Scanning Negatives

[mallog]

With reference to DavidWW's post on How addicted are you ? about storing old photos etc. does anyone know anything about scanning negatives ? Can you do it easily or do you need special software? I have old photos which have definitely suffered from storage in the wrong type of album but I probably have negatives of most of them.

Mallog

[sporran]

Hello Mallog,


scanning negatives is no different in terms of software than any other scanning. Most image-handling software has a button to click to reverse the image. However, you will not get a decent scan off the normal type of scanner, which works on light reflected from the surface. A scanner with a slide adapter is what is needed, and because negatives are fairly small, native scanning resolution should be as high as you can afford. Check that the slide holder will hold your negatives, ideally without having to mount them in slide mounts.


Regards,

John

[Russell]

Thanks John and Mallog

That answers the question I hadn't got round to asking!

Russell

[sheilajim]

Hi Mallog

My combination scanner/printer, Epson RX600, is equipped with a plastic thingy that will scan negatives. However, it won't scan old negatives. They are too big. You have to have a special and very expensive scanner for that. I have taken the few old negatives that I possess to a special lab to have them printed out.

Regards

Sheila

[mallog]

Thanks to all

It's an HP psc I have at the moment. If I cannot get anything for it I will keep it in mind when it comes to replacing it.

Mallog

[Jake Drummond]

Most scanners with negative or 25mm slide facility can be fooled into scanning bigger negatives. Find a piece of plastic or card 25mm or more larger than the negative you need to scan and use the plastic slide holder supplied and copy the shape onto the new plastic blank. Cut out the piece in the centre to allow the negative to show, with at least 25mm all round
As the scanner begins it's scan it 'initialises' by finding a light source, usually by finding the wee cutout at the end of the slide holder, and if your new holder is cut to the correct shape the scanner will do it's job just the same.
You may have to select to 'allow' the scanner to automatically size the image, some do it automatically!

If you are near to me here in Fife and are having trouble I can do it for you.

[sheilajim]

Hi Jake

Thanks for the info on how to trick the scanner.
I will have to try it. Last month, I ended up taking a lot of my old negatives to a shop where they scanned them for me. It ended up costing me about $1.00 apiece. I had about 55 negatives.

I though that it was worth the money , because there were several priceless (to me anyway) pictures among my stack.


Regards

Sheila

[iangmacdonald]

I use an Epson perfection 3170 Photo flatbed scanner.

It comes with a set of frames to hold negatives of various sizes and I've been successful with some strangely sized old ones - including glass negatives.

Current prices can be under £90.