Cheap film scanner on 7dayshop

Sleepy

Anyone know if these are any use?

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=106723&r=20100721

I'm assuming they wouldn't provide high enough resolution for exteremely large prints but would they be good enough to get 7x5's or even A4 prints from?

Fajitas!

You'd be better off putting the 50 quid towards a decent scanner tbh.

Sleepy

Kind of assumed as much.

Can you just scan film negatives on a regular flatbet scanner and invert the images?

DaireQuinlan

nope, you'll need some sort of transparency adapter which shines the light through the film. If budget is an issue pick up a canonscan 8800 or whatever the current model is. Flatbeds don't do the best scan quality wise but dedicated film scanners are an order of magnitude more expensive in most cases.

Do a search on the forum for film scanning or scanners or the like, there have been quite a few fairly exhaustive threads on the topic.

Steve Reddin

Sleepy wrote: »

Anyone know if these are any use?

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=106723&r=20100721

I'm assuming they wouldn't provide high enough resolution for exteremely large prints but would they be good enough to get 7x5's or even A4 prints from?

Hi Sleepy,

I have a scanner here that I don't use anymore, it's an Epson Perfection 2580 Photo scanner. If you are interested send me a PM. It has a dedicated film loader at the top for 35mm film which made scanning incorrectly almost impossible.

When I was using it, it easily gave me resolution to print to A4 size. Unfortunately it doesn't do MF film, hence the reason I don't use it anymore. You can see the scanner here:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=46253280

Steve

Sleepy

Steve, if you're just giving it away to clear some space in the house I'd love it!

Steve Reddin

Sleepy wrote: »

Steve, if you're just giving it away to clear some space in the house I'd love it!

eh..not what I had in mind but I'll do it at a price that is practically giving it away

Sleepy

Thanks anyway. Have blown enough cash on the new camera recently and was mainly just curious about quality (i.e. had decent stuff gotten this cheap yet) when I saw the above in an email from 7dayshop.

Like most technology, these will eventually become very cheap for reasonable quality levels. If you're listing the scanner on adverts in a month or so I might have a few quid to indulge my hobbies again though

Steve Reddin

No worries, I'd not even thought to sell it until now tbh so I'd imagine it'll still be in my office for a while.

Steve

DaireQuinlan

Sleepy wrote: »

Like most technology, these will eventually become very cheap for reasonable quality levels. If you're listing the scanner on adverts in a month or so I might have a few quid to indulge my hobbies again though

Sadly, they're actually doing the opposite I bought my coolscan v for about €500 second hand about 5 years ago. They've been getting if anything MORE expensive since, a brief glance over the completed listings on EBay seems to indicate around the €600->€800 mark. The only one which Nikon still makes new is the 9000, for which there's a massive waiting list. Volumes are falling and prices are on the up and up.

Sleepy

I'd imagine that's simply a glitch in the market Daire.

All technology becomes cheaper over time. Specific models of something may become more valuable over time because of quirks or simple collectibility of the item (e.g. Leica rangefinders, some old film SLR's etc.) but look at DVD players, printers, basic document scanners etc. All are fractions of the price they once were.

DaireQuinlan

Sleepy wrote: »

I'd imagine that's simply a glitch in the market Daire.

All technology becomes cheaper over time. Specific models of something may become more valuable over time because of quirks or simple collectibility of the item (e.g. Leica rangefinders, some old film SLR's etc.) but look at DVD players, printers, basic document scanners etc. All are fractions of the price they once were.

I dunno, the problem is that the consumer level quality scanner market has collapsed. The professional scanners (the drum scanners and to some extent the hasselblad/imacons) are holding their prices, which are enormous, and volumes there are quite low. In the consumer scanner space the only manufacturer left making a decent scanner is Nikon, with the 9000, and even they're just making a handful a year. Certainly the flatbed market has experienced a dramatic drop in price for models that scan film, but the quality can't compare to the dedicated scanners. Unfortunately that's what most consumers seem happy with nowadays as they see film as something just to 'mess around with' as opposed to a primary shooting medium. I don't think the prospects are good TBH.

jpb1974

The type of scanner you get really depends on what you want from the scans.

I know a bloke that bought something similar to that yoke you linked to. He just wanted the novelty of having small, low quality snapshots of old negatives he had dating back to the late 60s and it done a job for him. When you consider that prior to this he was holding slides up to the light it was great to be able to have a scan and send it on to friends and family. Quality wasn't of utmost importance.

I use an Epson V500. Middle of the road type scanner. Will create decent scans for presenting stuff on the web and making smaller prints.

If film was your primary shooting medium then chances are that you might want to go down the darkroom route to get the best from your negs.

magicbastarder

Sleepy wrote: »

All technology becomes cheaper over time.

i suspect the reason that film scanners are not following that trend so much is as daire mentioned, but also because they have pricey optics in them, which doesn't benefit from falling prices in the same way circuitboards do.