LF scanner options?

**Rhodes** · 18-Feb-2013, 04:24

I have a epson V500 scanner, that as many of you may know, does not scan LF negatives (puting away the scan the neg in two halfs and stich together, etc).
I am looking for a scanner just for LF negatives. Upgrading to the V700 or 750 it's very expensive for me, so decided to look for old scanners/2nd hand ones.
The epson 4990 is still expensive, the prices I saw are around 200 €, also expensive just for scan LF negs. The other option I saw was going to a epson 2450 or 2400 and get the transparency adapter (that mainly are sold with the old 1200 series and beyond).
What do you think?

**Don Dudenbostel** · 18-Feb-2013, 06:16

Something I've done in the past is to use a light box with even illumination and place my B&W neg on it and mask stray light with black tape and black paper. I set my DSLR camera up above it so the focal plane is parallel to the film. Using a good macro lens I simply photograph the neg or transparency. Shoot raw files and process to your liking. B&W neg images can be inverted to positive in photoshop. Basically it's just a copy setup.

I don't shoot color negs so I'm not certain they would work due to the orange mask.

**Jim Jones** · 18-Feb-2013, 06:23

The Epson 2450 has a light source in the lid for up to 4x5 negatives. Mine met my needs for years. An Epson 700 is slightly better, but the difference is modest.