- This topic is empty.
How do you scan medium format negatives?
-
I’ve just invested in a beautiful Pentax 67ii and the first few test films look great, without any great effort or skill on my part!
I’m looking forward to doing my own film processing very soon. Not in a financial position to do b/w darkroom printing or to buy my own scanner just yet, so I’ll more than likely be using labs for scanning.
What do you normally do and how much does it cost?
Thanks.
i use the scanner in college, which is free :wink:
i know that FIRE offer a service where you can hire the scanner for half a day and scan them yourself. i think the gallery of photography does a similar thing but they require you to do a days training which fire don’t.
quality from labs is usually poor and expensive…
overall you’ll never get the quality from a scan that you will from the darkroom but sometimes you just have to make do. good luck with it
Thanks for those leads Isabella. I’ll investigate further.
I actually have access to a darkroom and a 120 enlarger but I’m a bit wary of starting to print just yet. It’s been years since I’ve printed anything. Maybe I should…
I send all my stuff to a photographer in the UK for Imacon scanning, nobody in Ireland could get near his prices, especially as I scan quite a bit. €7 vs €20+!! PM me & I’ll give you his details.
Imacon is a close rival to anything done in the darkroom, why it’s bloody expensive!Visit the Rua Red in Tallaght, they have a hassleblad scanner you can use…
I generally don’t scan at all (anymore), because I don’t need to.
I use an older DSLR on a repro stand over a light table. Super quick and good enough for most purposes (95% of my stuff on the web gets done that way).
B/w negs I do properly in the darkroom anyway;
colour I get done through a mate with an Imacon 484, if I need better enlargements,
or send the very best/important stuff away for a drum-scan.
To me all a matter of end-purpose, time-management, cost, convenience etc.I generally don’t scan at all (anymore), because I don’t need to.
I use an older DSLR on a repro stand over a light table. Super quick and good enough for most purposes (95% of my stuff on the web gets done that way).
B/w negs I do properly in the darkroom anyway;
colour I get done through a mate with an Imacon 484, if I need better enlargements,
or send the very best/important stuff away for a drum-scan.
To me all a matter of end-purpose, time-management, cost, convenience etc.Thanks Fine Print. The DSLR idea is a good method of doing it all right. I have access to a professional flatbed scanner at work, so that might be one way of doing it.
I’m beginning to think there’s a great deal to be said for making actual prints in the darkroom. My local camera club has a darkroom with a 120 enlarger. It’s just that I haven’t done any printing since my college days many years ago and I wasn’t great at it. Then again, I suppose my skills would improve with practice.
At least I have a few different options now.
Everyone is wary when starting off in the darkroom, but you seem to have done it before so have a go at it, what can go wrong? You may make a mess of a few prints at the start but that’s all part of the learning process. Nowadays you have ‘u tube’ where you can see full demostrations of making prints from start to finish aimed at all levels. So really there is no excuse, get moving and have a go. Good luck with your adventures in the darkroom.
Thanks for the encouragement tex! I don’t have any excuse now. I’ll give it a go.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
