Scanning film negatives on flatbed scanner

[Hellashot]

I've gotten my first rolls of film from my EOS-3 developed and tried scanning the negatives on my HP3970 2400dpi flatbed scanner. It has a negative and slide backlit tray in the cover which I used.

The results were very poor. I tried scanning at 1200dpi, 600dpi with the same results. I even tried at 300dpi with an output size of 6.8x10.3" which is roughly the size of my Drebel images at 300dpi. Overall lack of density of the scans - and very very washed out colors, no definition as everything is fuzzy. I can see a LOT more definition in the prints I got along with the negatives. Any help?

[DocFrankenstein]

Get a dedicated slide scanner

[Sathi]

When I first got my scanner I at first was getting very poor results as well. There are a few things you need to look out for. First of all, the negatives have a different side to them. One side will be more glossy than the other. On my scanner it recommends you have the glossy side up. Make sure you are choosing the options for colour negative film. I would also scan in a lossless format such as tiff or psd and forget jpeg. The *most* important thing you can do is clean dust off the bed and the film before you scan. You also want to scan without any built in correction by the scanner, which it sounds like you are doing since you say it looks washed out. I think it should look washed out and have a colour cast to it until you post process it. You probably need to sharpen the image to remove the fuzzyness. Maybe the fuzzyness is caused by the film not being flat against the bed. Make sure it doesn't have any curl or bend in it.

[ejwebb]

I had to take apart my Canon scanner to clean some type of film off the INSIDE of the glass. Evidently they don't bother to clean the glass before installing it at the plant. While it helped, I still can't seem to get sharp or contrasty film scans on my flatbed either. I have gotten better results scanning the 4X6 print from Walmart and resampling to a 5X7 than I have from scanning negatives to print 5X7!!

I agree that you probably need a dedicated film scanner if you are serious about it and expect to get digital files close to the quality of your Rebel files. they are made to properly light and focus on the negatives - not adapted from their main purpose of document scans like the flatbeds are.

[myth337]

EJ.. do you have the Canon 9950 by any chance?? I'm looking for something that will help me get my piles of negs online at least, and if I need to print something, they can be done normally if the scanner doesn't cut it.
I had a few films scanned by a lab, and am not sure if the films were toasted before they went in there, or whether the scanning wasn't what I expected.
Don't want to spend 1000 euro on a neg scanner because I'm almost totally digital now.
.. Lee

[ejwebb]

I have the 5000F - but the model number may not be the same in Germany.

[myth337]

The 9950F is the current new model here, similar to the 5000F. My main concern is the quality of the scan. I don't know anyone who has one, and before I buy one, I just wanted to see what a scan looked like. do you have any pics scanned from negs posted?
.. Lee

[ejwebb]

Only a few b&w from the first roll I developed myself - posted here:

http://guidle.my-expressions.com/archives/588_1279036066/59468
http://guidle.my-expressions.com/archives/588_1279036066/59474

They are fine for the web if that is what you are mainly after but getting good prints from scanned negs on my scanner is another story...

[myth337]

They are fine for the web if that is what you are mainly after but getting good prints from scanned negs on my scanner is another story...
hehe.. that's the trick.. isn't it.

Considering that the pics you showed were experimental in several aspects, they look fine to me. (the blacks are really black)

Well.. as I said.. it would be cool to be able to put some good shots on the web, and if I really wanted to use my Epson Photo printer, I would select a neg.. have a normal print made.. scan.. PS.. print.. A3 size.. and be happy.

thanks..
.. Lee

[DocFrankenstein]

I find it that scanned negatives usually have the blacks really dark for some reason. But look really good in print.

[kenyc]

I never had any luck using a flatbed and even with a dimage scanner it was painful. It was at that point that I packed it in and decided to wait on "real" digital slr's....

KAC