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Archive 2017 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?

  
 
AmbientMike
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


A friend of mine was asking about some old b&w family negatives he has. Probably abound 60 years old.

I haven't done anything recently with film, where could I get these scanned or copied?

It looks like they are 120 or close, best guess 6x9. The envelope they were in from processing is marked 120. They are cut, and a bit over 3" long, with the extra on the ends.

Can I scan them with an Epson printer/fax/scanner? No shortage of macro lenses, how could I copy these? I suppose if I could keep the negatives flat, I could just put a piece of paper under them?

Any suggestions?




Jan 05, 2017 at 02:14 PM
chez
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


Send them off to ScanCafe and they'll do a good quick job for you. I wouldn't bother doing it yourself as whatever method you come up with will not match what ScanCafe could deliver...especially if you take into account the pain staking process of scanning negatives.

http://www.scancafe.com/




Jan 05, 2017 at 02:39 PM
rodmcwha
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


There are several approaches you could take.
1) A dedicated, (or flatbed with film capability) scanner. This is very slow work.
2) Copy them with a digital camera. Quick and very good quality, esp. for B&W.
You can jury-rig a stage with a light table and cardboard or spring for a dedicated copier, like a Beselar dual mode duplicator. I had to copy nearly a 1000 negs and slides, and this was daunting with a scanner!
(I just happen to have one that I have been thinking about selling, now that I am through-if you are interested let me know in a PM. It uses built in flash and/or continuous light, and has stages for 35 mounted slide, 35mm negs and 6x6 but you could easily find a stage for 6x9. They use beselar enlarger film holders)
Whichever way you go, good luck.



Jan 05, 2017 at 03:04 PM
rdeloe
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


I've gone the dedicated scanner route (Epson V750, BetterScanning templates) and it's a lot of work. If you're not planning to do this a lot, then definitely go with a service like the one chez suggested. It's important to remember too that scanning is not easy to learn, and the learning curve is steep. If you must do it yourself, using a camera and light table is a good option. Here's a helpful video: http://jamiemphoto.com/blog/


Jan 05, 2017 at 04:29 PM
kdphotography
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


You also might want to take into consideration the numbers of scans you need to make as well as the quality needed/desired.

If you have a small number of negatives/slides to scan, a better flatbed scanner with film scanning capabilities may be sufficient, particularly with negatives so you can actually see what the image is. If you have a large number of scans, services like Scan Cafe are ideal. You can then view the completed scans and determine which images need higher quality scans, if desired/needed, particularly for enlargements.

It requires time, patience, and some basic skills to obtain a decent film scan at the consumer level (e.g., Epson scanners) particularly with the smaller 35mm format. There aren't many alternatives in between. The next step up in quality is drum scanning, but the quality level is commensurately higher. I purchased a Hassleblad Flextight X5 virtual drum scanner for personal use and mostly for my printing studio and the ease of scanning (not to mention quality) is so much faster and easier than my old Epson V700.

Ken
www.carmelfineartprinting.com

Edited on Jan 06, 2017 at 08:38 PM · View previous versions



Jan 05, 2017 at 07:18 PM
AmbientMike
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?




chez wrote:
Send them off to ScanCafe and they'll do a good quick job for you. I wouldn't bother doing it yourself as whatever method you come up with will not match what ScanCafe could deliver...especially if you take into account the pain staking process of scanning negatives.

http://www.scancafe.com/



Thanks for the great suggestion, chez, I will definitely tell him about this.

Looks like it gets you out of hours of clone stamping, too.



Jan 06, 2017 at 04:57 PM
AmbientMike
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?




rodmcwha wrote:
There are several approaches you could take.
1) A dedicated, (or flatbed with film capability) scanner. This is very slow work.
2) Copy them with a digital camera. Quick and very good quality, esp. for B&W.
You can jury-rig a stage with a light table and cardboard or spring for a dedicated copier, like a Beselar dual mode duplicator. I had to copy nearly a 1000 negs and slides, and this was daunting with a scanner!
(I just happen to have one that I have been thinking about selling, now that I am through-if you are interested let me know in a
...Show more

I have enough film around, I'll be sending you a pm.



Jan 06, 2017 at 04:59 PM
AmbientMike
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


rdeloe wrote:
I've gone the dedicated scanner route (Epson V750, BetterScanning templates) and it's a lot of work. If you're not planning to do this a lot, then definitely go with a service like the one chez suggested. It's important to remember too that scanning is not easy to learn, and the learning curve is steep. If you must do it yourself, using a camera and light table is a good option. Here's a helpful video: http://jamiemphoto.com/blog/


Wondering why scanning is considered hard? I have a Minolta film scanner for 35mm, I haven't used it in years, but it didn't seem that hard. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right? Didn't do a lot, though.

That was a good video.



Jan 06, 2017 at 05:02 PM
AmbientMike
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?




kdphotography wrote:
You also might want to take into consideration the numbers of scans you need to make as well as the quality needed/desired.

If you have a small number of negatives/slides to scan, a better flatbed scanner with film scanning capabilities may be sufficient, particularly with negatives so you can actually see what the image is. If you have a large number of scans, services like Scan Cafe are ideal. You can then view the completed scans and determine which images need higher quality scans, if desired/needed, particularly for enlargements.

It requires time, patience, and some basic skills to obtain a decent film
...Show more

Drum scans would be great, but I think they are expensive? Haven't checked, though. I have a Minolta dimage scanner, maybe I need to get it going again. Hasselblad sounds good, but expensive.

Never scanned film on a regular scanner, is that harder?



Jan 06, 2017 at 05:06 PM
Archibald
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


I have been scanning 120 format B&W and color negs on an Epson V700 scanner. The B&W ones are easy, and the results are great. It takes time, of course, and can be fiddly, but it is not hard.

Scanning color negs is more of a challenge, because one has to pay attention to color, and with old negs, that is a subject unto itself. With the necessary diddling, I have had excellent results with 30 and 40 year old negs.

Still, I have taken note of the scanning service mentioned by chez, because I have around 500 rolls of 35mm and 120 color negs to go. The problem with sending them out is that I might only need 1 in 10 negs scanned, because the other 9 are worthless, and I don't see an easy way to have a scanning service do only the important negs.



Jan 12, 2017 at 09:45 PM
AmbientMike
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?




Archibald wrote:
I have been scanning 120 format B&W and color negs on an Epson V700 scanner. The B&W ones are easy, and the results are great. It takes time, of course, and can be fiddly, but it is not hard.

Scanning color negs is more of a challenge, because one has to pay attention to color, and with old negs, that is a subject unto itself. With the necessary diddling, I have had excellent results with 30 and 40 year old negs.

Still, I have taken note of the scanning service mentioned by chez, because I have around 500 rolls of 35mm and
...Show more

Have you looked at film scanners? It didn't seem that hard at the time, I have a Minolta dimage, which isn't recent at all, but should be good enough for seeing what have, at the very least. Might be able to send 120 out, and do 35mm at home. I think 120 scanners cost a lot more.

I think there was an OS update that didn't like the scanner, so I haven't used it. Need to get it going again.

It is kind of slow, but you could probably do a roll in 15-30 minutes or so, maybe faster, once you got it set up.



Jan 13, 2017 at 01:00 PM
Archibald
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Scanning or Copying 120 Negatives?


AmbientMike wrote:
Have you looked at film scanners? It didn't seem that hard at the time, I have a Minolta dimage, which isn't recent at all, but should be good enough for seeing what have, at the very least. Might be able to send 120 out, and do 35mm at home. I think 120 scanners cost a lot more.

I think there was an OS update that didn't like the scanner, so I haven't used it. Need to get it going again.

It is kind of slow, but you could probably do a roll in 15-30 minutes or so, maybe faster, once you
...Show more

I use a Nikon CoolScan 5000 ED for 35mm negs and the Epson V700 for anything larger.

Scanning good quality negatives is easy, but not fast. I have not timed myself, and anyway I don't often scan a roll in one sitting from start to finish in one go, but I'm guessing a couple of hours or so for a roll of 35mm. I don't use the auto feed feature of the scanner, instead using the special holder. That is a bit fiddly and takes extra time.

I said "good quality negatives". Old negs often have faded colors, and that raises the challenge of correcting those colors. Doing this involves adjusting color curves. This can be done in the scanning software and/or in Lightroom. The procedure is trial and error, and involves judging highlight and shadow colors by eye, and can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating. Overall, though, I have had great success, and many of my scans of 40-year-old negs look like new.

Obviously with B&W negs you don't have to take time to fix colors, and therefore B&W negs are easy to process.



Jan 13, 2017 at 02:44 PM





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