PBase

I am looking into buying my self a Holga and a TRL camera, both of which use medium format film. I plan on letting a professional lab do all of the processing, but I want to do all the post editing.

There is no way I can afford a dedicated film scanner (yet alone for medium format). Does anyone out there use a flatbed for medium format film? If so, what brand, what kind of results are you getting, so on so on. Let me know, I would like as much feed back as possible before I out spending all sorts of money.

Hola Jose,
Hace un mes compre el Epson 4990 que permite multiples formatos desde 35 mm hasta 4x5 pulgadas. Una de las causas que me llevaron a comprar este modelo era su excelente relacion precio-calidad y la posiblilidad de scanear todas las diapositivas de formato medio que tenia. Sobre este scanner hay un muy buen analisis en http://www.kenrockwell.com/epson/4990.htm
A mi los resultados me perecen excelentes y los posibilidades de control sobre la imagen son totales.
Un saludo,

sergio

HI Jose,

I use a Nikon Cool Scan IV for 35mm and LOVE it!

For Med and large format I used an HP 5370C flat bed scanner with medium format transparency attachment which worked very well but it just conked out on me. (Is it worth fixing ????)

Sooooo ..... I have gone low tech temporarily and just lay my 6x6 or 4x5 neg or pos transparencies (with a cutout cardboard mask to hold them flat) on a 5500K light box and shoot them with my Nikon 8700 digi-cam in close-up mode. It works great (at least for use on the net such as pBase. I convert the neg. into pos in PS and post process as usual with decent results. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Best,

Vince

Hi

I use the Epson 3170 for medium format scans, works quite well. Have made prints at 8x8 and pleased with the results. The Epson software works well, I have purchased 'Vuescan' and this has increased the scanning ability. I understand that the price for the 3170 is very good. Several images in my portfolio here at Pbase were scanned using this scanner. Good luck.

Dana

I use Canoscan8400F scan both 35mm and 120 slides and negative film. I feel Okay. I guess Canoscan9900F may be a better choice.

I very recently bought a Microtek i700 (Scanmaker 5) which has a variety of "EZ-Lockâ„¢" attachements for negs and slides etc "Film holders accommodate 35mm slides, 35mm filmstrips, 4"x5 film, and medium format film up to 6x9cm and 6x17cm panoramic".

I'm new to neg scanning so cannot really compare with anything else but I decided to buy this because ... actually I've created a page about my novice scanning experience so you can read about why I bought this there and a bit more detail about the software etc.

In a nutshell I'm really happy with it, but I am now also going to buy either GEM (basic) or VueScan software to remove grain (and more so noise).

I have found this necessary for reprocessing negs with low contrast (not my fault) and overexposed shots (my fault). In both cases the noise / grain can be extreme.

I'm now thinking of shooting exclusively on transparency film as these seem to come up much better (and, like you, I am moving towards professional processing and doing the rest myself). I will have them left in strips of 6 or just in the roll (and then cut into six) as this is the size of (a) insert pages and (b) the scanning holder.

The grain / noise was the biggest surprise and disappointment but my early results with GEM have been VERY satisfying (nothing posted yet on my site as I am still using the trial version with watermarks). ICE is great to have (i700 comes with it) but GEM is very impressive.

I will trial Vuescan - I like the idea that Vuescan gives you a raw scan to play with (unlike all other software as far as I can tell) and (in the more expensive version) you can save these raw files (scanning negs is VERY slow as you need 2500 dpi+). The grain / noise reduction is important to me - as much of my work is in low light so it will have to cut the mustard there - I cannot afford to buy both so Vuescan will have to do this as well as GEM if I'm going to buy it.

Hope this helps - please share your experience.

Thanks everyone. I went with the Epson 4490. I have had it since Febuary and love what I am getting with it. Of couse I do not have anything else to compare it with. My friend hates his 4490, but of course he had a dedicated film scanner that scans at a much faster rate.

I have two dedicated scanners, both Minoltas. I also have an Epson 4870,I think it is a different number in the states,anyway I do not use the minoltas now as I am so pleased with the Epson.

I also use a 4870 and its a bit aged now but for any on screen use its fantastic if you are after pro results the epson V700/V750 are now the flatbeds to own.

Check this page out and find out if the new Canon 8800F will do the trick for you.

http://www.stockholmviews.com/canon_880 ... page9.html

I am using epson 4490 and so far so good, check my scanning samples:

http://www.pbase.com/chengduhokie/medium_format

joseju wrote:I am looking into buying my self a Holga and a TRL camera, both of which use medium format film. I plan on letting a professional lab do all of the processing, but I want to do all the post editing.

There is no way I can afford a dedicated film scanner (yet alone for medium format). Does anyone out there use a flatbed for medium format film? If so, what brand, what kind of results are you getting, so on so on. Let me know, I would like as much feed back as possible before I out spending all sorts of money.

Hi,

I recently bought an Epson V500 on Amazon as they were on Special offer. I've not tried much so far, but I am really pleased with my 35mm test scans.
There appears to be an issue with 6x6 film but apparantly it can be tricked into scanning it - I need to find out, still, but since it comes with a 6x6 mask I ma sure it will scan. Of course, it also has the advantage to make high resolution scans of everything, like fine prints etc.

A friend of mine has the Epson 4490, even cheaper, and is happy with it, but it takes much longer to scan.

Hope this helps.

Also, try the forums in the Flickr Groups -much more info there.