Inexpensive negative scanner recommendation please.

[Riley Blue]

I've just unearthed three files of negatives dating back to the late 1970s and mostly of motorsport events I attended e.g. the 1976 RAC Rally. There must be around 150 35mm films in total, all B/W, all filed in strips with contact sheets from when I did my own processing.

I'd like to digitise them so any recommendations for an inexpensive negative scanner? Up to £100-ish preferably, it's just for my own curiosity really.

[Janluke]

I bought one of these a few years ago, Works and lasted lasted well. It's basic but just under £70

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HZQZLXW/ref...

[Riley Blue]

Thanks. Anyone else?

[outnumbered]

If you already have a digital camera with macro focus and a tripod, you can buy a cheap light pad and just take photos of the negatives. Then use Gimp, PS or whatever as usual to make positive images.

[David_M]

Not quite answering the question, but it might work out cheaper (and enormously easier) to pay someone to do it for you. The time required to process that many strips properly is going to be huge.

I have used https://www.mr-scan.co.uk/negs.html for digitising some cine films and they were efficient and zero hassle. Haven't yet used them for other things, but thinking of getting some files of old slides done as well.

[Riley Blue]

David_M said:

Not quite answering the question, but it might work out cheaper (and enormously easier) to pay someone to do it for you. The time required to process that many strips properly is going to be huge.

I have used https://www.mr-scan.co.uk/negs.html for digitising some cine films and they were efficient and zero hassle. Haven't yet used them for other things, but thinking of getting some files of old slides done as well.

Easier perhaps but I have approx 150 x 36 exposure films = 5,400 negs @ 26p per neg + VAT =

However I also have several boxes of my Dad's fading transparencies from the 1950s that might benefit from a pro service so thanks for the link.

[David_M]

Riley Blue said:

5,400 negs @ 26p per neg + VAT =

maybe some judicious cherry-picking on a light box first?

Having had some old cine films of my FiL's done, if I had been able to cut out the random film of unknown streets / building sites / donkeys that would have removed about 75% of it. What people want from these old images/films is generally the people that they know. Obviously for a pro / keen amateur photographer that may be different.

[Riley Blue]

David_M said:

Riley Blue said:

5,400 negs @ 26p per neg + VAT =

maybe some judicious cherry-picking on a light box first?

Ruthless you mean, extremely ruthless.

[Vasco]

Plustek 8100

[sgrimshaw]

Vasco said:

Plustek 8100

3 times what the OP wants to spend.

[David_M]

Vasco said:

Plustek 8100

Stuck that into Google out of interest and one of the first results:

Film Scanner Review said:

In summary it can be said, that the Plustek OpticFilm 8100 is a quite slow scanner. For a high resolution scan one has to reckon with short of 10 minutes...

There's just no way I could do any volume of scans at that pace - it would drive me mad.

[Simpo Two]

David_M said:

Vasco said:

Plustek 8100

Stuck that into Google out of interest and one of the first results:

Film Scanner Review said:

In summary it can be said, that the Plustek OpticFilm 8100 is a quite slow scanner. For a high resolution scan one has to reckon with short of 10 minutes...

There's just no way I could do any volume of scans at that pace - it would drive me mad.

If you take the route that Outnumbered suggested, you can do each 'scan' in about 1/100th of a second.

[jingars]

A few years ago I bought the "ion" branded version of this device to scan some boxes of slides of unknown provenance, found after clearing out my late parent's loft.

Last month my brother found four more packs of slides and so I dug it out again. After some messing around it was recognised by my current Windows 11 machine and the software also worked. In device manager it reports to be a USB microscope...

I have not used it for negatives, just slides. The software is very basic but it does the job.

[droopsnoot]

That looks similar to the Maplin one I have. It's OK, but I've found it quite poor at scanning negatives which I think is down to a poor quality holder. I was a bit fed up at the quality, and had started thinking that I wasn't taking decent photos back in the day, but I've found some print that I did at the time and they're much better than the scans.

I've since acquired another scanner that's supposed to be better (a Konica Minolta device) but it's not supported in Windows 10 and I haven't had chance to set up my old Win7 machine.

[Mr Pointy]

droopsnoot said:

That looks similar to the Maplin one I have. It's OK, but I've found it quite poor at scanning negatives which I think is down to a poor quality holder. I was a bit fed up at the quality, and had started thinking that I wasn't taking decent photos back in the day, but I've found some print that I did at the time and they're much better than the scans.

I've since acquired another scanner that's supposed to be better (a Konica Minolta device) but it's not supported in Windows 10 and I haven't had chance to set up my old Win7 machine.

Look ay Vuescan from Hamrick software:

https://www.hamrick.com/

Basically it acts as a driver for just about any scanner made & gets them working with Windows 10/11. It's good.

[droopsnoot]

Mr Pointy said:

Look ay Vuescan from Hamrick software:

Thanks, I've seen that mentioned on here before but as I have a suitable machine, just not set up, it seems daft to buy some more software on this occasion.