Scanner for contact sheets 120 and 35mm

tracey farmer · May 19, 2022

hi all,
newbie to the forum here
I’m a pro photographer and work is getting exhibited soon. i am in the process of digitising my archival work and have hundreds of sheets of negatives both medium format and 35mm b/w and colour.
I have the Epson 4900 scanner which is ok for scanning negatives individually.
what i am looking for is a way of scanning a whole batch of negatives in a clear film
strip page as a contact sheet.
I see youtube suggest using the epson v850 scanner for this purpose. I haven’t got a spare £900 at moment. are there any other ways to scan a contact sheet and not individual negatives?
or what about buying a negative scanner v850 scanning the contact sheets and then return to retailer within 14 days- as long as i am quick at scanning & keep all packaging etc? the scanner would still be in re-saleable condition.

The scanner doesn’t need to be too high quality- just good enough to produce a good enough contact sheet for selecting images.

Can anyone offer advice or any other suggestions? i have looked at digitising services and that will cost me over £1k with all the negs i have.

thanks
Tracey

BCM · May 19, 2022

The 700 is probably an option for you and if the resolution doesn't need to be HUGE, you can get other bed scanners that would be ok for the $200-$300 range.

Brian

Pieter12 · May 19, 2022

Place your contact sheets on a light box and shoot them with a digital camera on a copy stand. You might need to put a sheet of glass on top to hold everything flat.

gone · May 19, 2022

I use a $60 toy scanner called a Wolverine. It does a really nice job, but you have to scan the negs individually. It's very quick to scan, a roll of 36 exposure just takes 5-10 minutes or so.

W/o it, I can't tell what's what from tiny 35mm negs, so this enables me to see what's really there before deciding if it's worth printing.

If the final goal is to separate the keepers from the ones that ain't, you'll need at least this kind of decent resolution for that.

tracey farmer · May 20, 2022

BCM said:
The 700 is probably an option for you and if the resolution doesn't need to be HUGE, you can get other bed scanners that would be ok for the $200-$300 range.

Brian

thanks do you know
of any scanners that let you put the negatives on a space that is about a4?

tracey farmer · May 20, 2022

Pieter12 said:
Place your contact sheets on a light box and shoot them with a digital camera on a copy stand. You might need to put a sheet of glass on top to hold everything flat.

do you mean place my negatives on a copy stand? and then what do you do- invert them in photoshop?

tracey farmer · May 20, 2022

momus said:
I use a $60 toy scanner called a Wolverine. It does a really nice job, but you have to scan the negs individually. It's very quick to scan, a roll of 36 exposure just takes 5-10 minutes or so.

W/o it, I can't tell what's what from tiny 35mm negs, so this enables me to see what's really there before deciding if it's worth printing.

If the final goal is to separate the keepers from the ones that ain't, you'll need at least this kind of decent resolution for that.

thanks- i will take a look. is it fiddly to keep putting in the 35mm film? thanks

Pieter12 · May 20, 2022

tracey farmer said:
do you mean place my negatives on a copy stand? and then what do you do- invert them in photoshop?

For BW, yes. For color htere are programs that do a good job.

tracey farmer · May 20, 2022

Pieter12 said:
For BW, yes. For color htere are programs that do a good job.

thanks do you know the names of the colour programs?

Pieter12 · May 20, 2022

Negative Lab Pro, for one.

BCM · May 20, 2022

tracey farmer said:
thanks do you know
of any scanners that let you put the negatives on a space that is about a4?

I believe you can get holders for that scanner to do a 24 or 36 roll but would suggest you confirm that.

Les Sarile · May 21, 2022

tracey farmer said:
hi all,
newbie to the forum here
I’m a pro photographer and work is getting exhibited soon. i am in the process of digitising my archival work and have hundreds of sheets of negatives both medium format and 35mm b/w and colour.
I have the Epson 4900 scanner which is ok for scanning negatives individually.
what i am looking for is a way of scanning a whole batch of negatives in a clear film
strip page as a contact sheet.
I see youtube suggest using the epson v850 scanner for this purpose. I haven’t got a spare £900 at moment. are there any other ways to scan a contact sheet and not individual negatives?
or what about buying a negative scanner v850 scanning the contact sheets and then return to retailer within 14 days- as long as i am quick at scanning & keep all packaging etc? the scanner would still be in re-saleable condition.

The scanner doesn’t need to be too high quality- just good enough to produce a good enough contact sheet for selecting images.

Can anyone offer advice or any other suggestions? i have looked at digitising services and that will cost me over £1k with all the negs i have.

thanks
Tracey

By Epson 4900 do you mean the 4490 or the 4990? I have the 4990 and it has the same transparency scan area of 10" X 8" as the V700 and V800. I don't know what film holder sizes you use but if it can fit in that area then you can just lay them on the glass and scan them as I did below.

This first one is a roll of Fuji Astia slide film cut in 6 frames and still in the plastic holder. You'll notice that this filmholder would not fit in the scan area and got cutoff. At 600dpi it took about a minute and if you view the fullres on my flickr, you will have an idea of it's quality.

Full roll of Fuji Astia on Epson V700 by Les DMess, on Flickr

This second one is a roll of Kodak Portra 400UC but this time I took them out of the holder, lay them directly on the glass and bunch them closer together trying to get it all in the but it is still cutoff. I could have overlapped the rebates and then it would have fit. It took about 50 seconds for this scan. As above, the full res is avaialble on my flickr.

Full roll Kodak Portra 400UC on Epson V700 by Les DMess, on Flickr

I did this on my V700 and haven't tried it on my 4990 but the results should be very close if not exactly the same. Of course the 4990 is only available in the used market and should be very reasonably priced.

250swb · May 26, 2022

There are as many ways to bend the rules as there are reasons to follow them. I'll just mention the advantages of an Epson V700/V850 and using the bog standard Epson Scan software and the film holders. The film holders are easy to load although for a 36 exposure film you need to load in two batches. The software allows you make a digital contact sheet and to turn vertical shots so they all end up in the correct orientation to view without tilting your head. You also don't have to spend $70 on software to invert colour negatives as Epson Scan does it for you. The temptation of just putting film onto the flatbed has to be weighed against the limitation of flatbed resolution, you only get higher resolution on the V700 by using the film holders as a different lens is used. You can also make passable 35mm scans with the Epson for printing or web use although it shines at medium format scans and 4x5.

George Collier · May 26, 2022

I did "contact" scans with my 4990 all the time. (I have a V850 now) I just left the negs in the Printfile pages (e-down), placed a piece of glass over it and scanned.
I don't remember scanning settings or selections, but much like Les Sarile says above. Depending on the way the strips run, you may have to piece two scans together for a sheet, but you should be able to scan letter size.

eurekaiv · May 27, 2022

Not sure how much quality you feel you need from a contact sheet, but for me, I just throw the sleeved negs on a $20 amazon lightbox, take a couple pics with my phone, then do a quick invert and color adjustment in photoshop. It gets the job done but isn't a particularly high resolution and the sleeve obviously will not help sharpness. It's fine for examining composition and general exposure though, and I end up scanning anything I think is worth the time in a dedicated film scanner. As mentioned above, doing this with a digital camera would yield better results depending on how much camera you have, or can afford to throw at it, but the plastic sleeve is always going to be a limiting factor with the camera or a flatbed so I've never felt like it was worth the bother.

JerseyDoug · May 28, 2022

When I had a V700 I made 120 contact sheets both in PrintFile sleeves and directly on the glass platen, in both cases under a sheet of ANR glass. I can not tell by looking at the 8x10 sheets themselves which is which.

Scanner for contact sheets 120 and 35mm

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