[rollei_list] Re: Scanning sheets of colour negatives
- From: "John Wild" <JWild@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:01:39 +0100
Thanks Aaron & Austin, I will do some more experimentation with a
digital camera when I get 'play' time.
I also understand the point about turning off the scanner light for
contrast. My HP 5470C has the transparency scanner illuminated
attachment. If I plug that in and leave it on the side then use a light
box to cover a larger area, it might work too................?
Best regards
John
-----Original Message-----
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Aaron Reece
Sent: 17 June 2008 19:31
To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Scanning sheets of colour negatives
"Easy and cheap" would appear to be the hangups here. The
problem with nearly all film-scanning flatbeds is that the backlight for
the transparency adapter is less than 8x10, so it is impossible to scan
an entire sheet of negatives or slides in one pass. I think either Epson
or Canon had one for a brief time but neither company has such a product
listed on its website at the moment. I could also be imagining things
again. Removing strips of negatives or (worse) individual slides from
their Print-View sheets and mounting four to six at a time in scanner
adapters is a Sisyphean task when faced with large numbers of images to
scan.
I would venture that the biggest problem you face is that the
internal front-light in the scanner is still shining on your negatives,
when what you want is to disable this light and rely entirely on the
backlight for illumination. This is why the contrast is so low.
Manufacturers' transparency adapters do this automatically. If you are
good with electronics I suppose it would not be too big a challenge to
disable the front-light yourself - probably just a matter of knowing
which cable to clip.
On the other hand, you could try the digital camera route. I
have done this with B+W negatives and with color slides and the results
were acceptable - certainly good enough for contact sheet purposes.
Simply place the negatives on the light box (a clear window would
probably work just as well), set your camera to macro mode and turn off
the flash, and snap each frame in sequence. This method is very fast to
capture the images, but you will have to process the digital images for
color correction and correct cropping later. If you have Photoshop you
could probably automate this process if you are not too picky about the
results. If photographing negatives, you will need to use the Levels
and/or Curves control to set the black and white points, as the contrast
will be quite small.
I have not photographed an entire sheet of transparencies in one
frame, but rather photographed each slide or negative on its own.
Then again, I am using a 5-year old low-resolution digital P&S camera. A
newer, higher-resolution camera might produce acceptable results
photographing the entire sheet, but it only takes one second or so to
frame, focus, and shoot each negative, so why bother?
Best regards,
Aaron
On Jun 17, 2008, at 1:25 PM, John Wild wrote:
> Having a Minolta Scan Multi MF film scanner, I get the all the quality
> for an individual image I need but I just want to be able to 'contact'
> sheets of negs quickly and cheaply for reference, so I can select the
> images I want without having to squint through a magnifier over a
> light box and try to mentally invert the negative.
>
> It's something I've been thinking about for ages but only periodically
> get the time to experiment. Technology changes so rapidly that I am
> surprised nothing has been developed with this idea in mind.
>
> I haven't given up on the flatbed idea yet, I need to try other
> combinations. I might try a digital photograph of a sheet of negatives
> on a lightbox. Apparently this works for single 35mm transparencies. I
> can get quite resourceful if I think there is an easy (and cheap) way
> to do something with equipment to hand. However, I usually spend more
> time and money trying to find a way rather than getting the proper
> piece of equipment in the first place. You may very well be able to
> say 'I told you so' when I buy a V500 scanner in 6 months time........
> ;-)
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