Need advice on converting 35mm negatives to disk

[Vic Balshaw]

This forum has a family with a mind full of information so I'm hoping some of you may know a little about converting 35mm negatives (not slides) onto disk. I have hundreds of negatives from the time when I was doing a spot of my own developing, in a far distant land. I did produce proof sheets at the time of the developed negatives, but unfortunately over time they have been misplaced. it is possible to have the negatives converted commercially but this is an expensive option, about 35c a negative, but I believe there is a way to do it through a scanner. Can anybody help or offer suggestions or ideas?

 

[diddyriddick]

How many negatives are we talking about, Vic? If it is just a few, then you could probably have them scanned at a local drug store that does printing(I know the Fuji Frontier digital printing machines can do it.) If it is more, you might want to pick up a film scanner to digitize them. I know Nikon makes a very good one, and you might be able to pick up a used older one relatively cheap. The Coolscan V/5000 are both very good.

 

[DBII]

I saw a device over the weekend that plugs into the usb port for $99.00 that will scan negatives and slides to a memory stick. I do not remember who makes the thing

dbii

 

[RabidAlien]

Epson flatbed scanners have always had the best scan-quality (to me) for the best price...a new one typically ran about $250. The Nikons are set up for professional mass-quantity scanning (you can scan uncut 36 exposure strips, whereas the Epsons would scan 12 frames, in two six-strips or a four-strip and half of another strip). I've never really gone cheap with my negative scanners, since I want the best quality possible for a price I could afford, but you can most likely find a good Epson or Nikon, used, for a good price online on Ebay or Craigslist. So, it all depends on how many negatives you're planning on scanning, whether you need a flatbed, or whether the cost of taking in the negatives and having them done all at once so that you don't have to buy a scanner and then have it sitting around doing nothing because you've converted to digital and no longer need it. Its a coin-toss, and there's benefits and disadvantages whichever way you decide to go. I wouldn't sacrifice quality for price, though. So before you buy...research! Read reviews (Amazon.com is a great place to find reviews, as is www.bhphotovideo.com, www.newegg.com, and www.tigerdirect.com), don't get stuck with cheap crap. Your images will suffer.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks for the help guys, I went out today and found a relatively cheap scanner that plugs into a USB which will enable me to download onto my external drive for storage.

 

[Tzaw1]

EPSON PERFECTION 4870 PHOTO FLATBED SCANNER J131A USB - eBay (item 290360874032 end time Oct-27-09 15:21:15 PDT)

Its good idea.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks T, hope to be getting something a little cheaper come Sunday

 

[diddyriddick]

I would be very careful of any flatbed designs for scanning film. My experience is that they just don't work well.

 

[RabidAlien]

I used the Epson flatbed for years (various models), and found them to be the best flatbeds for scanning negatives. They don't use a reflective surface to back-light the negatives, but have a seperate light-source built in to the lid that follows the scanner element as it travels. Granted, the Kodak and Nikon film/slide scanners are going to be the best, but I couldn't afford those.