Reccomendations for Scanner for 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 negs needed

[Pootums]

Hey, all you Farktographers.

I’m one of those guys who looks and votes when your great threads come up. But, I’m also one of those folks who has a ton of negs and no way to reproduce my images, as my last darkroom is many years removed, and my city of Sarasota charges a testicle to sell / process/ print large format film.

So, no way to join in the Farktography fun. *Whine*

As a B / W photographer, I find no one that knows how to keep contrast to a minimum here.

I have mostly 2 1/4″ square (Rolli-flex) and a few 2 1/4″ x 3 1/4″ (Speed Graphic) or even less of some the very old size Type 1A hand cut film for my ancient Kodak Bellows cameras. I, of course, have 35m Plus X / Tri X megs galore, too. But, the 35m negs were mostly just snaps, especially the color ones.

The time I spent setting up my Rolli-flex shots or deciding to use focal plane shutters for crazy action shots in the Graphic or making my own box cameras with my own film, Arrgh, and I can’t do more than a contact proof sheet in my freaking flat scanner.

I have used my flat scanner on some found older large format negs and the thing freaked and worked for 20 minutes to work up one shot in 1200 dpi. Now, the scanner has streaks or vertical bars and it needs to go to Goodwill.

What might I procure that would let me scan my large 120m – 2 1/4″ B / W negs? Do I need one of those tower type scanners? None of my stuff is mounted in a cardboard slide holder. It’s all been processed by myself, dried and cut into sizes for my negs strips.

I really don’t care to sell the thing later. It would still be fun to continue to process my own film in the sink. I just think a darkroom in the computer would be a freaking hoot.

Ideas, snark, sales pitches welcome. Total first time tonight n00b.

Pootums

BTW, here’s the neg / photoshop / invert / adjust contrast / jpg that killed my scanner.
http://photos.imageevent.com/pootums/newloads/resized-tractor2.jpg

[Elsinore]

I have an Epson Perfection 4490, and it can scan 35mm or 120, negs or slides. It does a great job and the price won’t break the bank. It won’t be as fast as a drum scanner, but then you’d also have to put a second mortgage on your house to get one of those, so the trade off seemed worth it to me 😉

[Pootums]

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=53540925

Thanks Elsinore. So how do you pass the negs into this machine?

$149?? Wow, much less expensive than I was looking at. Cool!

Did you buy yours new? From? Satisfaction with the company?

[Pootums]

The Epsilon seems to ask for transparencies. This means ‘slides’? Yes?

As mentioned I’ve not placed my negs into slide cardboard thingies.

So, I’m up against either cutting my 120m square negs and putting them into holders or finding a scanner that allows me to slide my 3 – 4 strip of 120m negs into a slot and rolling them, or something?

I apologize for being such a clueless doofuss with this new fangled stuff but if some kind soul wishes to give me a direction or some of teh current terminology in scanners or possible slide talk compared to neg talk, I’ll be ever so grateful.

My price range for this um not yet found thingy would be around 2 – 4 hundred, or so.

[Pootums]

I’ll check back as there are few registered Farktogs on right now.

Once again, thanks so much Elsinore for a direction. More than I expected this quickly!

OooooO, there is a notify me button! Cool11ty

~Pootums

[sleeping]

I have an Epson as well (I got a V750 because I shoot large format occasionally). The results from medium format film are great, I wasn’t so happy with the 35mm scans (they’re OK if the film is flat, but I had trouble getting usable results from film that was even a little bendy). Now I have a Coolscan V for 35mm and the Epson for larger formats, and I’m quite happy.

[Elsinore]

The scanner comes with trays to put your negatives or slides in. I’m not sure if slides will be a problem without the cardboard frames, but negatives (both medium format and 35mm) haven’t been an issue at all either cut apart or strips.

We got our scanner new last year from either Office Depot or Office Max…some place like that. Haven’t had any real issues with it, other than it doesn’t like severely underexposed negatives (but then, who does? 😉 ).

[Pootums]

I have an Epson as well (I got a V750 because I shoot large format occasionally). The results from medium format film are great, I wasn’t so happy with the 35mm scans (they’re OK if the film is flat, but I had trouble getting usable results from film that was even a little bendy). Now I have a Coolscan V for 35mm and the Epson for larger formats, and I’m quite happy.

Elisnore.. Double down damn cool! Thank you..Thank you..Thank you.

Sleeping, The 750 is what.. 4 hundred dollars and it really has that much more of an ease of use factor? Because?

I’m still a complete noob at this and Elisnore has provided a nice unit to scan with.

Sleeping, I am not discounting your advice at all! Just bang for the buck, you know.

Yours is tre’ expense mo’. Do you like it THAT much more and why?

Thanks again all!

~P

[soosh]

get the best epson perfection you can, then get some of the film holders that best fit your needs here: http://www.betterscanning.com/

The epson comes with film holders, but those at the link are far better and ease so much unneeded head-pounding.

[Pootums]

Soosh, so the items you reccomend are this contact proof type frame neg holder with a flat bed scanner?

[Pootums]

soosh, Ah, after seeing the items listed, they are racks for my EXISTING flat bed? Or not?

Mine’s dead.

But, I really don’t wish to spend almost a grand.
My budget is a pinch lower.

This WOULD cover my new scanner for business and my needs for photos.

hmmm

Which EPSON do you use / reccomend ?

I can save up for it if it’s this much better. Is it the software or the hardware?

Ooops, dammit. It’s late. G’night.

Check back later.

[Elsinore]

Well, the one big advantage of the V750 is that it can handle large format, and it looks like you have some larger format film you want to scan, albeit not as much as the 120 and 35mm. Ultimately, Epson makes great scanners, and the Perfection line is excellent, so soosh’s suggestion to get the best Epson Perfection you can afford is solid advice.

FWIW, I’ve heard great things about the the Perfection 4990 as well–it’s the bigger brother of my scanner, and I think it does larger format negatives and slides as well as medium and 35mm.

[sleeping]

The other big advantage of a bigger scanner is less loading of film holders. I can load 2 strips of 4 square 120 negs per holder, and that can become a big deal if you’ve got a ton of film to scan.

Actually, though, I only have the 750 because I got a very good deal on it, the V700 is cheaper and pretty comparable (same size scanning area and resolution). I don’t think the 4990 is still available new, the 700 replaced it, but it might still be in stock somewhere.

You could also look for a used one, sometimes people buy them to scan a bunch of film and then look to sell it when they’re done. That’s how I got my Coolscan.

[Pootums]

Thanks all!

I’ll be looking into these suggestions.

[Author]

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