suitable film scanner ?

[Ed Rooney]

That's very interesting and helpful information, Bill. More so, because I consider you to be one of the best pro photographers contributing to this forum. 

 

I still have a Honeywell Reponar hiding somewhere in my scary back room, but I doubt that the flash is still alive and well, or that I could get a replacement bulb. I did a big job once in London that involved doing copy-stand work. Once you're setup it's easy to do.

 

Don't toss your LS 8000 in the garbage--recycle it. They'll make plastic cups and then we can recycle those. 

 

Edo

[M.Chapman]

For digitising colour 35mm transparencies, I'm not sure it's worth doing anything more than the DSLR copy route. A decent DSLR and good lens has enough resolution to resolve the film grain. It's not worth going further. If you need to increase the dynamic range take a couple of different exposures and combine in PS. I've recently digitised over 1,000 35mm transparencies taken in late 90's and early 2000's on Kodachrome 64, Velvia and Sensia. I'm using a Lumix G5 and 45mm macro lens that I also use for regular stock photography (so no additional expense) . The resolving power of this setup easily captures the film grain and also (unfortunately) reveals all the weaknesses in the kit I was using at the time. (Contax RTS body and Tamron SP lenses). I could have spent lots more on the scanning/digitising but the end result would have been limited by the quality of my originals and the film grain. 

 

For very fine grain B/W film or larger format originals, the balance may shift back to a decent scanner. 

[Robert Brook]

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