed scanners with attachments on the lid for
negatives and slides any good or should I consider getting a dedicated film
scanner? Any help provided is appreciated. Thank you.
Joe

As the other comments have said it depends on the film type (35mm or larger,
colour or black&white, all negatives or some slides too), it also depends
on the condition of the negatives - if dirty or scratched you'll want to
look for a scanner that has ICE (or FARE on canon scanners) technology,
basically as well as getting a normal scan of the image it also scans with
infrared light to give a scan only containing the damage and uses this as a
mask to automate removal of defects (quicker than manually retouching each
one).

If only have negatives and prints then a flatbed scanner would be best but
slides are trickier - most flatbeds can't handle the wide contrast and
you'll get no detail in the shadows and washed out highlight areas.

Others here can offer suggestions about what current scanners to buy but let
me suggest one thing to avoid - don't get one of widely-advertised 5m pixel
film scanners, they're little more than a low-end 5 megapixel camera (with
cheap plastic lenses) mounted in a case with an LED light box, you'll get
better results using virtually any flatbed scanner with film attachment.

Another option is using a tripod-mounted digital camera to re-photograph
prints and use a slide copier over the lens (the type that used to be sold
for duplicating slides on film cameras) to photograph negatives and slides.