Buying and Using Film Scanners
Why a Film Scanner
With the rush for digital cameras more and more photographers are ditching their traditional camera equipment and moving into the brave new digital world. One problem is that although it is easy enough to replace your equipment with shiny new digital gear, what happens to your library of negatives, prints and slides?
The answer may lie with a film scanner. From entries on the Photographers.co.uk Forum it looks like when it comes to buying your own film scanner you get what you pay for. Our advice is to go for quality. The market leaders are Nikon and Minolta. You may have to pay a more, but it's the end results that count.
We detail below how to use a scanner. If you would rather place your scanning requirements in the hands of a professional we point you in the direction of a film scanning company.
Basic Principles
Use a quality film scanner which can produce 4,800 dpi resolution from a high definition low distortion lens, using low noise electronics, a 48 bit DAC [Digital Analogue Converter], scanned to the appropriate ICC colour profile for the intended system [PC, Mac or Adobe RGB etc], then all that remains is to load the film and start scanning.
Using a 35mm mounted slide as an example - with a Minolta Scan Multi Pro film scanner.
The first consideration is checking the slide is free of dust and debris by careful use of an air cleaner [or blower brush minus the "brush action"] the slide is then placed into the 35mm slide film holder [a maximum of 4 slides can be installed] which holds the slides in place. Insert the film holder into the scanner, and then setup the scan settings.
The scans are being taken via the scanners utility only in this example rather than using a Image editor to import the image.
Properties are set to scan in 16 bit, with Auto Exposure ON, AF ON and Adobe RGB profile.
Now the Prescan: set the film type - Positive [slide] 35mm format and click to scan. The image appears and at this point settings are made for the main scan based on the image presented.
Check the Focus
Firstly check the focus - using spot AF or manual, particularly on off centre subjects is recommended, well exposed slides give little trouble - usually - with regard to exposure of the image, nonetheless it is wise to select a specific area of the image as the target area for the AE system, using spot AF and selected AE requires a new prescan to be made. Now check the new prescan, should further attention be required both manual focus and exposure control are available, useful options.
Next select a suitable input - scanning - resolution i.e. 4,800 dpi, with an output [print] resolution of 300 dpi. The actual scan area can now be fixed by selecting the useable image area, generally slide mounts curtail image area, careful positioning of the "Scanning Frame" ensures there are no unwanted borders visible, image area 23.5 x 35.8 mm @ 4,800 dpi, 16 bit per RGB channel - 48 bit these setting will produce around 175 Mb of data, [an 8 bit setting halves this], a reasonable amount of computing power is highly recommended..
Within the film scanner utility are several adjustments which can be applied to the prescan image before the main scan is made, in this instance the intention is to simply retain as much data from the scanned film as possible, this excludes the use of "Destructive" adjustments - level compression, unsharp masking etc.
Make the Scan
Click to make the "Final" scan, as this is a 48 bit image Tiff format is automatically selected, 24 bit allows Tiff, JPEG or BMP file types, name the image, click save to start the scan.
The scanning process begins and an indicator bar shows progress and is followed by the data transfering to the location of the image file. You now have a sizable digital copy of the film original to load into PhotoShop - from now on almost anything is possible.
This is only scratching the surface of the talents of film scanners, with the ability to make changes to resolution, input and output, bit depth, scanning areas, digital images can be made for website use to poster prints, Digital ICE[TM] will even clean up scratched/ dusty images and not just on 35mm format but panoramic 35mm, medium format, even 126 or 16mm cine film can be "Digitised".
The basic principle remains, while scanners can easily be setup for "batch" scanning taking the process in individual steps and not relying on auto everything functions, while taking a little more effort and time allow for quality results and greater opportunities to deal with the odd awkward exposure, lopsided slide mount, or strange colour cast during the scan process and minimises the hassles of correcting badly produced images in Image Editors.
Market Leaders
As mentioned earlier Nikon and Minolta are the market leaders for film scanners. At the time of writing their latest scanners are the Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV and the Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED.
Nikon Coolscan 9000
Having Scans Performed For You
An alternative to performing your own scans is to have them done for you. One company who specialise in scans is Moment Scan. Their service is pretty comprehensive.
Moment Scan provides high resolution -up to 4,800 dpi- scanning of photographic film, colour, black and white, slide or negative emulsions.
Scans can be taken from 35mm format, 35mm panoramic [24mm x 65mm XPan etc] and 120/220 roll film 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9.
Other formats such as 16mm, 126, and TEM film can also be accommodated.
Scans are taken from the maximum useable image area with a minimum of two pre-scans to ensure optimum quality.
Settings can be adjusted to requirements - various input [scanned] or output [print] resolutions can be used, scans to file size/ type specifications or to specific print sizes A4, A3, etc.
Web sites images can be produced with specific image size i.e. 600 x 800 pixels with a suitable output resolution typically 72~96 dpi range.
The resultant data may be used for Archive purposes, "Photo Realistic" printouts, Posters, Publication, Promotional items and web sites.
A Trial Scan is available @ £3.00 [+ £0.90 for return by Recorded Delivery] allowing up to four scan settings of one image for customers to see the scanning quality. Prices start from around 40p per scan.
Click here to visit Moment Scan
Return to the Help Centre
Film Scanners
|
