Please recommend a scanner for 35mm and 120 film

Markus Albertz · Apr 9, 2020

Good Day,
While I usually stay away from anything digital for photography, I'm looking for decent scanner for 35mm mounted color slides, as well as black and white film in 35mm and medium formats.

Please make a recommendation.

nbagno · Apr 9, 2020

Do you have a budget in mind? Without knowing that, I use a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro.

Sirius Glass · Apr 9, 2020

What is your price range? More importantly what are your requirements? If you have some extra change in your pocket and are itching to buy a scanner because you have to stay-at-home take a look at the Epson V850 Pro Photo Scanner, which I have even though I am an analog guy.

Markus Albertz · Apr 9, 2020

The budget question is a good one. I don't know. I'm usually willing to spend a little more for quality. As for the purpose, it's the following:

1. Scan my collection of old 35mm color slides for archival purposes.
2. Scan 35mm black & white film for sharing via email and sometime in the future making the occasional enlarged digital negative for contact printing.
3. Ditto on medium format black & white film.

Thanks for your comments so far

Alan Edward Klein · Apr 9, 2020

The V600 runs about $200 and the V800 or V850 run around $800-1100. The latter two will give a little better scans. I "archived" my 35mm slides using a V600 and also medium format on a V600. Check my FLickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums I've never made digital negatives with the scans so I can't comment. Not even sure what that is. But I do show slideshows on my 75" 4K TV, or on a monitor, or cellphone and they're pretty good. I also uploaded a slideshow on Youtube that came from 30 year old Ektachromes.

Ko.Fe. · Apr 9, 2020

Are you computer savvy? Where are old Nikon scanners, but works only with older OS. People are buying old computers to have those old scanners connected.
Personally, I have Plustek 8200i for 135 and slides. And Epson V550 flatbed for 120. Cost less than Nikon and hassle free to use with current Windows OS.

ozphoto · Apr 9, 2020

Like @Ko.Fe. I run two scanners as well.

The first was bought about 20 years ago - an Agfa Duoscan 1200 flatbed and I use this to scan large format (very rarely!), medium format and mounted transparencies. The second is a Plustek 7600i.

I get great results from both scanners, and while I've toyed with purchasing a dedicated medium format scanner, the cost is somewhat prohibitive. At this stage, the Duoscan is currently running just fine on XP, although before that I had to purchase a used computer running Windows 98 for it to operate. The scanner and the computer set me back the princely sum of $AUD750, and 2/3 of that was the scanner!

Should the Duoscan eventually head to the hardware graveyard at Bunnings, I'll seriously consider a dedicated medium format scanner, but until then, all good on the scanning front for me with this setup.

Markus Albertz · Apr 10, 2020

I might consider the Epson V600. However, there are some reviews on B&H complaining about incompatibility with Windows 10. Is that still the case? The reviews are a few years old.

KenS · Apr 10, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
What is your price range? More importantly what are your requirements? If you have some extra change in your pocket and are itching to buy a scanner because you have to stay-at-home take a look at the Epson V850 Pro Photo Scanner, which I have even though I am an analog guy.

If I may.. I am more than willing to 'second' that advice. I found that My Epson 850 Pro does 'everything' I need it to
do... and does it 'Well"

Ken

markbau · Apr 10, 2020

Here is a comparison I did between a Nikon Coolscan and a Epson V800 of the same slide. All settings/sizes were the same. I was not overly impressed with the Epson. Epson on the left.

Finny · Apr 10, 2020

markbau said:
Here is a comparison I did between a Nikon Coolscan and a Epson V800 of the same slide. All settings/sizes were the same. I was not overly impressed with the Epson. Epson on the left.
View attachment 243631

what a huge difference between these two scanners

Markus Albertz · Apr 10, 2020

I agree, the Nikon scan looks significantly sharper. Hmm, maybe I'll focus on a dedicated 35mm film scanner to get started.

markbau said:
Here is a comparison I did between a Nikon Coolscan and a Epson V800 of the same slide. All settings/sizes were the same. I was not overly impressed with the Epson. Epson on the left.
View attachment 243631

wiltw · Apr 10, 2020

You can try to find Canon flatbeds like the 8800F and 9900F, which can scan negatives, slides, and photos very well. Canon provided software called NPNavigator which could autocorrect for color neg quite well, and the software could to automatic dust reduction.
Both scanners came with 135 format and medium format film holders for scanning strips and automatically storing each photo as a separate image. Unfortunately, as is the case with many scanner manufacturers, Canon discontinued its photoscanners and now does only their LIDE document scanners. You can find used Canon photoscanners, but then there is the uncertainty of whether the units still have the film strip holders included. Vuecan software is compatible, altough I continue to use NP Navigator with my Win10 PC.

gordrob · Apr 10, 2020

I use both the Nikon 5000ED and the Nikon 9000ED. Both give excellent results. I run them both on Windows 10 with Vuescan . If you have a large quantity of slides to archive then you are probably better off copying them with a DSLR set up because the dedicated scanners are slow even though they give the best results. Nikon had a bulk loader for their 35mm format but they are hard to find, expensive and can have jamming problems.

markbau · Apr 11, 2020

Over the years I've tried a number of flatbed scanners that friends have purchased and when it comes to film I've found all of them wanting. The film holders are useless, I've gotten decent results from large and medium format negs layed directly on the glass, but for mounted 35mm slides, forget it, the dedicated slide/film scanners are the way to go or, as gordrob said, you'll get good results using a DSLR. So my vote would be a scanner like a Coolscan or Dimage, second choice, DSLR. Forget flatbeds for mounted slides.

mgb74 · Apr 11, 2020

Markus Albertz said:
I might consider the Epson V600. However, there are some reviews on B&H complaining about incompatibility with Windows 10. Is that still the case? The reviews are a few years old.

I use a v600 with epson scan s/w on w10. And I'm not aware of windows OS issues except upgrading FROM WinXP. As an aside, Vuescan seems to get around the OS issues that others have not bothered to do.

Les Sarile · Apr 11, 2020

If you're not adverse to the risk of buying used, the Nikon Coolscans V, 5000 & 9000 are the way to go. The first two are 35mm only (although I've scanned 110 film using film holder) with the V being less expensive, slower and less accessories then the 5000 but stil 4000dpi. The 5000 is fastest while the 9000 can scan MF film. I prefer using an older PC to run Nikonscan but understand you can use Vuescan on newer PCs.

PhilBurton · Apr 11, 2020

Ko.Fe. said:
Are you computer savvy? Where are old Nikon scanners, but works only with older OS. People are buying old computers to have those old scanners connected.
Personally, I have Plustek 8200i for 135 and slides. And Epson V550 flatbed for 120. Cost less than Nikon and hassle free to use with current Windows OS.

There are instructions all over the web on how to connect up a NIKON 5000 scanner to Windows 7 or Windows 10.

removedacct1 · Apr 11, 2020

markbau said:
Here is a comparison I did between a Nikon Coolscan and a Epson V800 of the same slide. All settings/sizes were the same. I was not overly impressed with the Epson. Epson on the left.
View attachment 243631

In my experience, its very difficult to get a usable scan from 35mm film using an Epson V series scanner. My results typically look like the example posted here. The flatter the film, the better your odds, but I have always had to apply careful sharpening to give the appearance of any real sharpness. My opinion is that the V750 I own is very poor for scanning the smaller formats.

Ko.Fe. · Apr 11, 2020

PhilBurton said:
There are instructions all over the web on how to connect up a NIKON 5000 scanner to Windows 7 or Windows 10.

Let me guess, VM? Mind you, I was asking OP if he is computer savvy. Many at APUG can't even use Google to find answers you and I are able to find in 30 seconds.

PhilBurton · Apr 11, 2020

Ko.Fe. said:
Let me guess, VM? Mind you, I was asking OP if he is computer savvy. Many at APUG can't even use Google to find answers you and I are able to find in 30 seconds.

That may be true, but don't forums like this one exist in part to help out the less computer savvy.

I'm sure you could run a scanner in a VM, but there are the issues of having a licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista 32, and then the issues of configuring the scanner only in the VM. The instructions do explain how to edit one of the driver install files with a plain text editor so that the scanner can work in 64 bit Windows 7 or 10.

Markus Albertz · Apr 14, 2020

All,

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions. Unfortunately, an unexpected car repair ate my scanner budget. It will have to be shelved for now.

Alan Edward Klein · Apr 14, 2020

markbau said:
Here is a comparison I did between a Nikon Coolscan and a Epson V800 of the same slide. All settings/sizes were the same. I was not overly impressed with the Epson. Epson on the left.
View attachment 243631

Here's another bit of sharpening of the Epson scan. Of course, its' not the greatest but better than you did. You said the settings were the same between the two scanners. That's impossible. They're different scanners and the settings are handled differently. I do agree that flatbed scanners require a lot of sharpening and won;t equal the Nikon scanner.

markbau · Apr 15, 2020

Alan Edward Klein said:
Here's another bit of sharpening of the Epson scan. Of course, its' not the greatest but better than you did. You said the settings were the same between the two scanners. That's impossible. They're different scanners and the settings are handled differently. I do agree that flatbed scanners require a lot of sharpening and won;t equal the Nikon scanner.
View attachment 243978

Not impossible at all, same dpi/bit depth, image size/file size. Flatbeds cannot be as sharp as a scanner like a cool scan, especially when using the holders that lift the slide off the glass. Unmounted film that is pressed against the glass have a chance but mounted, no way.

Alan Edward Klein · Apr 15, 2020

Flatbed scanners are calibrated to focus above the glass for film scans and on the glass for reflective (photos and paper). That accounts for the film holder.

Please recommend a scanner for 35mm and 120 film

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency