All important information about the FilmScan 35 scanner of Microtek and scanner software SilverFast.

Hi team, I need some help. A friend has developed (see what I did there?) an urge to scan a ton of old negs, but doesn't have any experience whatsoever with scanning. I said I'd ask The FW Hive Mind (TM) for their recommendations regarding 35mm neg scanners. Think ease-of-use and speed over uber quality and geeky concerns about pixel counts etc.

I've had a succession of flatbeds and ain't going to change anytime soon, so I have no real input, but I know some of you will have a view on this. Thanks in advance p.s. If anyone in the UK has sent hundreds of negs off to a lab for scanning onto DVDs and had a good experience then that's also something I'd be keen to hear about. Ed, getting negs scanned commercially (aside from at the point the film is processed) can be very expensive. Obviously, a lot will depend on the scan quality and whether the scan would include de-dusting, colour correction, etc. I think Snappy Snaps might do it (don't quote me on that, though). That said, it's probably easier and cheaper in the long run to buy an Epson 500 or similar and learn how to do the scanning.

Once completed, if the scanner is no longer of use, it could probably be sold for half the cost of purchase. I know the Pakon F135 is pretty much the fastest around and has a good level of automation. But it really all depends on the budget. I know the German company Reflecta has a pretty good selection of models. The problem with scanning a lot of pictures is always time.

For bulk scanning at a resolution of 5 megapixels, I actually use this thing. Idownloader Pro Appcake there. It's not great. It has auto white balance, auto exposure. You advance the film by hand and you press the OK button twice to save the photo to a SD card. Then you put the device in USB mode and you just import the files like from any digicam. It's basically a foolproof device made for people who don't know much about photography.

It saves the images as JPG and can basically run as fast as you can shove the film in and press the button. It's definitely not as nice as anything I've ever had. It's not a high quality thing. But if the goal is just to be able to recognize uncle Fred who had a drink too many at aunt Olivia's wedding and threw-up in the punch bowl, it's going to work just fine.

It also works fine for web presentation and making index prints like I do. Most of the pictures I post here now come from this thing. But for nice colors, not much can beat the Pakon. I know the thing was made in china and distributed by Innovative Technology of Port Washington, NY. The model is a ITNS-301.

I know they replaced it by a model with a top mounted LCD. They also have one that scans also 4x6 prints. These sell new for about 100$ when on sale at the office supply store (staples). Personally, I tried a model prior to getting this one and it was awful. The one I tried had no LCD and just gave nasty colors. Then, I found this one at a local charity shop for something like 5$, so I gave it a go and to my surprise I think I got a good one.

I found that whatever color it scans wrong I can fix in picasa, so not a problem there. The only thing I find annoying is the total lack of control. I would have liked a bit more as it can be an absolute pain when you need to stitch multiple images together. Also, you can't set the date on the machine so everything is shot on the same day in the EXIF. It also resets the numbering everytime you disconnect the machine. At least it won't overwrite anything.

To fix that I made a huge (OK, I should say overengineered) DOS script that uses EXIV2 to change the metadata and at least make it somewhat coherent. What I like is that it needs absolutely no software to run and comes with a mains to usb adapter so you can use it anywhere. Download Filter Breaker Psiphon 5 For Pc. On the other hand, the Lomography scanner might be a bit better as you use your smartphone.

It seems to make a decent job and can possibly have a higher resolution. But it's dependent on the phone so it's both a win and a lose. I remember their interface is very easy to navigate.

Just a thought from me here, a flat bed can be loaded with 24 images at the time - hit the button and it will run the frames automatically. Even if it´s not the fastest it gives you the opportunity to do other stuff while it´s working. Buying a V700 used and re selling it after the job should be virtually free, given you don´t drop it down the stairs. You 'just' need the money to get one and get started Also, many of us using this things would give away the standard film holders for free - load a few of them with film and your sawing on the down time as well. Hi team, I need some help. A friend has developed (see what I did there?) an urge to scan a ton of old negs, but doesn't have any experience whatsoever with scanning. I said I'd ask The FW Hive Mind (TM) for their recommendations regarding 35mm neg scanners.

Think ease-of-use and speed over uber quality and geeky concerns about pixel counts etc. I've had a succession of flatbeds and ain't going to change anytime soon, so I have no real input, but I know some of you will have a view on this.

Thanks in advance p.s. If anyone in the UK has sent hundreds of negs off to a lab for scanning onto DVDs and had a good experience then that's also something I'd be keen to hear about.

I use a similar method and you can get fairly fast at it once you have everything set up. I use an Olympus OM-D E-M5 with the 12-50mm kit lens on the macro setting. I used my iPad Mini as a light table with a piece of translucent white plastic to diffuse the screens pixels. You can placed a piece of glass over the negative to get it flat but I have found that a negative holder works best so that you don't get newton rings from the glass. I don't use bellows but I do it in a dark room and make sure that any stray light is masked off. You can get reflections back onto the lens that will show up in the image.

Some old negative holders from enlargers work great, they can easily be found on ebay. Right now I use a tripod for the camera but I would like to get a good copy stand. I know, but it does work. What I usually do is use it for quick scans and then do nice scans with my Epson. It saves the good scanner and a lot of time.

Strangely, I often think that those companies who produce cheap devices have some creative solutions that expensive gear doesn't. Like in those old days of parallel port scanners vs. All the expensive SCSI scanners had a white backplate which somehow made the scanning location detection iffy at best and scanning a single page a nightmare because the light would go through the paper, reflect on the back and be recorded by the scanner. On the other hand, my uber-cheap scanner actually used a black backing plate which cost the manufacturer nothing to produce, made edge detection a cinch and made scanning documents equally easy. And since they were dealing with a slow interface, they actually had a custom chip in the scanner that would jpeg compress the data to move it faster.

Cheap easy and smart. I actually used that thing for a long time. They even had a way to increase the resolution by doing some type of in motion and overlay capture. Same thing with my instant scanner. It's essentially a fixed focus camera that is set at just the right distance from the film to get a good picture. The lens they use has a small aperture so that most of the stuff where the film can be is in focus. Simple but efficient.

The backlight is a simple LED thing. Now just imagine if Nikon produced a similar device with a high end small sensor like the one on the N1 series, a good LCD, a system that would alternate between visible light and IR backlight for dust detection, possibility to adjust exposure and color calibration, raw mode capability, all in one box that saves on an SD card. I'd be the first in line to buy one and since it's still a quite simple device, it probably wouldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks.