Your synopsis was what I was referring to in my post above... with perhaps an ideal reasonably priced solution being to scan your 35mm negs 'in bulk' two strips at a time on something like an Epson V550 or V600. Then choose which photos you love the most and scan them on one of the current models of Plustek scanner.I have a Plustek 8100 that I use for my 35mm stuff and a V550 that I use for medium format. The Plustek is notably sharper for 35mm, but it takes me longer to scan a roll.
If medium format is definitely not a consideration, then I’d certainly recommend a Plustek.
I’d love the 120 format version, but it’s considerably out of my price range.
Your synopsis was what I was referring to in my post above... with perhaps an ideal reasonably priced solution being to scan your 35mm negs 'in bulk' two strips at a time on something like an Epson V550 or V600. Then choose which photos you love the most and scan them on one of the current models of Plustek scanner.
Alternatively, perhaps invest heavily in a professional quality Noritsu scanner that will handle 120 as well as 35mm and pay for the operator training courses, tech support and maintenance costs to get the best out of that. Or pay by instalment and let a pro-quality lab scan all your films... or send them selected negative or transparency frames to scan, providing you can keep the dust, scratches and fingerprints off them in the meantime.
Once again, it seems quality is relative to cost and time... and I doubt that will be a surprise as a life lesson to most of us. :banghead:
Too right, drum scanner here we come!If only I'd won that Euromillions jackpot, eh?
I have a Plustek 8100 that I use for my 35mm stuff and a V550 that I use for medium format. The Plustek is notably sharper for 35mm, but it takes me longer to scan a roll.
If medium format is definitely not a consideration, then I’d certainly recommend a Plustek.
Thanks for all the info guys. Plumped for an 8100 Plustek. I'm pretty sure it'll do me a great turn.
I just use a lightable and a loupe to quickly pick out the frames I want to scan with the Plustek. Huge time saver.
Thanks for all the info guys. Plumped for an 8100 Plustek. I'm pretty sure it'll do me a great turn.
I keep thinking of an 8100 for 35mm so would be interested to hear your thoughts. The scans I get off my V550 are pants, and the "DSLR Scan" thing is a huge pain to set up. (to do a job that is my least favourite task in the workflow) My main concern is that it'll end up only being marginally better than the Epson (@trypdal - those results are interesting...) Maybe I'll pick up a 2nd hand one off ebay and flog it on again if it's not worth the desk space (which I also don't have!)
/grumble
This is a link to a full-size 3600dpi scan from my Plustek 8100 (click the link at the bottom, not the image):
Is there an amount of unsharp-mask applied to the Plustek output here or is this straight out of scanner?
My main concern is that it'll end up only being marginally better than the Epson (@trypdal - those results are interesting...)
/grumble
What DPI are you scanning at with your 550?I keep thinking of an 8100 for 35mm so would be interested to hear your thoughts. The scans I get off my V550 are pants, and the "DSLR Scan" thing is a huge pain to set up. (to do a job that is my least favourite task in the workflow) My main concern is that it'll end up only being marginally better than the Epson (@trypdal - those results are interesting...) Maybe I'll pick up a 2nd hand one off ebay and flog it on again if it's not worth the desk space (which I also don't have!)
/grumble
My Nikon Scan 4 software (32-bit) has no trouble running on Windows 10 (64-bit), and neither do any other 32-bit apps that i can think of, but the actual driver that I'm using is from a recent iteration of Silverfast, if that's ever any help to anyone ...just now is slightly dodgy for some film scanners as manufacturers appear to have been lazy in releasing 64-bit versions of their drivers...
You must be way better at reading negatives than I am!
Thinking about it, though, a really close inspection of negatives probably helps a lot in thinking about exposure!
Can't remember, but a couple of images I checked give me 40Mb tiffs. I usually try to aim for 300ppi @ around A4 size. I did wonder whether I was pushing the 550 too far with this... It's obviously less intense when I scan 645 or larger which co-incidentally give me much better results.What DPI are you scanning at with your 550?
And this is even more of a reason to consider the gamble. I've given up on both those films at 35mm because my images look like $hite. Got to admit that yours (and @FishyFish ) images look very good up-close.On traditional high-speed film stocks, for example TriX or HP5 processed in Rodinal, the difference is really visible:
I keep thinking of an 8100 for 35mm so would be interested to hear your thoughts. The scans I get off my V550 are pants, and the "DSLR Scan" thing is a huge pain to set up. (to do a job that is my least favourite task in the workflow)
I find the output of the Plustek to be noticeably better than that of the V550. This is more evident with certain film stocks/developer combinations. On traditional high-speed film stocks, for example TriX or HP5 processed in Rodinal, the difference is really visible: whereas the flatbeds can't resolve the grain, the Plustek can, and gives a crisp result straight out of scanner. The screen grabs I posted above are probably not showing the most dramatic differences you'll be able to get, because I was using a relatively fine grained film processed in a fine-grained developer.
I think you can't go wrong with a Plustek honestly, especially if you get one off gumtree and end up paying less than half price. Most of the units people sell are very lightly used ('senior' folks trying to digitalise huge collections and giving up after 3 rolls )
I did an experiment when I first got my V600 and found it actually started to lose detail and sharpness and anything over 3200 dpi resolution (presumably as interpolation kicks in noticeably after that), so perhaps try 3200 dpi and see if that looks any better? I never bother with TIFFs, just JPEG at 48 bit colour. I resize afterwards in photoshop to around 30cm width (in landscape view) at 300 pixels/inch for 35mm images. You won't get detail like they seem to from Plustek scanners, but it might make a bit of a difference.Can't remember, but a couple of images I checked give me 40Mb tiffs. I usually try to aim for 300ppi @ around A4 size. I did wonder whether I was pushing the 550 too far with this... It's obviously less intense when I scan 645 or larger which co-incidentally give me much better results.)
Plustek 8100 turned up today. Anyone have any good places to learn a bit about it and the software.
Thinks it's going to be quite an education!
Thanks Fish. I'll definitely look through theseI remember watching this when I first got mine:
View: https://youtu.be/mBx-YN1yw_A
He has some more Silverfast videos too.
I did an experiment when I first got my V600 and found it actually started to lose detail and sharpness and anything over 3200 dpi resolution (presumably as interpolation kicks in noticeably after that), so perhaps try 3200 dpi and see if that looks any better? I never bother with TIFFs, just JPEG at 48 bit colour. I resize afterwards in photoshop to around 30cm width (in landscape view) at 300 pixels/inch for 35mm images. You won't get detail like they seem to from Plustek scanners, but it might make a bit of a difference.