Film Scanning: No one solution!

99% of the images that I share are via this blog digitally. I have a Fuji X-T5 (lucky me!), which I use too little, so why shoot film, if I am essentially using digital images? Good question! The answer is simply, I like film. I like and prefer the experience of handling, shooting and developing film. In a perfect world I would have a darkroom suitable for printing, make prints, and scan those. I don’t live in that ideal world. I have and use an Epson V600 scanner that will scan any size image on 120 film and 35mm, both B/W and colour, negative or reversal. As such it inverts the image for me if needed, the software works, and with a slight tweak here and there, often just in Windows 11’s editor, I’m done.

Before I purchased the V600 I treated myself to a Plustek 8200 scanner. It can produce better scans but it’s only 35mm. I would happily be using it for 35mm if not for the other issue which is that the software provided is beyond awful – it’s appalling, completely un-useable, at least for me. Why would I need to know the luminance of a given pixel but not need simple contrast control? Ridiculous! Having been completely put off by it’s massively over complicated software that seems incapable of offering simple controls, I’ve boxed it up and put it in the loft. I then purchased the Epson. Problem solved.

B/W results I’m happy with (for blog use), I struggle with good colour. This is partly as my “owned” version of Photoshop Elements will not load on my current laptop. I haven’t owned a “tower” for years! This laptop is joking know as “laptop the 3rd” -attempting to load said Photoshop Elements completely crashed the first machine to the point where even the Curry’s tech guys couldn’t solve it so they gave me a new machine! Repeat. They gave me a third machine, which I’m using now, and threw the Photoshop discs in the bin. Curry’s 10/10, Adobe 0/10. I don’t feel inclined to pay them monthly. When needed I now use Gimp. It’s free, it seems to do everything that Adobe does, the only down side is that the design brief was obviously “make it as muddled and confusing as it’s possible to make it”! Cost (as it’s 0) 11/10 – Features 10/10, Interface with a human that’s used other image editing programmes – 0/10.

When it comes to colour film work, pretty much all of the images I see online that I like have been edited through Negative Lab Pro. That likes a flat scan of a negative, in other words, not inverted. Camera scanning seems to be the way forward for most, and a company called Valoi seem to have the answer. Think slide copier for the 2020’s! They make a 120 version (left) that can also be used for 35mm. It’s quicker than a scanner, generally sharper than a scanner, and yields better results than a scanner. I had a passing interest in this until I discovered that Negative Lab Pro, is essentially a plug in for Lightroom.

It’s recently been pointed out to me (Thanks Dave!) that there is talk of a “stand alone” version of “Pro”. I’m happy to buy software, I just don’t want to sign up for a monthly cost! So that would re-kindle my interest in Valoi. A slight further issue then arises – that my macro lens (right) is not the ideal match, it’s closest focus is too far, even with all the tubes supplied added together, neither would the image fill the frame, although I think I’d have plenty of pixels to be able to crop!

So this combination of XT-5, XF60mm Macro Lens, Valoi 120 “slide copier” and a stand alone version of Negative Lab Pro MAY turn out to be my final answer! May!

or… I may just do black and white film and digital colour!

or take up gardening 🙂