Large scans on a student budget?

[Arg6442]

Hey everyone,

Im a second year photography student. I’ve been shooting large format since high school, specifically 5x7 for the last 2 or so years.

I’ve always been a diy-er. On a part time, high school fast food workers’ salary, it’s not like I was buying fancy cameras. Always beat-up gear from ebay that I either tolerated being a little broken or fixed up myself, I pride myself on being good at finding deals. For the most part, I’ve made all my work in a barebones bathroom darkroom after buying someone’s darkroom equipment setup on craigslist for a few bucks. A little desk lamp hooked up to a timer has served me like a champ for making contact prints.

Last year when I went to college, I started using the school’s Imacon scanner for inkjet printing. Since my school never reopened because of COVID, I worked from home (a few states away) this last semester, mailing film to the school so the lab techs could scan it for me. They did this for free for all the kids who took the large format class.

Right now, I’m in a bit of a predicament. The semester is over for me and the school lab is closed for the winter. But, I have to submit work for a serious-ish exhibition application in about a month and a half and thus need to scan a bunch of my 5x7s to make some large (~40”, ideally) inkjet prints. I bought the cheapest epson v750 I could find on ebay but had to return it because it was non-functional. Quite frankly, I can’t afford to drop hundreds or thousands on getting them commercially scanned. I’ve got 500$ to find a way to make these images and I don’t really know if it’s worth it to keep trying to find a used epson online (this last one being just the most recent of a long line of broken ebay scanners Ive had to return over the years).

The only other option that comes to mind is trying to use a digital camera. A friend/mentor has given me an old phase one H25 digital back (22mp) that I’ve been playing with on my view camera. I could feasibly digitize my negatives with this, stitching multiple captures together like people do with DSLR’s.

Before I go out and spend my budget on a light table and other things I’d need to scan with the digital back — is there any other scanner/method I don’t know of within my budget to make these scans? I’m adamant about not having someone else do it because I want something I can continue to use in the future. I don’t want to spend my budget /just/ on this set of scans. Obviously I understand the practical limitations, I’m clearly not going to get the best-of-the-best final prints imaginable and that has never been my goal. I just need to make the prints and have them be acceptable. I’ve seen prints at the Broad in LA that I’d be embarrassed to pin up for critique in my 300-level photo classes as far as their technical quality, so I’m not sweating too hard over that, the images just need to be made.

Thanks for the help!


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[Tin Can]

You may get more and better responses and help if you define your location as close as is reasonable

City or zipcode

Just printing, framing and anti glare glass/plastic is expensive

I am closest to St Louis and use this vendor https://divlab.com/

40" prints need much larger mats and frames

[Arg6442]

You may get more and better responses and help if you define your location as close as is reasonable

City or zipcode

Just printing, framing and anti glare glass/plastic is expensive

I am closest to St Louis and use this vendor https://divlab.com/

40" prints need much larger mats and frames

Printing and all of that have already been sorted out logistically, I'll be showing the prints without framing/matting etc, simple hung to the wall. I'm located in Iowa. All I need to figure out is how to scan.

[Corran]

How many negatives? I would consider the digital camera scan route, perhaps with a rented high-resolution camera/lens to do single-shot scans or less stitching at the least. A <$20 light table and good tripod is all you need otherwise...well and patience.

[Chester McCheeserton]

I bought the cheapest epson v750 I could find on ebay but had to return it because it was non-functional. Quite frankly, I can’t afford to drop hundreds or thousands on getting them commercially scanned. I’ve got 500$ to find a way to make these images and I don’t really know if it’s worth it to keep trying to find a used epson online (this last one being just the most recent of a long line of broken ebay scanners Ive had to return over the years).

Maybe a good condition v700? I think it is worth it, esp for 5x7. Don't update to catalina, just use the old epson scan. Undoubtedly camera scanning is the future but for 500 my vote would be one more try on ebay for a clean v700.

or just send em contact prints.

[Jim Michael]

Lowest cost option I can think of with your current assets would be to purchase frosted or opal glass to diffuse daylight behind the negative and scan with the the H25. Build a jig to move the neg holder to each scan position.

[grat]

You didn't specify color or black and white.

I would check out the Raleno PLV-S192-- it's an inexpensive LED panel designed as a fill-light, but it works well (and is pretty commonly used) for DSLR imaging of negatives.

For B&W it's absolutely no problem, Color isn't too difficult if you mask well and block out extraneous lights (also recommended for B&W, but absolutely required for color negatives).

For stitching, there's Hugin (free), or my current preference, Affinity Photo (not free, but not terribly expensive).

[Arg6442]

You didn't specify color or black and white.

I would check out the Raleno PLV-S192-- it's an inexpensive LED panel designed as a fill-light, but it works well (and is pretty commonly used) for DSLR imaging of negatives.

For B&W it's absolutely no problem, Color isn't too difficult if you mask well and block out extraneous lights (also recommended for B&W, but absolutely required for color negatives).

For stitching, there's Hugin (free), or my current preference, Affinity Photo (not free, but not terribly expensive).

Im doing black and white, this sounds like a good option. I have the adobe suite through the school so software/stitching is not an issue. Thanks a bunch!


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[Corran]

Regarding stitching: I've had great success, especially with multiple high-rez scans, using the free Microsoft ICE program. Try it out.

[Tin Can]

I will, it's downloaded

Thank you

Regarding stitching: I've had great success, especially with multiple high-rez scans, using the free Microsoft ICE program. Try it out.