Drum Scanners: Anyone know about them? For purchase?

It's a little trickier than that. Unfortunately there isn't an invert command in lightroom. I learned how to do it by watching a couple you tube videos. The basic idea is that you invert the RGB tone curves and then set the beginning and end points for each RGB channel. That converts it from a negative into a positive and eliminates the color shift from the mask. It sounds harder than it is but it does make your file behave a little oddly in lightroom. You can also just sent it to photoshop and invert it there. If you do that then lightroom functions normally and you just set the begining and end RGB points in lightroom to remove the mask. It's actually a lot easier in photoshop but my goal was to get everthing into lightroom so I put in the extra effort.

I'm sure you've decided I'm totally bonkers at this point and the scanner sounds like a much better option but it's really not that big a deal. I can shoot a five image film strip with a dslr in about two minutes so it's still faster than a scanner for me. Search on you tube for inverting negative in lightroom and you should get some hits that show you what I mean. It makes more sense when you see someone do it but the Minolta probably is a better bet for color negs.
 
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stevelee

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The workflow advantage to me in scanning was that I could put VueScan in batch mode and be doing other things while it scanned. Often that meant I was editing the recent scans in ACR and Photoshop while the next batch of slides were being scanned. And when it finished with those four, then I stopped work to load in the next slides.

Later I copied many of the PSD files into another folder and imported them into Lightroom to make the book. I found the split toning useful for getting rid of the last of the magenta cast in the shadows. The images in the book still retain the look of old pictures, but more charmingly so than annoyingly so. I also cleaned up more of the lint or whatever mostly in the skies. I gained an appreciation for the non-destructive Lightroom equivalent of the healing brush. I was impressed at the speed at which it would pick the substitute area, and I rarely could improve upon it. I see that that tool is now in ACR as it has become a lot more Lightroomified. I'm still finding where things are now hidden.
 
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Culling and cleaning the film is really the hardest part. I discarded at least half and I’d culled them several times previously. Than I scanned every single remaining image. My Lightroom catalog now has everything. It’s very satisfying to have them all in one place. Never thought I’d get to that point. I’d say about 7000 total. That would be at least 1000 hours of scanner operating time. In reality it could have been twice that. If the scanner didn’t burnout halfway through.
I might go back and high Rez scan the 4x5 film on the Mikrotek at some point just for backup since I have it. But for now I’m more or less done. I probably should sell the scanners while there is a market for them.
 
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cayenne

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Culling and cleaning the film is really the hardest part. I discarded at least half and I’d culled them several times previously. Than I scanned every single remaining image. My Lightroom catalog now has everything. It’s very satisfying to have them all in one place. Never thought I’d get to that point. I’d say about 7000 total. That would be at least 1000 hours of scanner operating time. In reality it could have been twice that. If the scanner didn’t burnout halfway through.
I might go back and high Rez scan the 4x5 film on the Mikrotek at some point just for backup since I have it. But for now I’m more or less done. I probably should sell the scanners while there is a market for them.

Do you think scanners and the market for them will disappear?

I mean, aside from people needing to scan other things besides film.....there IS a bit of a resurgence of folks out there shooting film, and I'd think the market for scanners would pick up a bit too, if not at least stay stable?

Thoughts?

C
 
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koenkooi

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Do you think scanners and the market for them will disappear?

I mean, aside from people needing to scan other things besides film.....there IS a bit of a resurgence of folks out there shooting film, and I'd think the market for scanners would pick up a bit too, if not at least stay stable?
[..]

With 'shooting film', do you mean 35mm colour negative, 6x6, slide, something else? I keep planning to buy a new scanner to replace my Canon one with the broken film light and scan my remaining 6x6 negatives and slides.
 
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Do you think scanners and the market for them will disappear?

I mean, aside from people needing to scan other things besides film.....there IS a bit of a resurgence of folks out there shooting film, and I'd think the market for scanners would pick up a bit too, if not at least stay stable?

Thoughts?

C
It already has. You can’t buy a high quality scanner today. All the better models are long gone. There are plenty of inexpensive 35mm film scanners still out the but they’re all low build quality consumer models. I don’t think anybody makes a quality medium or large format Film scanner. You can use a glass flat bed but that’s not ideal. I’d look in the used market if you really want one but as I said I think that’s a dead end. No development dollars, no market and an inherently flawed concept. Hate to keep saying that but it’s the way I see it. Commercially they are practically extinct.

edit: You might do better getting scanner advise from somebody who doesn’t despise scanners. I’d hang around the film and rangefinder forums and see what they are saying. There may very well be options I don’t know about.
 
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cayenne

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It already has. You can’t buy a high quality scanner today. All the better models are long gone. There are plenty of inexpensive 35mm film scanners still out the but they’re all low build quality consumer models. I don’t think anybody makes a quality medium or large format Film scanner. You can use a glass flat bed but that’s not ideal. I’d look in the used market if you really want one but as I said I think that’s a dead end. No development dollars, no market and an inherently flawed concept. Hate to keep saying that but it’s the way I see it. Commercially they are practically extinct.

edit: You might do better getting scanner advise from somebody who doesn’t despise scanners. I’d hang around the film and rangefinder forums and see what they are saying. There may very well be options I don’t know about.

Thank you for the info.

So, there were dedicated MF and LF scanners? I thought it was either drum (high end) or flatbed....I didn't know there are/were dedicated MF/LF scanners.

I'm familiar with the Nikon 35mm dedicated scanners, but I thought that was a single outlier....

Well, I learn something new every day!!
:)

Ok, well, I'm sure I"ll have a "down" weekend (hell, so many of them these days with the virus are "down weekends")...and I'll toy with scanning some MF film with my digital camera. It will, I'm sure, give me a chance to research the equipment for it, etc.

But in the mean time, I guess I'll look to possibly upgrading my flatbed scanner.

I have the Epson V600 currently. Would you have any recommendations of what might be a valid upgrade from what's available out there today?

Thank you in advance!!

C
 
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Thank you for the info.

So, there were dedicated MF and LF scanners? I thought it was either drum (high end) or flatbed....I didn't know there are/were dedicated MF/LF scanners.

I'm familiar with the Nikon 35mm dedicated scanners, but I thought that was a single outlier....

Well, I learn something new every day!!
:)

Ok, well, I'm sure I"ll have a "down" weekend (hell, so many of them these days with the virus are "down weekends")...and I'll toy with scanning some MF film with my digital camera. It will, I'm sure, give me a chance to research the equipment for it, etc.

But in the mean time, I guess I'll look to possibly upgrading my flatbed scanner.

I have the Epson V600 currently. Would you have any recommendations of what might be a valid upgrade from what's available out there today?

Thank you in advance!!

C
My scanners are legacy purchases from 10 or 15 years ago. Sorry but I really have no idea.
 
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That's a great find. Those MF Nikon scanners were very nice. I coveted one but had access to comercial scanners at work so it didn't make any sense for me to buy one. They were expensive. Maybe $8K. Can't remember exactly. I did have a Nikon 35mm Coolscan at one point for mounted slides. LS-20 I think. It did a pretty good job but was SCSI based which I got tired of supporting. I'd say the used market is the best bet if you want a high quality scanner and don't mind supporting some wonky old gear. BTDT so I'll leave that to somebody else.

The Minolta Dimage Multi Image Pro is another medium format scanner that's still well thought of as far as I know. They probably made those up to about 2005 or so.
 
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