scanning B&W negatives

[kalkadan]

I would be really grateful for some help. And I'll happily admit my stupidity up front;-)

I have an Epson RX650 scanner/printer. It only scans 35mm negs/slides (of course it will do scans of hard copy, but that is not my problem).

I want to scan and save to the hard drive. Then I want to print to A4, with the best resolution possible. I have managed this with direct prints from the memory cards of my D200. The prints take a while to come out but the quality is very good.

But I can't seem to crack it with the scan of negatives. Yep, I've read the instructions. Must have been written by someone whose brain works in different channels to mine.

So what definition do I aim for in the scan? Or what else is there I should be doing? I have tried for 6400 or thereabouts and the computer and machine don't seem to like that very much.

Eventually I want to re-commission my old Rolleiflex TLR and scan the 6x6 B&W negs, but I'll have to get a different scanner to do that as the Epson RX650 only does up to 35mm negs - which I discovered after I bought it! Any advice on an appropriate scanner for 6x6?

If there are some sites you could recommend that would be appreciated.

Dan

[jerrysk8]

not exactly sure what ur problem is. is it the scan or the printing that your having problems with? those multifunction printer/scanners are also not the best for film scanning. more for document scanning.

i get my friend to scan my negs for web and he has a canon 8400f and does the job nicely and only cost $350. but i would advise spending a little bit extra and get the epson 4490 for $450.

there are a couple of places that do MF film processing and scanning like prolab in southbank and allchromes in the valley.

sorry i couldn't be of much help.

[kalkadan]

thanks Jerry - I may check with those places you mention

Dan

[Hlop]

I'm scanning B&W negatives with Epson Perfection 4990 but I modified it removing glass and replacing it with a frame to support film holders. So, technically being a flat-bed scanner now it's dedicated glassless film scanner. Glass removal eliminated newton rings problem and dramatically decreased an amount of dust. Last is very important because DigitalICE doesn't work with B&W. Also, without a glass I get slightly better details because any (even a good quality) glass defuses the light and decreasing real CCD resolution

[kalkadan]

thanks Mikhaeil - I think I need to do a lot more reading, and to seek some practical advice from someone in Brissie.

Dan

[Colcam]

I have an Epson RX650 scanner/printer. It only scans 35mm negs/slides (of course it will do scans of hard copy, but that is not my problem).

I want to scan and save to the hard drive. Then I want to print to A4, with the best resolution possible. I have managed this with direct prints from the memory cards of my D200. The prints take a while to come out but the quality is very good.

So what definition do I aim for in the scan? Or what else is there I should be doing? I have tried for 6400 or thereabouts and the computer and machine don't seem to like that very much.

Eventually I want to re-commission my old Rolleiflex TLR and scan the 6x6 B&W negs, but I'll have to get a different scanner to do that as the Epson RX650 only does up to 35mm negs - which I discovered after I bought it! Any advice on an appropriate scanner for 6x6?
If there are some sites you could recommend that would be appreciated. Dan

Hi Dan
Scanning negs at any decent res is a demanding process for a system. You really haven't described the exact problem though. If you don't have a real powerful system or a lack of RAM/hard drive space, you can easily run into problems.
I suggest that if your scan software offers multiple choices in the menu/advanced options type of thing, take the best they have to offer. The scans should be at least 2400 - 4800 dpi depending on how big you intend to print them. Don't exceed the OPTICAL resolution of the scanner usually. Many will offer higher res scans, but they are interpolating to get there.
Try just scanning one neg first to get it running. Best results will come from setting the scan to its highest bit depth ie 16 bit greyscale or 48 bit colour. Minimum sharpening and adjust the levels/curves a bit there first. The actual scan should go okay if you have enough RAM & Hard drive space free. Never let your HDD get below 100mb free, preferably 2gb. The temporary files generated by this whole process can get quite big, especially if you are scanning direct into Photoshop. e.g. recently I scanned a 14inch x 12 inch glass neg to a final file size of 2.2gb on the disc, but the scratch file that PS generated was 40GB!! THEN there is still the windows temp file AND the swap file.

Once the scan is done comes the work in PS, but tell us what exactly is happening or not happening and when please.
The 6x6 negs should be able to be scanned okay by laying them on the platen glass and place a very clean piece of glass on top to hold it flat whilst scanning. You may get some extra dust because of the extra glass surfaces, but they can be spotted out.
Over to you
Col

[kalkadan]

Col

That was very helpful. Thank you. I shall give it a try using the settings you recommend. Anyone scanning glass plate negs at that size knows what he is doing! Btw, what scanner do you have?

I have been running the Epson scanning software on a Windows XP laptop with minimal RAM and not much HD space left.

However I have a MacBook Pro with 2gb of RAM and plenty of space on the HD so I will install the scanning software which came with the Epson 650RX on the Mac and give it a run.

I'll report back! But probably in a few days

Dan

[Colcam]

Col

That was very helpful. Thank you. I shall give it a try using the settings you recommend. Anyone scanning glass plate negs at that size knows what he is doing! Btw, what scanner do you have?

Epson 4870, but it is being pushed to the limit for my tastes. Would like the new 700.
Col