Have flatbed scanner, want to scan 35mm negatives

[Way Cool Jr.]

Any idea if this can be done? I have an Agfa 1212u scanner and have some 35mm negatives I want to scan so I can have a digital image.

Any ideas?

 

[pulse8]

Some come with a negative attatchment that holds the negative still and backlights it. I've never seen good results with these. I would say your best bet would be to just scan prints or get a negative scanner.

 

[mithrandir2001]

You'll need a film adapter. You can't just can the negatives as is on the flatbed and expect good quality. Unfortunately, even those film adapters for flatbed scanners don't up the quality much because you are still stuck at 300-600dpi (35mm needs 2400dpi or so). The best way is to get a dedicated film scanner. However, those cost anywhere from $200-$1500. You may want to take those negatives into a lab and have them professionally scanned to CD-ROM. If you only have several, it will be much cheaper than buying hardware. For example, scanning 25 negatives and putting them on a CD may cost about $30.

 

[IndyJaws]

Speaking from experience, the film adaptors for flatbed scanners suck. Very unimpressive.

I'd like to scan several hundred slides that my dad has as a surprise present. I've looked into the film scanners, but they are major $$$, and having a lab do them would be very expensive as well. What would be nice is to find a place that rents the scanners.

 

[ratkil]

Does anybody know, what is the price for an acceptable negative scanner? I tried the flatbed thing also and was severely dissappointed. :-(

 

[Facin]

The Minolta Dual Scan II is a great cheap film scanner. It is not the top of the line, but it is definitely the best in its class. I have seen them go for as little as $300 on ubid.com, but I don't know if I would buy from them...they were refurbished anyway. You should be able to find one for around $400 though. If you really want to get the most of your film scanner, you might want to pick up Vuescan. It is a great scanning software that does a h*ll of a lot better than most of the manufacturers software.

I don't know what kind of quality you are looking for. If this is too much, there are a number of cheaper models, but not worth the money if you are doing even moderately serious digital imaging.

Steve

 

[joshg]

hmm.. you know one time at work we had someone send us a negative instead of a picture... it was a rather large negative... we just affixed a white piece of paper behind it and scanned it in, then adjusted the brightness/contrast a little and it didn't look too bad, you *may* try and see if that works, but no guarantess!

 

[abaez]

My scanner scans at 1200 dpi, would that be decent for a negative?

 

[astroview]

I had the same problem as you, basically if you want anything decent get a film scanner but cheap ones start at like $400 to 800. Try out a regular flatbed scanner with a negative holder. If that doesn't work sorry bud, spend some big ones.

 

[przero]

Seems like to me the new Epson 2450 Flatbed may do a decent job with the transparency adapter. Resolution should be pretty good.

 

[wepopfresh]

The problem with using a flatbed with a scanner adapter is that scanning color negative raises problems. In order to get a decent image, you would have to use a program like photoshop to adjust the color values and threshold levels. in the scanned negative to get the color levels correct. Scanning black and white does not have this problem.

I agree though, if your going to scan negatives, get a negative scanner, in the end it would cost more to scan with a flatbed and get the image converted to a quality picture.