Scanning Slides and Negatives

[Graham Todd]

On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:40:54 -0800
NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> uttered these words:

> > I came across this problem, so in the end I had a 'negative scanner'
> > bought for me one Christmas.  A similar item can be found on
> > Buy.com, and here is the link:  
> 
> I use a very old HP PhotoSmart C5100A w/SCSI card. Problem with OP's
> issue is that the C8100 has a built-in film/slide scanner. So buying
> another to accomplish the same seems a waste.
[snipped]

I agree with you that it seems a waste, but I have yet to find a
flatbed scanner with a  placing unit for slides and negatives, to give
anything but a grey and black and white image (even with colour film).

As I was trying to keep my family's photographic record in a digital
format (I have sepia photographs as well as black and white photos, and
colour photos, and I still take 35mm film photos with my SLR camera).
So I had to look around for an alternative method, since the SANE
developers have stated this problem will not be fixed for some scanners.

So that's when I became aware of digital scanners dedicated to scanning
film negatives or slides, and I tried this alternative with Ubuntu in
the photographic store with my laptop.  The results were impressive and
that's when I realised that I could use the equipment effectively with
Ubuntu.

This option might be a bit expensive, but if you have no results from
scanning your slides and negatives that are acceptable, the only other
option is to taken you negatives or slides to a specialist company that
converts film into digital images - and here in the UK that's even more
expensive.

So until you *can* use your flatbed scanner in this way to accurately
scan film negatives, I'd recommend buying a dedicated film negative or
slide scanner.

-- 
Graham Todd