Buying a negative/Photo Scanner

Tomhoganie

Hi

Ive never posted in this section before so excuse my ignorance if I ask stupid questions...

I have a big box of old photos/negatives that I want to make digital copies of and retouch etc.

I dont want to spend a fortune getting them done and like the idea of it being a little project to keep busy with.

I saw a reasonable one in the Epson V330. Any other ideas/recommendations on what to buy without breaking the bank? Preferably a bricks and mortar shop I could buy in?

Thanks in advance

Heebie

Epson makes a good scanner, and their film adapters aren't bad. I have the Epson Perfection V550 Photo.

Be sure it has a transparency adapter. There are lots of scanners out there.
I'd look for ones that have Digital ICE or Digital ICE cubed. (Nikon film scanners have the latter, the better Epson flatbeds have the former.)

Also note there are SEVERAL threads on here that should show up in a search that discuss the relative merits of a lot of different scanners. You should probably give them a read before you make up your mind.. as the rest of us already have our favourite brands.. and you apparently don't yet.. so read up & make a choice that suits you.

meenaghans

i just have one from lidl it is the traveller brand one they usually do them every couple of months it is ok for standard size negatives and slides.
quality wise is ok so depends on if you just want them in digital as storage

DaireQuinlan

meenaghans wrote: »

i just have one from lidl it is the traveller brand one they usually do them every couple of months it is ok for standard size negatives and slides.

They're probably the poorest excuse for a scanner it's possible to buy. It's some crummy digital camera sensor stuck inside a housing. They're sold under a couple of different brand names but they're all equally as bad. For the same price there's generally and entry level epson or canon with a transparency adapter that's orders of magnitude better.

Tomhoganie

thanks for the advice - gonna go for the v330 or the 700f....

DaireQuinlan

Tomhoganie wrote: »

thanks for the advice - gonna go for the v330 or the 700f....

I'd plump for the V500 if you can stretch to it. It scans medium format negatives as well as 35mm (might not be an issue) and it has infrared cleaning. Probably slows down the scan time considerably but it's an absolute godsend. Otherwise you'll end up going over every single inch of every one of those negatives at 100% and dust spotting them.

Niall0001

The v500 retails at £133 on Amazon with free delivery:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000VYYSEE

The V330 is £55 used with free delivery & is sold direct from Amazon themselves so you get to avail of the 3 month no fuss returns policy & they're safe as houses.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0043VLLVY/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

700f is £92.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001TTLM6W

Enjoy!

Heebie

That's the Digital ICE that I mentioned..and yes, it's a Godsend if you're scanning color. It doesn't work on B&W.
But.. overall it does do a good job scanning.

Here's some examples scanned on mine: http://pix.ie/heebie/album/381455

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I'd plump for the V500 if you can stretch to it. It scans medium format negatives as well as 35mm (might not be an issue) and it has infrared cleaning. Probably slows down the scan time considerably but it's an absolute godsend. Otherwise you'll end up going over every single inch of every one of those negatives at 100% and dust spotting them.