# Scanning film/Film scanners.



## Matthew Howell (Nov 16, 2014)

So as I have begun to shoot more and more film I have started wondering if I could get a better quality from the 35mm Neg if I bought my own scanner and did them myself.  Nothing against my current developer but some I would rather not have 5mp Jpeg files to work with when I could possibly be getting 9mp Raw images.  

Now my question what is a good quality "budget"  35mm film scanner?  Im not worried about scanning in old prints or anything or even medium format at the moment as I am worried about pulling as much quality out of these negatives  as I can


----------



## gsgary (Nov 16, 2014)

Ive got the Epson V500 and have had big prints from 35mm but only scan for the internet now I have a darkroom again


----------



## Light Guru (Nov 16, 2014)

Matthew Howell said:


> Nothing against my current developer but some I would rather not have 5mp Jpeg files to work with when I could possibly be getting 9mp Raw images.



You won't get a "raw" file from a scan but you can get a uncompressed tiff file.  There are some scanning software programs that say they will save as a raw file but you don't really get anything more then what a uncompressed tiff would have. And the raw files they give you are not vary compatible with other software. 



Matthew Howell said:


> Now my question what is a good quality "budget"  35mm film scanner?



Define "budget"


----------



## Derrel (Nov 16, 2014)

This article on scannerless digitial capture of film appeared not too long ago:  Scannerless Digital Capture and Processing of Negative Film Photographs

I thought it was interesting to see the BETTER performance of a high-MP camera over a scanner when it came to grain and dust; the camera captures were a lot less ugly than the scanner captures.


----------



## Gary A. (Nov 16, 2014)

I have a dedicated 35mm film scanner, a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai Film Scanner.


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 16, 2014)

Gary A. said:


> I have a dedicated 35mm film scanner, a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i Ai Film Scanner.



Me too.  I can extract the grain out of my old Kodachrome 25 slides.


----------



## Matthew Howell (Nov 16, 2014)

Im looking at dropping $100-$300.  looking more at the used market than new.  I am still between DSLR's as I am trying to save up for a 5Dmk3 as my old EOS 55 is chugging along in the meantime so using digital is out of the question for now.


----------

