Choosing a film scanner: useful information. Budget slide scanners: what kind of birds are these and where do they live? What types of film scanners are there?

Digitization studio "World of Digital" provides professional digitization services for photographic films, slides and negatives, and photo scanning in Moscow! Promotions and discounts apply! Wide range of scanning options: for digitizing films from 1200dpi to 4000dpi, for scanning photographs from 300dpi to 4000dpi. Individual selection of resolution is possible.

Advantages of digitization in the “World of Digital” studio

Technologies for eliminating scratches and dust, electronic retouching;
Additional processing in Photoshop: color correction, cropping, positioning;
A choice of scanning resolutions from 300dpi to 4000dpi;
Professional scanners for digitizing film and slides, scanning photographs;
Record on any media;
Quantity discounts: 5-20%.

Digitization of photographic films and slides (negatives, transparencies)

Included in cost:

Technologies Digital ICE, GEM, ROC - removal of scratches and dust, hardware color correction;
Post-processing: manual correction, cropping, rotating the image to the correct position Promotion! ;

Digitization of photographic films and slides price:
Service	up to 6 films / 200 frames	up to 15 films / 500 frames	up to 30 films / 1000 frames	more than 30 films / 1000 frames
Scanning 4000dpi
	420 rub/film	400 rub/film	380 rub/film	340 rub/film
personnel	18 rub/frame	17 rub/frame	16 rub/frame	14 rub/frame
Scanning 3200dpi
Film roll (24 or more frames)	380 rub/film	360 rub/film	340 rub/film	300 rub/film
personnel	16 rub/frame	15 rub/frame	14 rub/frame	12.5 rub/frame
Scanning 2400dpi
Film roll (24 or more frames)	330 rub/film	310 rub/film	290 RUR/film	260 rub/film
personnel	14 rub/frame	13 rub/frame	12.5 rub/frame	11 rub/frame
Scanning 1200dpi
Film roll (24 or more frames)	240 rub/film	230 rub/film	215 RUR/film	190 rub/film
personnel	10 rub/frame	9.5 rub/frame	9 rub/frame	8 rub/frame

Digitization of large-format photographic films and slides (4×5, 5×5, 5×6, 6×9)
1200dpi	30rub/frame
2400dpi	50rub/frame
4000dpi	60rub/frame

Notes:

The minimum order for scanning slides and films is 500 rubles;
Films with less than 24 frames, as well as cut films, are calculated frame by frame;
Do not remove slides from the frame, scanning slides taken out of the frame +50% to the price list.

Example of negative digitization
on the left, enhancement technologies are disabled, on the right, hardware enhancements are applied (relevant for color films)

P.S. Visit our Digitization Gallery to view the works.

P.P.S. Examples of framing and digitizing slides and negatives.

Scanning photos

Included in cost:

Elimination of scratches, dust (digital ICE);
Frame trimming, reversal Promotion! ;
Automatic color correction, plus manual finishing in Photoshop Promotion! ;
Recording to CD/DVD, cloud, customer's media.

Digitization of documents, digitization of photographs price:
Scan Resolution / Service	Photo size
Scan Resolution / Service	up to 10x15	starting from 10x15 to A4
300dpi (document scanning, text digitization)	8 RUR/photo	15 RUR/photo
600dpi (book digitization)	10 RUR/photo	20 RUR/photo
1200dpi (for creating slideshows)	15 RUR/photo	25 RUR/photo
2400dpi (for subsequent retouching)	18 RUR/photo	35 RUR/photo
4000dpi (for small size photos)	22 RUR/photo	40 RUR/photo
Text recognising	20 rub/page

Discounts on photo digitization:
200-499 photos	500-999 photos	more than 1000 photos

Notes:

Minimum order for scanning photos is 500 rubles;
If necessary, remove photos from the album or scan photos without removing +30% to the price list.

Scanning photographs, digitizing film, slides and negatives are not the only ones. From us you can order text scanning, digitization of books, followed by recognition and saving in text format. Scanning and processing of photographs - after digitizing photographs, we can retouch the photograph, perform restoration, and colorize it.

Scanning film and negatives

Digitization is carried out on a film scanner, which allows you to scan photographic film with a resolution of 4000 dpi. This is a professional device for high resolution film digitization and high productivity. An example of scanning a negative without improvement and with improvement (elimination of scratches and dust, electronic retouching - color restoration, sharpening) You can see just above “digitalICE and digitalGEM Technologies”. Please note that these technologies do not work when digitizing old black and white negatives; when scanning photographic film in color, the technologies are relevant. Scanning film - the result exceeds your wildest expectations! Call!

We offer slide digitization and negative film scanning at 1200dpi, 2400dpi and 4000dpi. Example.

Scanning old photos

Additional services after digitization: frame trimming, photo reversal and color correction. When scanning film and digitizing old photographs, a frame is always formed around the digital copy, since the scanning area is always larger than the original photograph. Also, when scanning, the image may appear upside down. After digitizing photographs, color correction is important, since photographs are scanned with slight light exposure - a minus of all flatbed scanners. All these shortcomings can be eliminated! Examples.

Digitization of slides and negatives

You can easily find a studio that will scan photographs and digitize film, as well as scan slides. If there are large volumes of photographic materials in the studio, scanning will be done much faster and better than what you can do, and you will probably receive a discount for the volume. What you should pay attention to:

Prices must be justified; the larger the volume, the cheaper it should be to digitize film and scan photographs.

Deadlines – the studio should keep you informed about deadlines, and it is also possible to pick up finished materials in parts.

Quality - contact a studio with professional equipment, and also pay attention to the list of digitization services, the more of them, the better the studio works.

Digitizing photographic films at home

While a studio can digitize your films professionally and save you time, you can try scanning your films yourself. Advantages of digitizing slides and negatives at home:

The ability to choose which frames you need. Digitization of photographic films in the studio involves all the resulting frames.

Personal photos if you don’t want anyone else to see them.

Buy a scanner to scan slides and film. The more expensive the scanner, the better the quality of digitization of photographic films and slides. You can purchase a flatbed scanner with a slide module, the price varies between 3,000-10,000 rubles. You can also purchase a professional film scanner with electronic retouching, scratch and dust removal technologies. Such a device will cost 45,000 rubles and more. What you should pay attention to:

Speed. Some scanners digitize films at breakneck speed. Be prepared that this may affect the quality of film scanning.

Quality. It is advisable that the scanner supports a slide scanning resolution of 4000 dots per inch (dpi). This setting allows you to digitize a negative in 32x48 quality.

Compatibility. Professional scanners connect using the 1394 protocol, make sure your computer has one.

Flatbed scanner. You can digitize photographic film using a conventional scanner for digitizing text and scanning books. Minuses this method consist in the small resolution of scanning the slide, the scanner has limitations in brightness, the film is digitized through glass, there are no special “tricks” to improve the image. With this method it is impossible to achieve the same quality of digitization of slides and photographic films as in specialized studios.

Photographing the slide. What you need: screen, overhead projector and camera stand. Take a photo of the screen image using digital camera, achieve optimal sharpness. Next, you need to process the photo in Photoshop.

Summarize. The cost of digitizing photographic films in a studio and subsequent photo processing is quite adequate today. But the result may pleasantly surprise you! Think about what is best for you: trust professionals to digitize photographic films and scan slides, or conduct experiments at home. Pay attention to which studio you are going to entrust digitization to. Some companies may lose materials or damage them, and the saddest thing is that they are not responsible for this. 93 votes, rating: 4,67 out of 5)

Ordinary scanners are not designed for scanning slides and negatives due to insufficient backlighting. However, there is a trick that will allow you to do this using a small amount of cardboard. By constructing a clever design, you can redirect the light flux and achieve the desired result.

If you have old negatives lying around in your archive that you would like to convert into digital format, you have the opportunity to scan them. But simple scanning will not work for these purposes. In order for everything to work out, you need a powerful light source, which should be located behind the negative or a multi-functional scanner.

Of course, you can buy a special scanner for films, but if you already have a regular flatbed scanning device, you can get by with it. You can use a regular cardboard reflector to scan film or slide. It will capture the light emitted by the scanner and reflect it from reverse side slide. Such a reflector will make it possible to scan films and slides like regular documents.

To make a reflector we will need the following materials:
Sheet of thick A4 cardboard with silver side
Pencil
Scissors
Scotch
Ruler

Instructions

Step 1: On the non-silver side of the cardstock, print or draw the following pattern.

Step 2: Cut out the template and fold it so that the silver side is facing inward.

Step 3: Connect the template into a triangle. It should resemble a wedge. This will leave one side open. The shiny part must be inside.

Step 4: Next you need to glue the corners of the reflector. After the glue has dried, the device is ready for use.

Let's start using our reflector. Place film or slide on the scanner glass. Place a reflector on top. To achieve a good result, align one side of the slide with the center of the reflector. There is no need to close the scanner cover. You can start scanning. If you end up with uneven lighting in your photo, you can try placing a thin sheet of tissue paper between the negative and the reflector. The paper will diffuse the light flux and prevent the scanner from capturing the space behind the film.

Having achieved a satisfactory result, you need to crop the image along the contour of the slide, since the scanner scans the entire glass, and we only need a small frame. Cropping can be done in any graphics editor. To obtain the clearest image possible, scan at high resolution. It is recommended to use 1200 DPI.

After scanning, you will need to do some photo manipulation with the image. If you scanned a negative, you will have to invert the colors. This can be done even in Microsoft Paint, so there shouldn't be any difficulties. You can also do a little processing of the image in any graphic editor. It is recommended to increase the brightness or contrast.

If dust gets on the negative during scanning, it can be removed with a soft lens brush or cosmetic brush. To remove stains or scratches, you can use the healing brush tool. For this you can use free programs, such as GIMP or Paint.net. They are available for free download and are easy to find on the Internet.

This image shows (from left to right): the forward scan, the inverted scan, and the final image after removing scratches and dust. The whole job took no more than 10 minutes.

May 14, 2012, Odnokrylov Vladimir 2

Many of us probably still have old photographic films - color and black and white, and maybe even slides. What to do if you want to show your friends in in social networks photos from my first matinee in kindergarten? You can contact a photo lab, or you can buy a slide scanner and translate all your family photo archive into digital format yourself. Read about what slide scanners are and how much they can cost in our review today.

Little has changed in the field of film and negative scanning in recent years - despite technical progress, all also require either a special adapter for flatbed scanners or a specialized separate device.

The average person will ask the question - why do I need this very slide adapter, and, moreover, a separate solution? The answer is simple: the difference between the process of scanning the same finished photograph and a slide is not only in size. An additional problem is that the printed original can simply be illuminated by the carriage of a flatbed scanner, but the attitude towards film originals is completely different - they need to be illuminated through.

The second problem is the range of perception of opacity densities by the scanning heads of scanners. As a rule, a household “tablet” has a small range.

The third difficulty is the presentation of originals, because the images on the slides are quite small, and the film, as a rule, is also curved due to storage in reels, so the question automatically arises about the correct positioning of the original and the quality of the pressure, so that the resulting result is in focus and not geometric distortions.

At least two problems - material supply and illumination - are solved by slide adapters, and the corresponding resolution and optical range, as a rule, provide separate solutions.

“Why should I scan films,” an inquisitive consumer will ask, “if I have digital camera"The answer is simple - there are many old photographs taken at a time when even color film was a novelty and an unprecedented luxury. They, of course, can be printed in the "old-fashioned" way, but usually the quality of slides and films does not improve over time - dust , scratches and much more greatly worsen their condition.And digital processing allows you to eliminate artifacts of this kind and print photos on modern devices.

As for the companies that today produce independent devices for scanning film originals, there are actually few of them - these are either companies such as Konica, which have long been involved in any devices related to photography or processing of printed originals, and producing ultra-expensive solutions for darkrooms, or “newbies” as brands Ion Audio And Plustek, which have recently entered the market and are actively using new technologies in search of the optimal price/quality ratio.

Scanning films and slides up to 5000 rubles

The budget range of any device is exactly what makes the bulk of sales, and the explanation for this is quite simple: if a consumer buys a device for the first time, he is unlikely to be able to pay 10,000-20,000 rubles for an item that is used frequently or is generally needed which he is not sure. On this moment in Russia, as well as in many other countries, the percentage of professionals who do not spare any money on working tools is quite small.

Therefore, inexpensive slide scanners are the solution for those who simply want to preserve old slides from family celebrations, restore lost photo albums from negatives, or restore old fairy tales from film projectors. Of course, the quality of such devices is far from darkrooms, but the requirements for 10x15 cm prints are also small, and most consumer photo prints are in this format.

Such relatively inexpensive “workhorses” are divided into two classes - stand-alone devices that scan films onto flash drives, and USB devices that are connected to a PC and controlled by it. Of course, the division is conditional - most stand-alone slide scanners have the ability to connect to a PC.

Slide scanners connected via USB

As a rule, inexpensive USB film scanners do not have their own screen and are generally quite simplified - in fact, all settings are carried out in proprietary or specialized software. We have tabulated the most popular representatives of this segment.

Name	ION PICS2PC	ION SLIDES2PC EXPRESS	ION SLIDES2PCMK3	Plustek SmartPhoto F50
Matrix type	CMOS
Connection interface	USB 2.0
Nutrition	USB
Color depth, bits	48			24
Resolution (optical), dpi	1800
	3600
	5.1 Mpx (2592x1680)
Light source	White LED
Color balance	Machine
Exposition	Machine
Scanning 35mm negatives	Yes
Scanning 35mm slides	Yes
	Yes	No
	Yes	No
	Yes	No
	No
Weight, g	1200	370	660	310
Dimensions, mm	220x208x147	105x170x85	83x153x83	104x155x100
		Film and slide frames, optical cleaning brush	Slide frame, slide and roll film feeders, optical cleaning brush	Film and slide frame
Peculiarities	Two operating modes	Plug And Play		Quick preview
	5000	2600 rubles	2900 rubles	3600 rubles

In general, one can note the prevalence of brand products ION AUDIO. As expected, each device, regardless of price, comes with appropriate frames for placing film originals.

ION SLIDES2PC EXPRESS with frames for film originals

Despite the similarity of the matrices used - each has an optical resolution of 1800x1800 dpi, the capabilities of the devices are slightly different - for example, you can pay extra for fast slide feed mechanisms in ION SLIDES2PCMK3. This will significantly increase the processing speed: it is much easier to put the slides directly in the frames and quickly change them, there are fewer problems with sorting already processed slides and there is no need to disassemble the slide frame many times.

ION SLIDES2PCMK3

And in ION PICS2PC You can also scan photos using the included frames in three sizes (9x13, 10x15 and 13x18 cm), and the device itself is housed in a fairly compact case.

ION PICS2PC

To change the operating mode, you need to move both switches on the body to the Photo Scanner or Film Scanner position - to scan photographs or film originals, respectively. The selected mode, when the switches are in the correct position, is illuminated by a green LED.

ION PICS2PC in photo scanning mode ION PICS2PC in film scanning mode

Compared to the ION series, slide scanner Plustek it doesn’t look so bright - the price is higher for equal capabilities, and besides, the reduced color bit depth will certainly make itself felt when editing full-color photographs.

Plustek SmartPhoto F50

True, the price is generally at the level of conventional flatbed scanners. However, as mentioned earlier, slide scanners have a wider dynamic range, and a flatbed scanner also requires a slide adapter.

Standalone slide scanners

Technically, standalone slide scanners are not particularly different from USB scanners: they add a screen, simple controls, and the ability to connect a storage device—usually an SD card reader. Why are such devices in demand? The answer is very simple: not all people have the time/opportunity/desire to deal with a PC, but a device of this kind allows you to do without even a laptop. The consumer simply takes his slides/negatives, places them in the device and receives output pictures, most often in JPEG format, which he can then view on any memory card-compatible device or edit if he has a computer.

Currently the following devices are sold in Russia:

Name	ION PICS2SD	ION FILM2SDMK2
Matrix type	CMOS
Connection interface	USB 2.0	USB 2.0 and TV-Out
Nutrition	Power adapter
Inner memory	16 MB	No
Screen	2.36 inches, LCD	2.5 inches, LCD
Card reader	SD/MMC/MS/MS-PRO	SD/SDHC up to 8 GB
Color depth, bits	48
Resolution (optical), dpi	1800
Resolution (interpolated), dpi	3600
Received image resolution	5.1 Mpx (2592 x 1680)
Light source	White LED
Color balance	Machine
Exposition	Machine
Saved image format	JPEG
Scanning 35mm negatives	Yes
Scanning 35mm slides	Yes
Scanning 3x5 inch (9x13 cm) photos	Yes	No
Scanning 4x6 inch (10x15 cm) photos	Yes	No
Scanning 5x7 inches (13x18 cm) photos	Yes	No
Scanning 6x8 inches (15x20 cm) photos	No
Weight, g	1200	400
Dimensions, mm	220x208x147	75x75x150
Additional accessories included	Frames for film, slides, photographs 9x13, 10x15 and 13x18	Slide frame, slide and roll film feeders, optical cleaning brush, 2 GB SD card
Peculiarities	Two operating modes	Plug"n"Play, works with iPad Camera Connection Kit
Average market price for April 2012	5500 rubles	3700 rubles

In fact, competitors ION PICS2SD And ION FILM2SDMK2 are absent - the specific purpose of the device and the price range affect it. The capabilities of the devices are close to their USB counterparts, the price of independence from a PC was an increased cost - the difference was up to 1000 rubles, which is quite justified in the absence of a PC.

ION PICS2SD

However, nothing prevents you from connecting them to your PC, but ION FILM2SDMK2 can transfer data to . Considering the active promotion of devices in recent years in Russia, we can say that such an opportunity will be quite in demand.

ION FILM2SDMK2

Additionally ION FILM2SDMK2 has a composite TV output, which makes it possible to simultaneously show slides on the screen of virtually any TV. True, it’s better not to dream about the advantages of a Full HD LCD screen here - the low resolution of the analog input will have a rather strong effect. There are many possibilities for using TV output - for example, the author of these lines thought about the possibility of showing old Soviet filmstrips to children, displaying them directly on the TV screen, and using a film feed adapter for transport.

ION FILM2SDMK2 with roll film feed adapter

In addition, when switching the original mode, we have the opportunity to obtain a positive from a negative original even at the preview stage. For example, this is how we got a cat from a negative film (we rotated the image using the built-in control).

Scanned frame Original

Then we scanned the slide.

Scanned slide Original

However, ION PICS2SD has a similar “feature”, in addition to advanced controls compared to its brother.

ION PICS2SD with frame for film originals

The SD card slot for both devices is on the back.

SD card reader in ION PICS2SD SD card reader in ION FILM2SDMK2

Scanning films and slides from 5000 rubles

What awaits us in the price range above 5,000 rubles? Devices with extrapolated, and closer to tens of thousands per device, optical resolution of 7200 dpi are already starting here. As resolution and dynamic range increase, so does the price, and not in a linear progression. As an example, we took the characteristics of several devices of different price segments and compiled them into a table to clearly show the relationship between capabilities and price.

Name	Plustek OpticFilm 7600i	Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV	Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED	Imacon Flextight X5
Matrix type	CCD	Three-line CCD sensor	Dual-line CCD sensor	Three-line CCD sensor from Kodac
Connection interface	USB 2.0	USB 2.0	USB 2.0	FireWire, LPT
Nutrition	Power adapter
Dynamic range	3,5	4,8		4,9
Screen	No
Color depth, bits	48
Resolution (optical), dpi	3250	3200	4000	8000
Resolution (interpolated), dpi	7200	No
Light source	White LED	Three-wave cold cathode fluorescent lamp	RGB LEDs and IR emitter	Lamp with diffuser
Color balance	Machine	Automatic/manual
Exposition	Machine	Automatic/manual
Scanning 35mm negatives	Yes
Scanning 35mm slides	Yes
Scanning slides 100x280 mm	No			Yes
Scanning 3x5 inch (9x13 cm) photos	No
Scanning 4x6 inch (10x15 cm) photos	No
Scanning 5x7 inches (13x18 cm) photos	No
Scanning 6x8 inches (15x20 cm) photos	No
Weight, g	1600	1500	3000	20500
Dimensions, mm	120x119x272	145x100x325	96x172x315	230x390x650
Additional accessories included	Film/slide holders, color calibration samples	Frames for slides and roll film	Automatic feeder, set of frames	Automatic feeder, set of special frames
Peculiarities	iSRD function for removing scratches and dust	RGB filter, digital noise reduction	Possibility of sampling color channels, fast preview, IR scanning mode, improved algorithm for processing images from color negative films	Scanning large format slides, A4 reflector, active sensor cooling on Pelte tubes, light condenser
Average market price for April 2012	18000	30000	110000	800000

Of course, the quality of scans from a device costing 3-5 thousand rubles will never achieve the same Nikon SuperCoolScan 5000, but the capabilities of budget slide scanners have never been compared to professional devices - any comparison will simply be inappropriate.

Nikon SuperCoolScan 5000

Devices of this level will never become mass solutions for the simple reason that the cost of truly high-quality solutions is available only to photo studios, and it is much cheaper for the average person to contact these laboratories than to purchase such a device for home - it simply cannot pay for itself.

Conclusion

In relation to the price, we can say that in the budget range it is still worth paying attention to the products ION AUDIO— their slide scanners are very compact and well made, and slightly more expensive solutions are also autonomous. In general, with approximately the same solution matrix from ION have a wide range of ergonomic additions, which allows you to choose the device for yourself at an extremely low price, and even with the opportunity to do without a computer at all.

However, the low resolution of the matrices of budget slide scanners imposes its limitations, and if you are interested in a professional level of slide processing, you will either need to spend a lot of money, or you will have to contact specialized photo laboratories.

In our opinion, the best device of the brand ION AUDIO in terms of price/features ratio at the moment it is ION FILM2SDMK2. It can't scan photos, but there's a difference in price compared to ION PICS2SD allows you to additionally purchase an inexpensive flatbed scanner for this purpose, and the autonomy, along with the ability to work with both a PC and TV, and iPad(via a special adapter) are quite remarkable. And previewing images on the built-in screen, combined with adjustment options such as rotation and flip, slightly improves the efficiency of working with this device. In general, due to the budget price and interesting features, this product can be considered as a good gift.

All about digital photography

If you have old negatives lying around in your archive that you would like to convert into digital format, you have the opportunity to scan them. But simple scanning will not work for these purposes.

In order for everything to work out, you need a powerful light source, which should be located behind the negative or a multi-functional scanner.

Of course, you can buy a special scanner for films, but if you already have a regular flatbed scanning device, you can get by with it.

You can use a regular cardboard reflector to scan film or slide. It will capture the light emitted by the scanner and reflect it off the back of the slide. Such a reflector will make it possible to scan films and slides like regular documents.

To make a reflector we will need the following materials:

Sheet of thick A4 cardboard with silver side
Pencil
Scissors
Scotch
Ruler

Instructions

Step 1: On the non-silver side of the cardstock, print or draw the following pattern.

Step 2: Cut out the template and fold it so that the silver side is facing inward.

Step 3: Connect the template into a triangle. It should resemble a wedge. This will leave one side open. The shiny part must be inside.

Best Film Scanners rating: photos, characteristics, prices, reviews

The paper will diffuse the light flux and prevent the scanner from capturing the space behind the film.

If dust gets on the negative during scanning, it can be removed with a soft lens brush or cosmetic brush. To remove stains or scratches, you can use the healing brush tool.

To do this, you can use free programs such as GIMP or Paint.net. They are available for free download and are easy to find on the Internet.

This image shows (from left to right): the forward scan, the inverted scan, and the final image after removing scratches and dust. The whole job took no more than 10 minutes.

Source: n-foto.ru

Copying materials without an active hyperlink to www.takefoto.ru is prohibited.

1 step

Scanner with slide module

Let me make a reservation right away that you can scan the film normally only on a scanner with a slide module.

The slide module is a device inside the scanner cover, consisting of a special plate and some other elements. If you just put film on the scanner glass, the result will be terrible, everything will be overexposed and ruined. In addition, the scanner must have a real (not to be confused with interpolated resolution) optical resolution of at least 2400dPi, and preferably 4800dPi.

Step 2

We need to prepare the film. Cut it into pieces of 6 frames each. Before doing this, it is advisable to rinse the film with plain water. Wipe the scanner glass with glass cleaning liquid, otherwise every speck of dust will be visible in the photo. Detach the slide module plate and attach the film to it.

Budget slide scanners: what kind of birds are these and where do they live?

To press tightly, use small plates along the edges. Attach the slide module to the scanner lid and lower the lid.

Step 3

Software You can use the software included with the scanner as a program for scanning film. The VueScan program also copes well with this task. You can download it from the resource. This utility supports most scanners and has many settings. The scanning process itself is not much different from scanning photographs. You need to select the media type Slide\Film, scan resolution and location to save the file. Select the format of the created file: BMP or TIFF; if you select JPEG, you will lose the quality of the picture. Batch mode allows you to scan multiple slides at the same time. It is better to process the resulting image in graphic editors, such as Photoshop. Source akak.ru

On a weak PC, high-resolution scanning can take quite a long time.
Do not use multifunction devices (MFPs) to digitize film.
You can scan both negatives and positives.

Back

How to make a slide module for a scanner

When I wrote about a homemade shoe dryer, I understandably wanted to post a photo of this miracle. But when I ordered “all the resulting photos” to be printed on film, the stupid operators did not understand the genius of this device and left it unprinted. I didn’t want to go to them a second time. Then I thought about making a slide module for my Umax Astra 4700 scanner. Well, don’t buy it for fifty dollars, really!
The most obvious way: put the film on the glass and shine a lamp from above through white paper for uniformity - but it didn’t work. Couldn't find the right brightness, etc.

Film Scanner Review

Although, theoretically, this is probably possible.
An attempt to force the scanner driver into film scanning mode resulted in it turning off the lamp (this is good) and shouting that it could not be positioned (this is bad). Probably, there is some kind of calibration scale on the native slide module... Well, to hell with it.
A search on the Internet gave a description of the design of two mirrors. That's what I decided to do. But everything turned out to be somewhat different from what was described. In general, for fun, I’m posting how it happened.
You will need:
— two mirrors approximately 60*60 mm (deviations in any direction are possible, affecting the result);
— a box from a 5-inch CD;
- glue for plastics and glass (preferably cyanoacrylic - second);
- a hacksaw, or a jigsaw, or a knife, in general, something that can be used to cut a box of CDs.

Ideally, you will also need a piece of glass, but if the box is not scratched, this will do. Although the quality will, of course, be worse.

We take the lid from the CD and cut off two corners (right triangles with sides about 3 cm). This will be a 90 degree measure at which the mirrors need to be glued together. Glue mirrors to them with the reflective surface inward to make a house. When it dries, we place this house on what is left of the lid (so that the mirrors look down) and glue it to the lower ribs.
You will get something like this design. I tried to photograph her with a webcam from different angles, but it still didn’t work out very well. (click to enlarge)

How to use what you got

The main thing is patience. Wait until the glue dries so as not to crap the scanner glass :)))

We place the film emulsion on the scanner. We place the house on top so that the mirrors look down, and the film is shifted to its edge and lies parallel to the junction of the mirrors (see pictures).

Moreover, we place the house ALONG the movement of the carriage - this is the main know-how. We cover it all with an opaque box on top - it can increase the contrast of the image. Again, see the picture.

It is useful to paint the inside of the box with black paint - all for contrast.
And... full speed ahead! Resolution - 1200-2400.

The result will be something like the horror in the picture on the right.

There is no need to despair - this is what we wanted. Load it into Microsoft Photo Editor (it's in the MS Office installer, in the Office Tools branch) or into something smarter. Make a negative out of this image. I got an average picture, in which the colors are already visible, but there is a lot of blue. Photo Editor has a Balance function, which allows you to change the brightness of both the entire image and each color component separately. With its help you need to remove the blue, you can add red. And the result is what we see in the left picture. And all the scratches on it come from the cover of the CD (use glass, comrades!).
It is, of course, not a fountain, but for some purposes it will be very suitable.

Good luck!

For letters

Scanning negatives

Comrades (or whatever is fashionable today), gentlemen, members of the forum.

I decided to convert my family photo archive to digital format.
There are just a lot of negatives! Since the 80s of the last century. Taking into account the fact that my father was engaged in photography (though still b&w). I have been photographing and printing photos since I was 6 years old.

The best scanners according to customer reviews

In short, a lot has accumulated.

My old scanner does not support this feature. I took a Mustek scanner for testing - BearPaw 2448TA Plus.
When scanning with a resolution of 1200 dpi, everything is fine, but the speed is not satisfactory; it takes 10 minutes to process 4 negatives, not counting the framing time. Moreover, I am not satisfied with the quality and resolution.
When scanning with high resolution, various quirks appear, sometimes black photos, sometimes white, sometimes one of the RGB components. Moreover, there are no patterns (rebooting programs and drivers, memory occupancy, etc.)!

Has anyone encountered this problem?

I’m ready to buy a new scanner for scanning negatives (you can only use negatives - a specialized one).
Maybe someone works on this profile in photo laboratories.

Due to your financial situation, please do not offer photo scanners over $300.

To convert negatives or slides into digital format, a special device is used - a film scanner. It differs from a conventional scanner in that it is designed to process small transparent images that have high resolution. Although many are equipped with special modules that allow you to scan slides, the resulting product is of low quality.

Only CCD (CCD) scanning elements can provide the required high-resolution images. That's why all film scanners are built using them. Some models have one CCD line. In this case, conversion to digital format requires three passes, which prolongs the scanning, but does not affect its result. Basically, a film scanner has a CCD matrix, and the image is digitized in one pass. Some models use multiple passes to reduce errors in the final image.

An important parameter that you should pay attention to when choosing a scanner is optical resolution. The width of the most common film is 35 mm, and the image itself is even smaller. Therefore, the optical resolution must be at least 2400 dpi (dots per inch). There are scanners that provide 4800 and 5400 dpi. And although the current level of technology allows us to achieve even higher values, this is impractical - the grain size of even a fine-grained film will be much larger than a pixel.

Particular attention should be paid to dynamic range or optical density. The higher the value of this parameter, the better the negative scanner can reproduce halftones and smooth color transitions. For high-quality film processing, the value should be in the range from 3.2 D to 3.6 D. There is no point in purchasing models with higher optical density, since the vast majority of films have exactly these values.

The quality of digitization is also influenced by the bit depth of light, which characterizes color rendition. A modern film scanner may have a 42- or 48-bit color representation, but processing in this format is used only inside the scanner and serves to reduce conversion “noise.” The resulting image has a standard computer equipment 24-bit color encoding.

In most cases, a slide scanner is connected to a computer via a USB interface. More expensive models can connect via SCSI-2 and (FireWire). In this case, quite often the kit includes a board with this controller.

A film scanner almost always has an image enhancement feature. These include Digital ICE, which allows you to remove specks of dust and scratches from an image without affecting the main image, and Digital GEM, which allows you to eliminate graininess, and Digital ROC, which allows you to restore colors in faded photographs, etc. Quite often, all these tools are combined in one package Digital ICE4 Advanced. The use of these technologies significantly prolongs scanning, but the result is excellent. Similar transformations in Photoshop will require much more time, and the result is by no means guaranteed.