# looking for a budget photo scanner?



## RRYANSMITHH (Jun 12, 2011)

I'm looking for a scanner that can scan both prints and negatives, for less than $200?

That might be a lot to ask for, but considering the fact that I only shoot with film, I have a lot of prints and negs just laying around that I'd like to get on Flickr.

Suggestions?


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## dawn (Jun 12, 2011)

Walmart.com: Pandigital 4" x 6" Personal Photo, Slide, and Negative Scanner/Converter: Computers

I just bought this one. It's not anything to get too excited about, but for $78, it's exactly what I wanted.  The color is slightly off on some of them, but a few seconds in gimp and you're good. 

This is how the photo looked when scanned from the negative, no post processing:







This is after I added color





I think I over corrected now that I look at them together

And at some point, I got dust in the scanner, so I got these lines:





If your negs are scratched (like the butterfly one), you see the scratches.  But for the convenience and price, it does pretty good.

This scanner does 4x6 and smaller, plus negatives and slides.  I think they have one that does 8 x 10.


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## RRYANSMITHH (Jun 12, 2011)

So, I've narrowed it down to that one and this one.

Clothing, Toys, Electronics, Jewelry, Jaclyn Smith - Kmart.com


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## Ron G (Jun 12, 2011)

There are a lot of flatbed scanners on ebay with transparency adapters for very little money.You can buy them for 20 bucks or so plus shipping.I buy Microteks when I am looking for a scanner but there are several others for cheap.I have half a dozen around here picked up on Craigslist or Freecycle.They are everywhere.Ron G


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

The Epson V600 is about $250, new.  You might be able to find one on sale or something.

The V500 (or is it 550?) is cheaper - $220, I think.  From what I've heard, it seems to be pretty much the same as the V600, but with different software.

What OS do you run?  There are more on Newegg - but some don't run on Windows 7, Mac OS X, etc...

edit
(Epson and HP are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head that usually work on _any_ OS.)


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## ghache (Jun 12, 2011)

I have the epson v500 and i love it, if you dont have 4000$ slides and negatives to do its a really nice unit for the price.


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## CaranDache (Jun 12, 2011)

What is the picture quality of a film negative scan on the Epson comparable to?


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

CaranDache said:


> What is the picture quality of a film negative scan on the Epson comparable to?



Not sure how to answer that...  Compared to another scanner?  Digital SLR?  Enlarger?

I would say that the quality is 'good' though.  Not the best you can get, but good enough that the average person would never know the difference.

Click the link in my signature - almost everything there is film scanned with an Epson V600.  Some of it is film scanned with a PlusTech scanner though - which is good too.  (Those are older ones, and it says 'PlusTech' as the "camera" in the little exif blurb next to the picture.)


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## RRYANSMITHH (Jun 12, 2011)

I use Windows XP SP2. I think I'm gonna go with the one from K-Mart. It seems decent enough for me.


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

RRYANSMITHH said:


> I use Windows XP SP2. I think I'm gonna go with the one from K-Mart. It seems decent enough for me.


The one you linked to earlier?  That doesn't look like it can scan negs - prints only.

edit
It also looks like 4x6 is the largest size it can do - and the resolution is kinda low...

The description says it scans negs, but I don't see how, since you just feed a sheet in...  Anyway, if all it can do is 600ppi, that isn't really enough for scanning film.  I wouldn't expect to get anything larger than a 4x6 from a 600ppi neg scan - if that.


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## Proteus617 (Jun 12, 2011)

RRYANSMITHH said:


> I use Windows XP SP2. I think I'm gonna go with the one from K-Mart. It seems decent enough for me.



You are going to regret that.  The Kodak is expensive for what it is and you will outgrow it VERY quickly.  Low-end Epson scanners are miles ahead of the stuff you are looking at and are the same price brand new.  A V300 is $80 direct from Epson and better deals can be found.  Used Epsons can be dirt cheap.  Everything on my Flickr was scanned on a used Epson Perfection 3170 Photo I picked up for $30.


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

If all it can do is 600ppi (the K-Mart scanner) ... a scan of a 35mm frame would give you a 566x850 pixel image - max.  That's small.  Basically, a 4x6 print would be pushing the limits...  (If not completely beyond the limits.)


It might be OK if all you cared about was posting stuff on Facebook with zero editing - beyond that, I would keep looking.


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## CaranDache (Jun 12, 2011)

O|||||||O said:


> CaranDache said:
> 
> 
> > What is the picture quality of a film negative scan on the Epson comparable to?
> ...



Compared to a full frame DSLR like a D700 and a non full frame DSLR like a D300.  Can it scan medium format film as well?


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## ultimadrift (Jun 12, 2011)

Yes No? I'm thinking of getting this one
Pacific Image Prime-Film 3600u Film Scanner PRIMEFILE 3600U B&H


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

CaranDache said:


> O|||||||O said:
> 
> 
> > CaranDache said:
> ...



Yes, the V600 can do medium format, and the V700/750 can do negs up to 8x10...  (It does cost considerably more though)

The answer to your question depends a lot on the film you're scanning.  Some films, even in 35mm, will out-perform full frame DSLRs - and other films just suck.  
So, the answer is - it depends.    Depending on the film you use, it can be either 'better' or 'worse' than digital.

I've never used a full frame DSLR, but if you were going to compare film scans to a crop sensor DSLR, I would take film any day.  That's just me though...  It seems (to me) like most of the advantages of digital are in areas that I don't care much for (high ISO, for example), so I never bothered to invest in more than a consumer level crop body.  Film is more fun anyway.


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## RRYANSMITHH (Jun 12, 2011)

I'm considering the V300 and the V600. Can the V300 scan medium format negs?


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

Looks like it only comes with a holder for 35mm (1 strip 6 frames long, or 4 slides).

Epson Perfection V300 Photo Scanner - Product Information - Epson America, Inc.

Since it can only do one strip at a time, I would guess that it probably can't do MF...


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## CaranDache (Jun 12, 2011)

It is amazing to me that such a cheap printer could be so good.  What are the advantages of the much more expensive Nikons or even the slightly more expensive V700?


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## Josh66 (Jun 12, 2011)

Larger scanning area, higher resolution scanning head.  That's about it, I think - those are two pretty big pluses though, if that's something you need.


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## RRYANSMITHH (Jun 13, 2011)

I'll probably go with the V700, since someone previously said it can do MF.


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## Josh66 (Jun 13, 2011)

The V600 and V700 both can do medium format.  The V600 is around $250, the V700 is around $600...  The V700 can also do large format though, and the V600 can't.


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## Professional (Jul 6, 2011)

I went with epson V750, i am very very happy to do that because i went with large format, i always spend a lot today to save in the future, many think if they buy cheaper now they are saving money, but later they will replace it with another model, so if i did what most people do and save money and buy say V300 or V600 then i will end up to sell it and buy V700 or V750 to do large format scanning, so why i didn't go with V700/750 first place?

I can show you many scans i did with my V750 if any interested in to see, i know it is not as drum scanning or film dedicated scan quality, but at the end it doing the job flawlessly, scanning 35mm is not so great and maybe i will not be satisfied, but i don't shoot 35mm film at all, and MF scanning is really amazing, but once i did scan LF, i think i will not think to buy Nikon Scanner, not sharper of Nikon scanning of MF but the details are unbelievable, LF is another class by its own and i see what i have missing all these years, scanning 4x5 is like i am printing film at 4x6 and scanning it, i can't imagine if one day i go with 8x10 how will be the results then?!!!!!!!!!


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## Dialectic10 (Jul 16, 2011)

Ryan,
I got my V300 last week and I've been using it a lot. It's awesome. =]
However, compared to the scans you can get from CVS or Walgreens with their drum scanners, the V300 isn't as good at all. But it's good enough IMO.


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## Proteus617 (Jul 16, 2011)

Dialectic10 said:


> Ryan,
> I got my V300 last week and I've been using it a lot. It's awesome. =]
> However, compared to the scans you can get from CVS or Walgreens with their drum scanners, the V300 isn't as good at all. But it's good enough IMO.



Are you scanning in auto?  Scanning is a bit of an art.  Until you get the hang of manually scanning your frames you wont get the best performance out of your scanner.


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## Dialectic10 (Jul 16, 2011)

Proteus617 said:


> Are you scanning in auto?  Scanning is a bit of an art.  Until you get the hang of manually scanning your frames you wont get the best performance out of your scanner.



Yeah, I actually do scan in auto. What settings do you use?


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## Proteus617 (Jul 16, 2011)

Dialectic10 said:


> Yeah, I actually do scan in auto. What settings do you use?



I have an old Epson 3170 and only shoot B+W, so your experience may vary.  Here's how I do it.
I scan both 35mm and 120 as Tiff, 16 bit greyscale.  Click "Professional Mode", click "Preview".  The scanner does a bad job of selecting the actual frame from the negative strip then tries to autocorrect for info that is not there.  So, use the marquee tool to select your first frame.  Select liberally.  Click "Zoom", and adjust your marquee so that ONLY your image is selected.  Click the the button that looks like a histogram.  Now, the histogram you see will only include the info from the actual image and not the base fog from the strip.  Use the sliders like you would on the "Levels" tool in Pshop.  The scanner is good with highlights, not so good with shadows.  Set your blackpoint so no info is clipped.  Actually, set it a touch liberally as there is more info at the left of the histo than what shows up in the graph.  Set your white point so nothing is clipped, not liberally (you most likely will have more than enough info there anyway).  Now, set the midpoint to value 1.00.  Minor adjustments in the midpoint will affect the tone curve.  Sliding to the left gives you more values in the shadows to play with, and vice versa.  Color works the same way except that you can adjust all three channels individually.  If you have some Pshop skills the interface will look immediately familiar.


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## Dialectic10 (Jul 19, 2011)

Proteus617 said:


> I have an old Epson 3170 and only shoot B+W, so your experience may vary.  Here's how I do it.
> I scan both 35mm and 120 as Tiff, 16 bit greyscale.  Click "Professional Mode", click "Preview".  The scanner does a bad job of selecting the actual frame from the negative strip then tries to autocorrect for info that is not there.  So, use the marquee tool to select your first frame.  Select liberally.  Click "Zoom", and adjust your marquee so that ONLY your image is selected.  Click the the button that looks like a histogram.  Now, the histogram you see will only include the info from the actual image and not the base fog from the strip.  Use the sliders like you would on the "Levels" tool in Pshop.  The scanner is good with highlights, not so good with shadows.  Set your blackpoint so no info is clipped.  Actually, set it a touch liberally as there is more info at the left of the histo than what shows up in the graph.  Set your white point so nothing is clipped, not liberally (you most likely will have more than enough info there anyway).  Now, set the midpoint to value 1.00.  Minor adjustments in the midpoint will affect the tone curve.  Sliding to the left gives you more values in the shadows to play with, and vice versa.  Color works the same way except that you can adjust all three channels individually.  If you have some Pshop skills the interface will look immediately familiar.



Hallelujah! The color correction option works like magic (if it's necessary). The one I have does a really good job selecting frames though. I played around with the Pro mode and there's a lot I can do before I actually scan. Thanks Proteus.


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## Proteus617 (Jul 19, 2011)

Cool!  Glad it's working out for you.


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