Scanning old negatives

[HarryW]

8 years or so ago, I bought a negative/slide scanner for all my photographs (mainly 35mm but with some instamatic)

I now want to scan all of my father’s negatives which appear to be two and a quarter square (inches).  I think, from memory they’re maybe 120/620 roll stock.

Any recommendations for a scanner that can do do the job?  Needs to be USB connection.

Harry

[familydar]

I got reasonable scans by scanning this size of neg at 600dpi on my normal printer/scanner/copier.  After much faffing around I discovered that I needn't have bothered with a light box, I got better results just by leaving the lid open!

If you already have a bog-standard scanner or psc use a small piece of glass (out of a photo frame) to weight the neg down and give it a go, you've nothing to lose and may surprise yourself.

Jane :-)

[Biggles50]

A Canon Canonscan 9000F looks like a great scanner but is over £200.

Canon also make a Lide 400 which at about £75 is more affordable and this is the one I would buy.

As it is my prior Scanner which was an Epson did give good results but it does not have drivers for Windows 11 or Mac and it is bound for the recycling skip in my next trip to the tip.  This is not the first time that I have been caught out by Epson dropping support, it will be the last though as I will never buy any of their products again.

What I do suggest is to choose one with a high optical resolution and to play around with the scan reaolution settings until you get the quality you desire.

[David Nicoll]

Two things to say here.

Do not throw out your old scanner.

Try Vuescan, it works with a myriad of old scanners that manufacturers no longer support.

https://www.hamrick.com/

I have used it on my own HP G4050 series scanner and an even older Epson scanner with negative support to great effect.
I threw one out which I now regret as I could have got it working and it was a good scanner.
They are hard to buy new and the older ones are better optically.

The 4050 is great as it handles the bigger format negatives with its adaptors.

[HarryW]

Thanks everyone for the ideas.   I used to have a Canon flatbed scanner with loads of filmstock adaptors (but not 120/620).   It went some years ago, sadly.   I did try scanning on my Canon all in one but the results were indifferent.   I'm going to try leaving the lid open and adjust scanning dpi.

Failing that, I'll look at the scanner suggestions.

Harry

[Gadget]

I copied all my large collection of  35mm negs  over 20 years ago using a dedicated negative scanner. I can't remember the make but it was a superb machine and cost quite a lot. Unfortunately, we had a flood and the scanner got a bit wet!
 
I  have  managed to scan most of the larger format negs with mainly Epson flatbeds, using a similar method to that described by Jane.

After reading your query, I looked up dedicated large format scanners and saw the price!!!!

I still have all my old negs filed away in special folders 


Gadget

PS - I use this method to scan all sorts of 'stuff' - leaves, fabric, etc.,etc. to make collages.

[Ray T]

I too started with a dedicated slide scanner - expensive piece of now redundant kit with a SCSSI interface.

Back in the heady days before computers, I used to copy slides with a home-made slide copier. Made out of cardboard and a piece of kitchen waste pipe it fitted on the front of a Micro-Nikkor lens. Nowadays, you should get better results as you can adjust contrast/cropping etc using a computer.

If you have an SLR camera with a removable lens, you can probably contrive something. If you can’t stretch to a micro-Nikkor, you could probably find some way of fitting a standard lens in reverse which will be good for close-up shots and many zoom lenses already have a macro facility. Your main problem is likely to be evenly illuminating the negative.

[Biggles50]

Two things to say here.

Do not throw out your old scanner.

Try Vuescan, it works with a myriad of old scanners that manufacturers no longer support.

https://www.hamrick.com/

I have used it on my own HP G4050 series scanner and an even older Epson scanner with negative support to great effect.
I threw one out which I now regret as I could have got it working and it was a good scanner.
They are hard to buy new and the older ones are better optically.

The 4050 is great as it handles the bigger format negatives with its adaptors.

Thanks for the info.

Alas I tried Viewscan a few weeks ago and it still would not see my scanner.

[David Nicoll]

With regards not seeing your scanner, I have had one or two temporary issues, but none serious.
What is the scanner?
Have you contacted Hamrick?
They were very good at responding when I had queries.