I Second That Emulsion (a film thread)

I haven't scanned in ages - my last was a Nikon Coolscan IV, IIRC, circa 2002. Back then it was just too much work keeping the negatives spot free.

Resolution wise, the Epson flatbeds get ~2400dpi and the Plustek dedicated 35mm scanners get ~3600dpi (real world, rather than the state resolutions) - you can (roughly) divide that by 300dpi to get the native enlargement (ie a medium format 2.25x2.25 negative could be printed 18x18inches from an Epson v750, under perfect scanning conditions, a 35mm negative could be enlarged 12x via the Plustek, etc.).

You can probably fudge that and go a bit larger as long as you're not doing something with a lot of fine detail.

I'd like to get back into shooting film and scanning it (and being able to scan all my old negatives and slides), but I'm about to be moving into a new place that's going to cost $300-400 more a month, so I doubt I'll be able to shoot film at all, much less buy a scanner.

I'm pretty committed to film at this point, so the scanner is my attempt to make the process cheaper (lab scans cost too much). Now my struggle is to develop a quick-ish method of working that gets whole rolls scanned in acceptable resolution. Most of the stuff only goes on the web, and I can't imagine printing larger than 12" x 8" so I suppose the resolution I get from the Plustek is fine.
I just had an opportunity to pick up the scanner for not-so-much and had visions of cheap development. After having some rolls mauled at Walgreens and a couple 1-hour spots though I've sworn off non-pro labs.

which Plustek did you get?

I own a Epson V700, that I'm gonna sell when I leave this place. it's been good to me but it's been in the shop once for service and will likely go again before I go, so I don't end up stiffing the buyer. other people on the web have mentioned quality control issues.

I really like it and all the shots on the web I have were done using it. sharpness isn't *great* but acceptable - not as good as the minolta dual scan IV which I owned a few years ago, but more than good enough for making webshots.

process wise, it's nice - it does 24 35mm frames in about ~40 minutes, so you can do a roll in about an hour, an hour and a half. 120's much quicker, the scanner only has to make 12 passes.

I find that it's great with b&w negative, kinda lousy with color negatives and slides. although from what I gather, scanning color negatives is hard no matter what you do - need to figure out the correct color balance, probably need to use Vuescan or some other professional software (I use epsonscan because it's convenient). slides just come out looking soft, it seems, though I haven't really tried fiddling with the settings for that either.

Gonna head out the door in a sec, but I'm using the Opticfilm 7600i, the one that is bundled with the full version of Silverfast. I've been getting decent color scans with it, but not *great*. I think I'm figuring out more as I go along though. It definitely takes some time spent fiddling!

yeah I had a pro lab scan some slides/negatives and then compared them with my own V700 scans - difference between night and day! OTOH they know what they're doing.

color slides/negatives, that is.

probably the best digital film workflow would be v700/750 to make a rough digital 'contact sheet', then using a plustek or other dedicated 35mm scanner to make higher quality scans. I still think the old discontinued ones like the minolta dual scan IV offer amazing performance.

here's what I'm talking about re: the difference between my epson and the pro lab. I could probably get the V700 pretty close if I wanted to fiddle, but I'm not really that invested in my color shots. *shrug*

http://i.imgur.com/0JBRA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/L71tG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZNvjA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IEDNE.jpg

also if you want cheap development, and you don't mind supporting the eventual corporate takeover of the world, you could try wal-mart. they outsource all of the film developing to fuji by this point, takes about a week but if you request "develop only" it can be cheap, like $1 a roll - I was never able to get them to only develop though :/

you can also try one of the C-41 DIY kits from freestyle, I've heard that C-41 isn't nearly as fiddly as it seems.

Whenever I can afford to go back to film, I'll probably stick to medium format w/ a V700/V750, farm out drum scanning in the event that I ever want to make an enormous print.

that's assuming color MF film exists at the point in time :(

I just bought two rolls of 120 fuji t64 - tungsten film from an urban outfitters type store here. lol, but I'm curious to see how it responds in daylight. might cross process a roll as well.

I certainly do not get quite the same sharpness as my lab scans anymore, and I now have problems with color noise that I am trying to solve, but I now don't lose my highs and lows at the same rate as I used to:

lab scan:
http://www.altairnouveau.com/labscan.jpg

home scan:
http://www.altairnouveau.com/homescan.jpg

Your lab scans are probably oversharpened, really - that was my experience with the Noritsu/Frontier automated scans, even at highest quality.

Oversharpened sounds right. Also too much contrast dialed in. I started asking for low contrast scans which were a little better but still sometimes featured clipped highlights. I am also stuck with a lens (Voigtlander 35mm) that is very contrasty and works better *without* adding on even more contrast on top. Thus the adventures in self-scanning.

which voigtlander 35mm do you have?

I have the Color Skopar 35mm f2.5. Mostly because it was the cheapest 35 I could buy once I picked up the Leica. It works well and all, but I'd prefer a lower contrast lens. I'm thinking of selling it and applying the $$ towards a Summaron 35mm. I think lower contrast will just be a bit more forgiving for retaining shadow detail and I like the look more. The color skopar drops off to pure black *soo* fast. I don't have the same problem with my other cameras (mostly fixed lens rangefinders with (probably) single coated lenses), or the lenses that I use on my Pentax.

look into the canon rangefinder 35mm's. the 2.5 was based on the canon design. I have a 35mm 1.8 and it's nice and low-contrast. the summaron is nice too. I picked up a canon 35mm/2 which is supposed to be more modern and high contrast, haven't run a roll through it yet.

but yeah I shot with a rollei 40mm/2.8 for a while, sooooo high contrast. sold it.

Voigtlander makes single-coating versions of some of their lenses that will be more pleasing with film (particularly B&W). They're marked SC vs MC.

yeah but they're still pretty high contrast, modern designs

I think the 35mm/40mm 1.4s come in sc and mc versions

Well, doing periodical B&H browsing yesterday I saw a 35mm f3.5 Summaron for $299 and without thinking bought it. It arrived today and is beautiful (on the outside at least!). I'll have to report back on how it looks! I know the f2.8 is the preferred version but I could not resist the immediacy of getting the thing the next day or the low price.
It is the version made for the M3 bayonet mount without goggles by the way. Meaning it focuses accurately but brings up 50mm framelines. I will have to decide whether I'd prefer to have a tech trim the lug to bring up 35mm framelines or just live with it (35mm framelines on an M2 are pretty much just the whole viewfinder anyway).

And Dayo, do you have shots with the Rollei? I used to use my dad's Rollei 35 when I was back in the Bay Area and compared to the Voigtlander lens it was *low* contrast. I had been keeping it in mind as a preferred look.

yeah, but I don't remember if I have any daylight film - the roll I know was took with the rollei was 400 pushed to 1600, so the contrast was exaggerated even more. it's supposedly the same lens design as the Rollei 35's but I think updated to modern performance standards.

congrats on the summaron! I hear that's a wonderful B&W lens.

hey photo bros, so my gf got me a canonet for my b-day + i got a couple of films developed + some of the pics in the second roll of film are all kind of blown-out in the white parts? and the thing is on the 2nd roll i was using a different type of film as well as a warming filter that i picked up.... so does a warming filter have that effect? or is it the film? or is it something else -
http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_jTfWBcejvU8/TcGqFbgKK3I/AAAAAAAAAyU/0Xax-mtGmSg/s720/84970024.JPG

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_jTfWBcejvU8/TcGrqeQB6rI/AAAAAAAAAy0/B6MrZEVx2Tg/s720/84970019.JPG

Could well be the scans (basic developing lab scans tend to be extremely high contrast, per above), could be overexposure in the camera (old Canonet meters are a crapshoot). It doesn't look like the scene itself should have exceeded the dynamic range of color negative film, and even overexposed negative should hold some detail - so my money's on the scans.

i got prints tho, and they looked the same... they still do prints straight from negatives right? or maybe not?

Probably not. Prints are made from the quickie machine scans - been a while since optical enlargments were common.

i did not know that!

those images don't look particularly overexposed but I'm no expert with color negs

those lab scans do look pretty bad though

I don't think the lens on the canonet should be diffused like that. Could maybe be smudginess on the filter too? I'm not really sure though. Maybe see if it continues to only come up when you use the filter. Take some shots with and some without and see what happens.
By the way, so far the Summaron looks great. It's a world of difference from the Voigtlander and I really think that lens was what was bothering me about my photos lately.

thanks guys! i'll have a play around. it might be something as simple as being overexposed, i just realised that w/ those photos i was relying on the light meter but w/ the 1st roll (that turned out ok) i had just been using the sunny 16 rule.

sunny 16 is a+. and with color negs it's usually a good idea to overexposed by a stop anyhow. you can also download light meter apps for iPhone and android and they ate surprisiglu accurate

Gifts from a friend - a 1959 Ilford Sportsman II (in lovely leather case)...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2378/5694777542_7511ba676a.jpg

And a 1986 Chinon CE-4 (with 50/1.9 and Tokina 200/3.5 lenses, both of which will go on the Pentax K-1000...)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2306/5694203639_9b5d3e1a03.jpg

The Ilford in particular will be a challenge...

nice - how are the shutter speeds on the ilford?

Well, as you may be able to see, there's three: 1/25, 1/50, 1/200 (plus B). A 45mm f/2.8 lens. "Made in Western Germany". I'll give it a go...

Well, doing periodical B&H browsing yesterday I saw a 35mm f3.5 Summaron for $299 and without thinking bought it. It arrived today and is beautiful (on the outside at least!). I'll have to report back on how it looks! I know the f2.8 is the preferred version but I could not resist the immediacy of getting the thing the next day or the low price.
It is the version made for the M3 bayonet mount without goggles by the way. Meaning it focuses accurately but brings up 50mm framelines. I will have to decide whether I'd prefer to have a tech trim the lug to bring up 35mm framelines or just live with it (35mm framelines on an M2 are pretty much just the whole viewfinder anyway).

― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Wednesday, May 4, 2011 6:20 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

fyi I've been doing research on the 35mm summaron and uh, sorry to break this to you but it won't focus accurately at close distances without goggles...

You sure about that? This is the first m-mount version of the lens that was manufactured sans-goggles, intended for use with an auxiliary viewfinder (focusing through the built-in viewfinder with the 50mm framelines pulled up). The goggled version came later which notoriously will not focus correctly if they are removed (and which might be more common).

That's my understanding anyway. I'll have to get back to you as I get more rolls back, but so far I haven't had any focusing issues.

hmm, maybe you're right. seems there were a lot of versions of this lens made. if I were you I'd do some close focus tests and see if anything's amiss.

I think I get back a couple of tightly and closely focused wide open photos tomorow, so I'll see what I've got, but I'm feeling optimistic! I think I have a few already that meet the criteria that are fine.
The real question is whether to leave the lens as is, or shave it to bring up 35mm framelines. I guess I'd be destroying any collector value, but it's not really a collector's lens. On the other hand it isn't that much trouble to manual trigger 35mm framelines when I *really* need them. Tough call.

tape the lever in place!

I guess an easy way to check is by looking at the minimum focus - iirc the goggle'd ones go down to .65m

Ah, this one only goes down to 1 meter.
Yeah, I'll keep then lens with the 50mm framelines and will only get it altered if I realize, after a long time, that it's absolutely necessary. I think having the 50mm lines actually assists a bit with framing anyway. Sometimes with 35mm lines it's too easy to get lazy and feel discreet by keeping the subject too close to the edge of the frame. 50mm lines with at 35mm lens keep me honest about actually pointing the camera at the intended target instead of chickening out. And I'm more likely to hold it level in situations where that's important. AND as mentioned before, the full viewfinder is basically a 35mm frameline anyway.

Focus checks out! Love the lens!

Here's a photo from my current M2/35mm Summicron/Plustek Opticfilm scanner combo. With $3 per roll for develop only, taking pictures is now cheap!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3051/5700292739_051f4f32ee_z.jpg

Yikes! That's Summaron not Summicron. I'm not made of money.

Took a long walk yesterday from the West Village up 5th Ave. and some side streets to the Queensboro Bridge. Finished a roll in the Leica, then loaded and shot a roll in the Pentax. Lots of candid pictures, places that were new to me, people in what I thought was interesting light. Felt like I was getting close/bold etc.
Today I realized I misloaded the roll and didn't expose any film!

We've all done this right? It's crushing when it happens.

Ordered 25 rolls of Arista-branded Tri-X ($2.69/roll!) plus 5 rolls apiece of medium-format Provia 100 and 400X from Freestyle. I hadn't realized how crazy color film prices had gotten - time to start hunting for out of date film.

tri-x is for kids

:o

MIDS!

― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Tuesday, April 5, 2011 8:56 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

btw this post explains so much about yr aesthetic dude, i love it

tri-x is for kids

was really agitating for this as ILP board slogan but i know it is facing down an establishment pick