Epson V600 etc and stitching multi-part scans

[David R Munson]

I'll be back in the US in two months and I want to get a scanner to start working on the hundreds (actually hundreds) of rolls of 35mm and 120 negs that I've shot and developed but have done nothing more with since leaving for Korea 2.5 years ago. An Epson V600 or Canon 9000F fits the bill for the most part, except for the fact that I recently came back to sheet film and started shooting 4x5 again, so I've got a growing number of new 4x5 negatives as well (to say nothing of the many, many 4x5 shots I have back home in storage).

Long-term, I'll get a V750 or maybe a used Imacon, but for now the V600 or similar scanners are all I can fit into my budget. I've seen 4x5 shots that people have scanned in two parts on one of these scanners and stitched together, but I wonder if there's anyone here who's actually doing that. I can think of plenty of extra problems one could run into that don't normally come into play when scanning a negative in the typical manner. How does one make it work well?

tl;dr Scanning a 4x5 negative in two strips on a scanner meant to accommodate roll film and stitching the scans: is there a practical methodology for doing it well to produce good results?

[photoSmart42]

What does stitching buy you?

[David R Munson]

It gets you the whole 4x5 negative. The smaller scanners have a transparency unit wide enough to do 120 or 35mm just fine, but not 4x5, so what you do is scan the 4x5 negative in two strips then stitch the two halves together.

[Doug Fisher]

If cost is a concern, buy a used 4990 and save yourself a lot of time and aggravation versus stitching 4x5! It can also scan larger batches of your smaller formats at one time.

Doug
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www.BetterScanning.com

[Ken Lee]

Photoshop has a nice feature called Photomerge. You just tell it which photos to merge, and off it goes. There may be faster and better specialty applictions out there, but if you already have PS, it should work. I use it to make panoramas from my small digital snapshots. It will even smooth over differences in brightness, etc.

When its done, it gives you each portion on its own layer. You can tweak any piece to better match the others, and then flatten it (if you want) to make a single image, or save it as a number of pieces in layers.

[David R Munson]

I should revise and note that the stitching part isn't the greatest concern, but rather it is the technical side of consistency in scanning, so that the two halves are not disparate.

Also, I considered the 4990, but I owned one before I went abroad, and wanted something that would better handle smaller negatives. I had a lot of problems with scan quality on 35mm with the 4990 that I had before.

[Ken Lee]

You could add something to each target, some kind of step wedge, or pair of black and white areas. That way you could always adjust the levels against those constants, rather than something in the film. This would help ensure consistent scans.

[Kuzano]

Two considerations.

Considering that stitching software needs a bit of overlap to match pixels for the stitch, how are people getting 4X5 stitched using a medium format path on a flatbed scanner without making a third pass?

Also be sure to check whether the V600 really gives better scanning on 35mm. My V500 was actually not as good on 35mm as my friends 4990. (But.. two operators?? hmmm)

[photoSmart42]

Also, I considered the 4990, but I owned one before I went abroad, and wanted something that would better handle smaller negatives. I had a lot of problems with scan quality on 35mm with the 4990 that I had before.

The V600 won't give you better 35mm results over the 4990. The 4990 is perfect for your needs, and cheaper.

[taulen]

I use a v600 and stitch in photoshop. Works pretty well for me, just two passes, there is more than enough overlap. I scan 5" x 2,5-3" two times. And photoshop does a wonderful job, completely automatic. And also the instant start-up from the v600 is a real time-saver ! =)

[scm]

I stitched a lot of 4x5 scans from my V600 until I started shooting a lot more 4x5 and the extra time involved became too much for me to ignore and I bought a V700.

I made a jig out of thin plastic sheeting with a 4x5 hole cut from it that positioned the film in middle of the scanner bed along the scanning path, I also cut a 3" x 1/2" notch for the calibration area. I would scan one side and flip the film 180 degrees and scan a second time. I have no way of knowing for sure but it may have helped in the stitching process to already have the film somewhat in register, there is also a good amount of overlap of the two scans, a bit more than a quarter of an inch from each side.

I tried a couple of different stitching programs but found that the Photomerge function in PhotoShop CS5 worked the best for me.

http://home.comcast.net/~smidgley/IMG_1706b.jpg

[Liam:]

I stitch my 4x5 scans using this...

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f217/linus4/4x5AssemblyJPG.jpg

Just a cad model of it but I had one rapid prototyped and it works a charm. Sometimes I just use card to line the neg up when in a rush and that works almost as well.

[David R Munson]

The V600 won't give you better 35mm results over the 4990. The 4990 is perfect for your needs, and cheaper.

That's the impression I'm starting to get. Maybe this time around I can tighten up my technique and might have better luck with the scanner itself, too. I'm just wary of buying a used scanner, honestly. Between film holders, clean/scratch-free glass, and whatever other unforeseen problems, I don't want to get stuck with a scanner that I can't return and can't use. I can't afford that. Even if a V600 is not perfect for 4x5, it's doable and comes with a warranty. I can't find any 4990s for sale to compare price, but I've seen the V600 for as low as $145 and usually around $190, which is a good $100 less than I've ever seen even a used 4990 sell for. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?

SCM: that's a very interesting solution you've come up with. I like it!