Is this a scanning fault or my camera?

alexpagans

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I just got my first film with my new (old) Canon AV-1 developed and they've come back with consistent lines across the negative scans I've been given by Jessops. They're also super grainy even the shots taken in strong daylight.

I'm quite new to film photography and wanted to ask whether this is likely to be a result of the negative scanner (which had been fixed the day before supposedly) or a camera/lens issue? The negatives appear normal but I can't really tell without a proper viewer. Any help would be super welcome!

These are probably the most obvious examples but they're on every photo in exactly the same place.
(it is supposed to be foggy)
 

MattKing

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Welcome to APUG.
Looks like scanning artefacts to me.
 

edward calvey

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Pretty sure these are underexposed. The thin image is down near the noise floor of the scanner. It is auto correcting the exposure to give you a usable image, so you are seeing the noise that would be too dark to see if the scanner didn't boost the image that much. Test your camera exposure meter against another camera, light meter, or a phone meter app, and make certain the battery is good enough to give you a correct reading. If everything is working and the battery is good, but the meter reading is consistently off, you may have to offset the camera film speed dial to correct for the error. Hope this helps.
 
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alexpagans

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MattKing said:
Welcome to APUG.
Looks like scanning artefacts to me.
Click to expand...
This is the answer I'm hoping for because it means my negatives might be ok but thanks Edward, I'll look into that. They also didn't give me enough negatives relative to the digital scans I have so I don't have huge faith in the shop.
 

wiltw

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Ignore, for a moment, your artifacts in the scanned files. Pay attention instead, to the pathetic resolution provided in the scan files from your film negative...about 2MP pixels (look at the file properties, as listed by your computer O/S). This gives you some indication that if you really want good quality scan files, you need to pay to have them done, rather than the pathetic freebee files that came with film processing.
 
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alexpagans

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Thank you! I was asking if they were decent resolution files and he assured me they were. They're less than 1MB!
 

wiltw

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alexpagans said:
Thank you! I was asking if they were decent resolution files and he assured me they were. They're less than 1MB!
Click to expand...

The files that you have (1818 x 1228) can only resolve about 25 line-pairs/mm ...scarcely enough resolution for a 5" x 7" print to appear 'sharp' to the eye.
 

Mainecoonmaniac

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Do you own a loupe? Take a look at your negatives to see if the lines on your scans are also on your film.
 
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alexpagans

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I don't but I'll borrow one from a mate. Thanks for the advice chaps!

EDIT: I just used a camera lens as a makeshift loupe and the negatives look fine so I think we have our answer. Won't be going to Jessops again!
 
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MattKing

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You cannot view negatives with software, you can only view files .
 

Sirius Glass

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Welcome to APUG

It is the scanner.
 

Mainecoonmaniac

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alexpagans said:
I don't but I'll borrow one from a mate. Thanks for the advice chaps!

EDIT: I just used a camera lens as a makeshift loupe and the negatives look fine so I think we have our answer. Won't be going to Jessops again!
Click to expand...

Let's hope it's not the negs but the scanner. If your negs are fine, you can get them rescanned.
 

Wallendo

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Both images are technically challenging exposures and appear underexposed. The fog probably fooled the camera in the first image and the second has bright areas (the lights) and dark areas.
The lines on your scans are scanner related. The heavy digital noise is probably related to underexposure. In addition, most consumer scans are over-sharpened, which can make noise worse. Your negatives may be grainy, but the low-res scanning process has likely exaggerated the problem.
 
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