New guy scanner question.

[steve02]

Hello, my name is Steve Stadelman and I have in the past year gotten into mf photography. I love it.

My foray into LF will be with a Calumet 4x5 and a 135mm Schnieder. Really looking forward to it.

I have NO experience with darkroom and have a lab here in Portland Ore that is everything a new guy would want (friendly, helpful, encouraging) and think that a digital workflow would probably be best for me.

So I have been reading everything I could find about flatbed scanners and Epson seems to be what I want/need but picking the "right one" is a tad intimidating.

I have a mac mini and a whole terabite hard drive to play with. I hope I am not asking a silly question and any guidance would be appreciated.

Steve.

[Gem Singer]

Epson V750 Pro.

[Lachlan 717]

V700 over the V750 and put the savings into film.

You'll get better results by learning how to shoot (i.e. taking more shots) than by trying to learn how to squeeze any difference out of a more expensive scanner.

[stevebrot]

Steve,
I am local to you and am willing to share what I know first-hand if you like. I too am a noob, but am a few months further along in the process. I also have a V700 if you are interested in seeing first hand how well it works with 4x5 and 120. I can probably also help with the darkroom questions too. PM me.


Steve

(I know...someone here is going to follow-up with something like "blind leading the blind"...any other Portlanders are welcome to mentor the both of us if you like...;))

P.S. What lab in Portland are you currently using?

P.P.S. You are going to need that terabyte...scanned LF negatives can make for huge files...

[steve02]

Wicked! I am in Forest Grove and drive in to Blue Moon Camera. My girlfriend and I almost always stop at the Rock Creek pub so we don't "waste the trip"!

Where are you located Steve?

I am not worried about appearing professional or taking some teasing, I just like the way the world looks through the viewfinder.

[steve02]

Do the Epson's mentioned above come with software that is up to the requirements for negative and transparency scanning?

[E S]

So I have been reading everything I could find about flatbed scanners and Epson seems to be what I want/need but picking the "right one" is a tad intimidating.

I have a mac mini and a whole terabite hard drive to play with. I hope I am not asking a silly question and any guidance would be appreciated.

Steve.



P.P.S. You are going to need that terabyte...scanned LF negatives can make for huge files...

Steve02, I'm glad you asked this question as I was wondering about getting a scanner myself to speed things up... my current workflow involves taking a one-week wait (or so) for my nearby lab to scan my negatives. I'll be following this discussion to see what other advice comes out!

Stevebrot, or others as well, what minimum ram would you say is needed to handle a scan of a 4x5 from the Epson V700? I am away from my home laptop at the moment so can't say how much memory I have, but some suggestion would still be useful. Thanks!

Elizabeth

[Lachlan 717]

Steve02, I'm glad you asked this question as I was wondering about getting a scanner myself to speed things up... my current workflow involves taking a one-week wait (or so) for my nearby lab to scan my negatives. I'll be following this discussion to see what other advice comes out!

Stevebrot, or others as well, what minimum ram would you say is needed to handle a scan of a 4x5 from the Epson V700? I am away from my home laptop at the moment so can't say how much memory I have, but some suggestion would still be useful. Thanks!

Elizabeth

Min 2gig, preferably 4.

[E S]

Min 2gig, preferably 4.

Thanks! Now to see what I have and how much it'll cost for more... doesn't look like it'll be all *that* expensive.

[sully75]

I have an Epson 4870, I'm pretty happy with it.

They are relatively cheap on ebay. I sniped away on this one and got it for $100 at the last minute. I believe the next model up, the 4990 is similar but faster. It's not fast, but I usually set it up and leave it be and come back to it.

I have it set up with a different (old) laptop, because it slows down my regular computer. But you don't need to do that.

The Epson software is kind of annoying, and a little crude, but totally works. People will tell you to scan BW negative film in as positive and then reverse it. I've tried that and found it to be really annoying and of no benefit. Maybe I'm missing something. I scan it in as BW negative.

You absolutely have to get a better-scanning brand film holder to use this scanner. Look for their website. It's a waste of time not to, so figure that into your costs. I think the scanner and the film holder came to about $225.

All the recent pictures on my flickr have been done with this scanner. I'm still learning to develop BW film and also to manage dust, so take that into consideration.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmcevoy

[Sascha Welter]

Welcome to the forum Steve!

I don't think "the blind leading the blind" applies, it's more like "a chance to learn together". :-) Also if I had a chance to try out a V700 before buying mine, I'd have liked it. The V700 works fine IMHO, I got mine last week :-)

Biggest problem is film flatness and getting the focus distance right. Small tip: In order to test for the correct height of the film holder, use an underexposed color negative. The over large grain in the shadow parts of that make it easy to find out if the lack of sharpness you might see is due to your photographic skills or due to the scanner being out-of-focus. You likely won't be able to focus on the grain, as it's too small for the scanner's resolution.

[rguinter]

P.P.S. You are going to need that terabyte...scanned LF negatives can make for huge files...

I have an earlier Epson 4990.

My advice is to get an accessory DVD burner soon after you start scanning MF/LF film and burn the original files to DVDs for storage. Even a terabyte will get used up fast and there is always the risk of it crashing and losing many many hours of work. Bob G.

[W K Longcor]

Welcome to the forum Steve!

I don't think "the blind leading the blind" applies, it's more like "a chance to learn together". :-)

Very true. This forum has been a wonderful experience for me --and, I hope it will be for you, too. I'm a college educated (RIT) photographer. I owned a studio for over thirty years and handling a 4x5 or 8x10 camera was second nature to me. BUT - digital -- scanning -- woooo! All new stuff! Thanks to the guidance received here, I just purchased an Epson 4990 scanner on ebay. Now, my opinion of all the equipment and software may change as I learn, but right now, I'm having fun playing with all of it. The Epson Scan software seems to be very simple and easy to use. Some of the more advanced stuff will take on a higher learning curve. I'm sure you would do well with ANY of the scanners mentioned by other people here. Just set it up and start learning. Though they may have some problems ( ones that I haven't learned to see yet) my first scans came out very well. I've gotta say I was expecting more problems than I have had.
Way back when -- In the December 1961 issue of Popular Photography there was an article by a lady photographer by the name of Georgianna Reid (it's not that my memory is that good -- I clipped and saved the article -) Her motto was " If you're worried or in doubt -- shoot a roll and you'll find out!" Well, I'm finding the same goes in the digital age -- scan a film and you'll find out. Get a scanner, scan LOTS of images -- then come here on the forum and show your efforts. A thousand teachers are at hand to help.:D

[stevebrot]

Steve02, I'm glad you asked this question as I was wondering about getting a scanner myself to speed things up... my current workflow involves taking a one-week wait (or so) for my nearby lab to scan my negatives. I'll be following this discussion to see what other advice comes out!

Stevebrot, or others as well, what minimum ram would you say is needed to handle a scan of a 4x5 from the Epson V700? I am away from my home laptop at the moment so can't say how much memory I have, but some suggestion would still be useful. Thanks!

Elizabeth

I have 2 Gig on XP Pro. So far so good...


Steve

[stevebrot]

Wicked! I am in Forest Grove and drive in to Blue Moon Camera. My girlfriend and I almost always stop at the Rock Creek pub so we don't "waste the trip"!

Where are you located Steve?

I am not worried about appearing professional or taking some teasing, I just like the way the world looks through the viewfinder.

I am north of town in Vancouver, so we are a bit of a distance away. If you want to meet up sometime when you are ferrying film to Blue Moon, send me a PM. You might want to check out Citizen's Photo on the east bank of the Willamette for B&W processing. They have a Refrema processor (automated dip 'n dunk) and do 4x5 for about $2.00 per sheet.

Steve

[kedbro]

Seconding Citizen's - I now use them exclusively since in the last year I've shot a lot more slide film and now am just getting into 4x5 (dirt cheap processing.. 2.15/neg 2.25/slide I believe for 4x5 - BW is under 2.00 if you can wait 48 hours if I'm remembering right). I would still be going to my favorite photo store, Pro Photo Supply, but they don't do 4x5 or slides. Bummer. Stuff has always looked good. Some people complain about the employees being cold - but I've always had a pleasurable time there.

[douglas gove]

Citizen's works for me...4x5, 8x10 E-6...and no tax!!!

[steve02]

Thank you all for your replies! Very helpful!