What is the best negative scanner (35mm) for $400 or less?

Question

Now that we are moving to the digital world...

What is the best negative scanner for the price range of up to $400

Asked by Shaihi

Answer

I'm using Nikon Coolscan V ED and I'm very happy with it. Sadly, it has been discontinued and now the only Nikon option is much more expensive Coolscan 9000 ED.

There are two Coolscans V on the eBay at the moment but I don't think I would comfortable buying a film scanner on a online auction site ...

EDIT: The biggest problem with a second hand scanner is that you don't know how much it was used. The light source in the scanner has a limited lifetime (same as the bulb in a video projector) and it's hard to tell how close to this limit it is.

If you can test the scanner you can at least see if it still works fine on dark source. (With dia film that means a dark object and with a negative film this means a bright object.) In that case I'd suggest selecting few negatives of a known quality (i.e. you had made prints from it) and running them through the scanner. That would show you the detail in bright areas. You should also check for picture noise that would indicate transport problems (i.e. a missing line in the scan or a "squashed" picture with one dimension disproportionately small) and for the noise in the scanned photo. Of course, some noise is imminent as you are working with a noise-sensitive equipment (scanner) on a source that already contains a noise from the analog recording process.

P.S. I'm not selling my Nikon ;)

Answered by gabr

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Is there a film scanner that can read the data from APS films and include it in the EXIF metadata?

Question

I've a bunch of APS films that I'd like to scan but all the film scanners I've seen on the market today are 35mm scanners; and whilst some have little carriers to allow you to physically scan APS, none seem to exist that read the metadata or even at the very least motor drive and automate the scanning?

Is there a product I've missed, that might be found on the likes of eBay; or would I be better off getting them scanned at my local friendly photolab?

Answer

Well, I've searched for this for a good long while. It took some real search foo, but I eventually found the terms that seem to produce a few god results: APS Film Magnetic Strip Reader.

It seems there is only one product that can be found that can read the magnetic strip on APS film that contains the EXIF metadata. Its the Nikon Coolscan IV APS Film Adapter, a discontinued product that does not seem to be available from any commercial storefront on the internet. I did a search on eBay for Nikon Coolscan, and there seem to be quite a few things, including APS specific gear. The APS Film Adapter was not listed when I did my searches, however its eBay, so you never know.

From what I can tell, the Coolscan scanners and the film adapters seem to be pretty expensive...as in, the $2000-$3000 range. Not exactly consumer-level gear. Most of the information I was able to find (which included the links from @nik, as well as several other similar sites and forums) seemed to indicate that the advanced features of APS film never really took off, and the magnetic strip that contained the metadata was never really effectively used. Seems like that is partly due to the downfall of APS as a film format (couldn't tell you why it really failed, never knew much about it.)

There was one other product that I found, the Fuji Frontier Minilab, that seems to be able to scan APS film. A lot of information seems to indicate that it can read the magnetic strip and extract the EXIF data from it, however I couldn't find anything that actually confirmed that. Sadly, it is a commercial product, rather huge, and probably far outside of any individuals price range. You might try taking your APS film to a shop that uses the Fuji Minilab, and see if their scans include the EXIF metadata. Beyond that, I couldn't find anything else relating to scanning APS film and including the EXIF in the resulting digital images.

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Does anyone make a digital real-time negative viewer/quick preview, with no scan-then-view delay?

Question

Is there real time/instant negatives viewer, i.e. one where you can slide into or place a negative onto its sensor and preview the results via a screen or in a window of software on an attached computer desktop? (Budget up to say around 75$/100pounds).

I ask because there are many negatives scanners but it would appear that they are operated by push button scan and you view the result afterwards - either via an attached computer or if standalone, via a built-in screen.

Fine, but the whole scan-then-view process seems slow to me, especially when you may not want to keep the negative, and want to quickly move onto the next. The scan-then-view negative generates a file for each scan that you would have to delete, more steps.

Answer

This one doesn't scan first - it's essentially a 5MP webcam with a light and negative holder. I've used it myself; it's not earth-shattering but does a fairly decent job for the price.

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Does anyone make a digital real-time negative viewer/quick preview, with no scan-then-view delay?

Question

Is there real time/instant negatives viewer, i.e. one where you can slide into or place a negative onto its sensor and preview the results via a screen or in a window of software on an attached computer desktop? (Budget up to say around 75$/100pounds).

I ask because there are many negatives scanners but it would appear that they are operated by push button scan and you view the result afterwards - either via an attached computer or if standalone, via a built-in screen.

Fine, but the whole scan-then-view process seems slow to me, especially when you may not want to keep the negative, and want to quickly move onto the next. The scan-then-view negative generates a file for each scan that you would have to delete, more steps.

Answer

This one doesn't scan first - it's essentially a 5MP webcam with a light and negative holder. I've used it myself; it's not earth-shattering but does a fairly decent job for the price.

Check more discussion of this question.