Digitizing 35mm negatives?

Hi! I have over 2,000 images on 35mm film negatives that I’d like to convert to digital images I can store on a hard drive with the option to print later. I’ve been looking at the Plustek 8100 and the Epson v600 scanners. From what I’ve read, the Epson will allow me to scan multiple negatives with the push of a button whereas the Plustek needs to be fed one image at a time. It seems that sending them out to be digitized will cost a few arms and legs!

I’d appreciate any advice on which option to go with...Plustek, Epson, send out?? I have very little camera/photography knowledge and need this process to be quite painless!! Thank you.

This is the "digital negatives" section which is more about converting digital photos into negatives for printing using traditional analog processes. In other words, the opposite of what you want to do.

I think that you may get better/more responses by posting this in the "Scanners and Scanning" section.

That said, I am in the same boat as you in having a large slide library that need to be digitized at some point. So while I have no direct first-hand knowledge, I have done some investigation and thus have a few thoughts for you.

First, do you actually need to digitize all 2000 + images? Think about carefully culling the slides to eliminate similar images and select only the best for processing.

Second, think carefully about what you will use the scanned images for. This will dictate the quality of scan you will want to do which will directly affect the time and cost of the scans. You might decided that you do not need the highest resolution scans available.

Third, consider outsourcing the scanning instead of doing it yourself. You might find for a one time project that the cost of having someone else do the scanning is reasonable after you think about the time/effort plus equipment needed to do it your self. I would start by asking at a local camera store about their scanning services. There are also services to which you can send slide for scanning. These come in every thing from "quick and dirty" bulk scanning to very customized services. Since I have not (yet) used any of them, I have no specific recommendations.

Lastly, from my reading folks have had very good results in re-photographing slides with a digital camera. This entails having a good steady tripod, a macro lens and a light box (in addition to a camera). The re-photographing process is also much quicker than scanning... a big advantage if you have a lot of slides.

Sorry I can't answer your questions directly, but maybe my response will be of use anyway!

We use the V600 here at the school I teach photography at. It's a great little scanner. The 35mm holder will allow up to 12 frames per scan. Heck of a lot of work though if you have thousands of negatives to go through. I just picked up a couple more V600's as they were going cheap.

fgorga said:

This is the "digital negatives" section which is more about converting digital photos into negatives for printing using traditional analog processes. In other words, the opposite of what you want to do.

I think that you may get better/more responses by posting this in the "Scanners and Scanning" section.

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Thread moved to Scanning and Scanners.
Welcome to Photrio. We hope that you enjoy your time here.

Oh boy did I ever scan a lot of film in 2020-21! In some ways it was the perfect lockdown activity in early 2020. With my Epson V700 scanner, I was probably averaging about 120 frames/day @ 3200 DPI.

Although I did the bulk of my scanning using Silverfast AI Studio software for it's added features, Epson Scan handles color negatives particularly well, and provided that you use Epson's own film holders, it does a fine job of recognizing frames and scanning as a batch: Basically you click a few buttons then walk away until the batch is completed.

Regarding resolution of scans: To date my impression has been that actual useful data contained in a frame of 35 mm film is pretty limited, with black and white films like Kodak Tmax being the best, but even there, it's not clear to me that going beyond 3200 DPI would yield anything more of value (save for film grain itself), and I'm probably being generous. I've also dabbled with camera scanning using a decent macro lens, and a camera capable of 80 megapixel output but if there was a quantum leap in scan quality to be had by this approach, I haven't seen it to date.

Andrew O'Neill said:

We use the V600 here at the school I teach photography at. It's a great little scanner. The 35mm holder will allow up to 12 frames per scan. Heck of a lot of work though if you have thousands of negatives to go through. I just picked up a couple more V600's as they were going cheap.

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Where did you get the V600s and how much?

Alan Edward Klein said:

Where did you get the V600s and how much?

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Probably won't be of any help to you but I got them at a local retailer in the mall near me... Kerrisdale Cameras. $275 Canadian. I should have grabbed another one, as price shot up to $239!

Andrew O'Neill said:

Probably won't be of any help to you but I got them at a local retailer in the mall near me... Kerrisdale Cameras. $275 Canadian. I should have grabbed another one, as price shot up to $239!

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Hi Andrew: The reason I asked, is because once in a while Epson has a refurbished model for around US$139 with a one-year warranty. I just checked and they seem to have one now.
https://epson.com/Clearance-Center/...00-Photo-Scanner---Refurbished/p/B11B198011-N

I own both a V600 and Plustek 8200i. The 8200i is basically the same as the 8100 except it adds an infrared channel which is useful for scanning color negatives and slides (the V600 has this feature also).

The PlusTek produces sharper scans that need less processing than the V600. On the other hand, the V600 can batch scan up to 12 negatives at a time. At one time, I scanned all my old negatives with the V600. I was very impressed with the quality at the time since I had nothing with which to compare it. I now use the 8200i for all my 35mm scans, and use the V600 for medium format and reflective scanning. I really didn't notice a quality difference until I upgraded to a 5K monitor. I don't think there is much of a difference with a 6x4 inch print or when viewed on a standard monitor.

If you are saving the negatives (you really should) and will only be printing smaller size prints, go with the V600. If you want larger prints, or a little extra quality, pick the 8100.

Before sitting down to scan 2,000 images, you also need to plan out how you are going to process and organize 2,000 images. I use Adobe Lightroom Classic, but there are others. You will also need an image editing program. I use Adobe PhotoShop but there are many others you can pick. The advantage to using a program like Lightroom is that you can easily tag and organize your images so you can find what you need. A long time ago, I tried organizing my images by using different folders on the hard disk, but it didn't work well. I also find it helpful to put as much image information as possible in the file name itself.

Alan Edward Klein said:

Hi Andrew: The reason I asked, is because once in a while Epson has a refurbished model for around US$139 with a one-year warranty. I just checked and they seem to have one now.
https://epson.com/Clearance-Center/...00-Photo-Scanner---Refurbished/p/B11B198011-N

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I often check Epson Canada for any refurbished scanners or printers. I've gotten some great deals in the past. Thanks, Alan!

karbomike said:

Hi! I have over 2,000 images on 35mm film negatives that I’d like to convert to digital images I can store on a hard drive with the option to print later. I’ve been looking at the Plustek 8100 and the Epson v600 scanners. From what I’ve read, the Epson will allow me to scan multiple negatives with the push of a button whereas the Plustek needs to be fed one image at a time. It seems that sending them out to be digitized will cost a few arms and legs!

I’d appreciate any advice on which option to go with...Plustek, Epson, send out?? I have very little camera/photography knowledge and need this process to be quite painless!! Thank you.

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Reviews of the two units you are considering are available - 8100 https://www.filmscanner.info/en/PlustekOpticFilm8100.html and V600 https://www.filmscanner.info/en/EpsonPerfectionV600Photo.html
The V600 seems faster and convenient in being able to scan 2 cut strips of 6 frames each while as you said the 8100 has to be manually advanced. Better yet the V600 has ICE - dust and scratch removal, but that means each frame scan will take at least 2 minutes each. The 8100 has no ICE so depending on how critical you are about this on your scans, it can take some time in post work to remove them. However, the 8100 does achieve more resolution so if you had taken good care in taking the shot, used good film and lens, the difference in scans can be very evident. The V600 will take a minimum of 66 hours to scan 2000 frames while the 8100 will only take 41 hours + additional post work for dust and scratch removal. Also keep in mind color negatives may require some more post work for color/contrast correction depending on your taste.

If you send out, it will save you the cost of purchase and time to scan. Depending on the equipment used and the level of service, they could likely provide you with better scans so it will depend on how you want to spend your money and time.

karbomike said:

Hi! I have over 2,000 images on 35mm film negatives that I’d like to convert to digital images I can store on a hard drive with the option to print later. I’ve been looking at the Plustek 8100 and the Epson v600 scanners. From what I’ve read, VidMate the Epson will allow me to scan multiple negatives with the push of a button whereas the Plustek needs to be fed one image at a time. It seems that sending them out to be digitized will cost a few arms and legs!

I’d appreciate any advice on which option to go with...Plustek, Epson, send out?? I have very little camera/photography knowledge and need this process to be quite painless!! Thank you.

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issue got solved!!