 Dana Gambill |
Film & Slide Scanners I have tons of 35mm & 2-1/4 negatives and transparencies that I'd like to scan. The minimal purpose would be for my Web site and e-mailing, and to burn onto a CD for magazine photo editors. Ideally, I'd love to get some of this work published, so if it appeared as a full-page in a magazine, I'd need to be able to scan at an acceptable quality. I'm also interested in submitting my work to stock agencies. Any suggestions on scanners that would fit my needs? Thanks, Dana
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Bob Cammarata |
Dana, Nikon, Canon and others make great film scanners. You should check out the specs and compare features of those within your price range that will scan at 4000 dpi. I've enjoyed continued success with a Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED for several years, but this scanner won't accept those 2 1/4" transparencies and negatives. You will need one that will scan up to medium format. For your submissions, unless they are asking for digital files, I recommend that you send high-quality dupes of the original slides rather than home-scanned versions. The publication's submission guidelines will clearly outline what is acceptable or preferred.
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Dana Gambill |
Bob, Thanks so much for your input.
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wildlifetrailphotography.com - Donald R. Curry Contact Donald R. Curry Donald R. Curry's Gallery |
Dana, I use the Nikon Coolscan V. I find that it works well. Although, it only scans 35mm. There are other Coolscan versions that can handle 2.25. I think you would be pleased with the quality.
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doug Nelson |
I agree with Bob on the scanning resolution and the choice of scanner for 35mm. As serious as you are about this project, you might want to buy also a flatbed scanner that will do medium format. I like my Epson V700. I scan medium format at 3200 ppi. You would also gain an excellent flatbed for prints. Ride the learning curve on slide scanning. Slides are denser and contrastier than negatives. You will have to learn tonal and color manipulation in Photoshop, or minimally, Elements. SAVE full resolution version of your scans on CD for archiving and printing. Convert them to jpg and downsize for emailing and Web posting, then SAVE AS in a file for small file size versions. Enjoy the ride. It's probably a labor of love for you. These are YOUR images.
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Dana Gambill |
Thanks for all the feedback everybody. It really helps.
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Kevin Elliott |
Dana - if you intend to submit for publication, avoid the flatbeds, even for the MF film. Suitable scanners would be (new) Nikon 9000, used nikon 8000, microtek 120tf and the higher res minoltas. These all ocver 35mm and MF. Canon stopped making decent film scanners a long time ago, as did minolta & microtek.
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Steve M. Harrington |
I have recently purchased the Nikon Coolscan V and am thrilled with the results. There are two issues I am trying to sort out. After I have edited an image, is there a problem with converting to jpeg from TIFF to reduce the file size, providing I keep the 4.000 ppi resolution. Second, can anyone recommend some Unsharp Mask settings. This resolution and file size is foreign territory for me. Thank you.
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Andy |
Steve, I am using a CoolScan IV and I have an option to scan in 8 or 12 bit. The 12 bit scan can only be saved in tiff format while the 8 bit scan can be saved in both jpeg or tiff format. But they are all scan in 2900ppi (V has 4000ppi). Tiff format just retain all the information withoug compression. See if your scanning software gives you this option. It should be under "Scanner Extra" in "Tool Palette" window. Hope this helps.
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doug Nelson |
I see no value in retaining a 4000 ppi resolution while converting to jpg. CD's and detachable USB hard drives are cheap and hold a lot. You want to save a full resolution .tif, maybe the origal raw or maybe a .psd with all your adjustment layers saved as an archival copy. When you consider that only one or two shots out of 50 are worth saving, you can afford to give your best stuff this kid-glove treatment. Go to jpg to send "proofs", post on the web and to send as attachments. See scantips.com for some tips on Unsharp Mask. See any Photoshop book for some finer points on this important tool.
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Steve M. Harrington |
Thanks for responding, Andy and Doug. I'm scanning all my slides at 4,000 ppi and using TIFF. I checked out scantips.com and it has useful but vague guidelines for USM settings. I appreciate that there are no simple answers, but I am looking for some guidelines. On 5MP images from my camera, I usually start at 70%, 2.0 pixels, 0 threshold. This setting hardly makes a dent in my 4,000ppi images. Should I repeat that setting to gain further sharpness, or modify my initial setting. I want to find a reasonable ballpark setting for a typical image of that size.
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Kevin Elliott |
Steve, The bottom line is that each image needs individual treatment - there's no silver bullet. However the trick is to get something to look slightly oversharp on screen at print size. Try sharpening percentages in the 2/3/400% range, although your coolscan should give scans that don't need a lot of sharpening. Try to avoid the oversharpened digicam look, where everything lokos like the proverbial Monty Pythonesque "Cardboard cut out". Some excellent sharpening articles at www.ronbigelow.com, although some of it's rather advanced. You may also want to consider the PK sharpener plug in.
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Steve M. Harrington |
Thank you very much for your information, Kevin. I've checked out a couple of articles on www.ronbigelow.com and they are exactly what I was looking for. It is a mine of info and provides great guidelines for using USM. Steve
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