35mm film shooters will be happy to hear that German imaging company, Reflecta, has announced a new almost-pocket-sized slide film scanner that can scan up to 10,000 DPI. The ProScan 10T is advertised to have a DR of 3.9 DMax. Here’s the kicker - it comes in at a surprisingly low € 469 (just under $650).
As reported on The Phoblographer, the current highest resolution consumer film scanner is the Pulstek OpticFilm 8200i (as its name would suggest) scans up to 8,200 DPI.
While not officially announced in the US yet, it will likely be rebranded as a Pacific Image product.
[Via The Phoblogapher & heiseFoto]
That sounds great! Now if only they come up with a 120 film model of the same scanner.
The only modern-day 120 scanner is the $2000 Plustek OpticFilm 120 scanner. It unfortunately does not have a glass carrier option, although Plustek claims their film holders ensure flat mounting, which I would take with a grain of salt.
Also, like many modern scanners, it is a prefocused system, so you can't focus on the surface of the film, you would have to take it on faith the unit is calibrated to be more or less on the film plane. For 2 grand the thing should be able to focus, as far as I'm concerned. My guess is that it relies on post sharpening to compensate for any focus errors, which I absolutely loathe. Years back an ad agency that I worked at spent 50 grand on a Heidelberg Tango photomultiplier tube drum scanner, only to discover it too was prefocused and had no aperture control. Fifty grand for a drum scanner you couldn't focus or adjust aperture! It would apply a nasty dose of unsharp masking to compensate for it's focusing error, which was quite great! The ringing artifacts were a nightmare when compositing.
However, the Plustek is the only game in town for a personal 120 film scanner, save for some leftover new Nikon Super Coolscan 9000s, which are going for over 6 grand(!). If you need a 120 film scanner, I would at least give the Plustek a try and if it doesn't cut it for you return it within your return warranty period.
http://plustek.com/usa/products/opticfilm-series/opticfilm-120/
For legacy 35mm is great. But almost nobody shots 35mm these days. Bring the 120 size asap!
People may rarely shoot 35 now but many have thousands of negatives in their files
These scanners are made by Pacific Image, and they have a 120 scanner that you can get at B&H for $1400:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/884302-REG/Pacific_Image_primefilm...
What's interesting about this scanner over the $2000 Plutek 120 scanner, at least if the information in this article is correct, is that is has the ability to focus. Here is an article on the scanner, branded under the Braun name:
http://www.filmscanner.info/en/BraunFS120.html
If it's true that this scanner can focus, this is the best presently available 120 scanner.
What a sweeping highly inaccurate statement. Because you dont shoot 35mm doesnt mean many others dont.
Highly inaccurate? I don't think so.
I am definitely interested in this scanner! I have years of film that weren't scanned to CD. I will continue to shoot film (Canon A-1 and F-1N) alongside digital (Canon 5D Mk III). I hope to do a shootout with Kodak Ektar 100 vs digital; it won't be apples vs. apples since Ektar will be using Canon FD 28mm f2.8 and digital will be a Canon EOS zoom lens somewhere between 70mm to 400mm.
You may be surprised when you discover the 5D will blow away the Ektar. That said, they're two different mediums and you should enjoy film for what it is and how it creates an image.
Agreed, the 5D3 at iso 100 is like royal gold 25, or perhaps even better in terms of noise/grain.
Those resolution numbers are all fake, typically true resolution is half, third, or quarter. Still sufficient resolution for most film. Anything over 4000-5000 dpi is just scanning film grain. I have the long discontinued Minolta DiMAGE 5400, which is probaly the last true res scanner made, and at 5400 dpi you're scanning grain.
The best personal scanner that I know of is still the discontinued Nikon Coolscan 9000, because it was the only scanner I'm aware of that had a glass mount option, which is necessary to maintain focus across the entire image. Any slide or negative warp (which they all have) will have your edges out of focus when you're focus centrally. The Coolscan also scanned to true 4000 dpi, and could scan medium format film.
Focus is another issue. Many scanners today are "prefocused", meaning they don't allow for accurate focusing on the surface of the film. This may be one of them.
Will it have anything like digital ice? I wonder how fast it can scan and how much post-scan processing would need to be done.
As long as the scanner has an infrared sensor you can make use of processes such as Digital Ice. I can't imagine any modern-day scanner not having it however.
Looking at their website, Reflecta is selling a combination of older Plustek scanners and a few various other makes under their name. This particular unit doesn't appear to be a Plustik model.
I'm intrigued by this but I've been put off by lots of reviews of the more 'affordable' film scanners. I currently have a Nikon Coolscan V ED on loan from my workplace, but I suspect they'll want it back at some point! (We no longer use film at work so I was going to propose buying it off them)
They're so expensive on eBay though!
Interestingly, I've only just really started shooting film again - there's something wonderful in the process that's teaching me a lot about photography and building my passion for image making again. In the future, I'll definitely want an affordable film scanner - hopefully they'll continue to release products like this!
Anyone had any luck getting the Nikon film scanners working on Windows 7? I've got it working on Vista but since reformatted my laptop to Win7 and haven't tried since...allegedly the drivers no longer work (but official supported ended with XP so there's hope)
Have you looked at Vuescan ? Worked for me in the past using XP on an old laptop.
Used Nikon V, Minolta (elite 5400) and a flatbed epson with it.
I had a look but was put off because of the financial investment. I was being a cheap-ass!
You were put off by 80 bucks for a program that works with just about every scanner on the planet, is calibrate-able, and can scan to raw files?
Well, when you put it like /that/ I start to sound like a real skinflint, hey!
;-)
I didn't realise it could do raw files, I must confess. The current Nikonscan software outputs PNGs (I think) which are pretty uncompressed.
On your recommendation sir, I shall take another look.
You can download and use it in demo mode, it will just watermark the scans, but you can get an idea of what it will do for you.
"Anyone had any luck getting the Nikon film scanners working on Windows 7?"
http://www.exposedvisions.com/Win7%20Scans.htm
Thanks, Spy Black - I'll try these later when I get home! Got a batch of six films to send off shortly - I'm excited to see the results.
OK, been hunting down data on this scanner and this company. This ProScan 10T scanner here is made by Pacific Image, and you can get it at B&H for $399.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1007389-REG/pacific_image_primefil...
They have a lower res 7200 dpi unit for $230.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/884296-REG/Pacific_Image_Primefilm...