negative scanner

[bluemoon]

Can anyone recommend a negative scanner . I have loads of old negatives i would like to save to my computer to print off.

Thanks

[Buenchico]

Please answer a very important question before we look for possible suggestions: What format are the negatives in? (If they're all 35mm there are quite a few possibilities. But if you've got 'medium format' negatives, e.g. 120 film or similar, there are very few scanners which can cope with them. Those that do so are likely to cost 'mega-bucks').

Chris

[bluemoon]

My negatives are all 35mm. Hope you can suggest a quality scanner. Thanks

[magicmerlin]

Have a look at this.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?prod uct_id=33435&category_id=72&manufacturer_id=0& tid=b11b193091

[Buenchico]

Thanks for the reply.

At one time (only a few years ago) you had to choose between buying a cheap-ish flatbed scanner, with a built-in negative scanning facility, or a far more expensive 'proper' film scanner. The disadvantages of the former option were that loading the negatives took ages and the results were rubbish. The disadvantage of the latter option was that you'd have to hand over more than a thousand quid!

In more recent times the resolution of flat-bed scanners has greatly improved, so that they can now give acceptable scans. (Even so, if you've got a decent photographic print from the negative, you'll still get a better result by scanning that print, rather than the negative). However you can still only load about 4 negatives at a time, and it can still be quite fiddly.

At the same time though, purpose-built negative scanners have fallen greatly in price. The first models to do so didn't offer any greater resolution than modern flatbed scanners. So the only reason to buy a film scanner was the greater convenience of loading the negatives into it. More recently, however, some cheap scanners with good resolution have come onto the market. If I was buying a film scanner today (and I hadn't got the 'mega-bucks' that the very best models still cost), I'd probably opt for this:
http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/veho-usb-neg ative-scanner/index.jsp

The main 'gripes' in that review relate to the quality of the software which comes with the scanner, rather than to the device itself. That's not really a problem because (if you've got it) you can use Phoitoshop or (otherwise) the excellent free program, GIMP:
http://www.gimp.org/
(Irrespective of the scanner you choose, you'll almost certainly need to

[Buenchico]

. . .tweak each image to get the best results).

Chris

(I really hate it when AB cuts off the end of a post without any warning!)

[bluemoon]

Thank you both for your advice. I hope to make a purchase soon.