This is my story scanning film. Please, learn from my mistakes.

In the photography world, I´d be considered a hobbyist I guess. True, my income does not come from doing photography, but my spending budget on this hobby does come from my profession in the IT industry. And I think, like me, most hobbyists are very careful in how the spend their money exploring the world of photography. In this blog, I will share my learning budgetary curve in figuring out to to better scan films.

It started about four or five years ago when it became obvious to family members I was getting a bit obsessed about taking photos with my current Nikon D3200. One afternoon, in anyway expected, my father in law gave me his old Pentax K1000 with two lenses: the 50mm f2, and the 135mm 3.5. Honestly, I had no idea on how to take pictures with film, or how to develop those pictures, even less how to scan them. That moment marked the beginning of my gear acquisition syndrome. :-).

Took some time to find a way to develop a few rolls of films, but scanning them to be able to share those pictures became a hassle. At first, I would mail some rolls to the Darkroom Lab in US to get them developed and scanned, but living in Panama that meant waiting around 3 to 4 weeks before I could see the results. So, after some research and asking around, I bought a refurbished Epson v600 scanner; however, I didn´t expect to pay so much extra in shipping costs, because of its weight. If you decide to go this route, and like me, there are no shops selling film scanners in your country, keep these extra costs in mind, because they add up.

Using the Epson v600 was a charming tool, slow, buggy on my Mac, but allowed me to control the scanning process on my own. I am not in any way an intense film photographer, it just grew on me the process, the diversity of cheap film cameras and lenses, and the results of different film stocks. But truly, scanning high-res a roll of film with this Epson machine could take about 45 minutes to an hour, and then start editing the pictures. I bear with he process since it was better than waiting four weeks. Nevertheless, a couple of years of occasional use it suddenly broke on me.

But right around that time I started comparing my scans against high quality scans from the Darkroom Lab. The Epson quality was not even close.

Keep in mind, this is my learning process, guidance or coaching is not readily available, and not many people do film photography where I live. I had to call the lab and ask them why their results are so much better, which they kindly responded: “we just have better industrial equipment, man”. Damn. My scans look crappy, and when looking for better options I knew I wasn´t going to spend $800 to a $1000 for a somewhat better scanner with no guarantee it´d looked better. Nope, not me.

So I decided to rely on the Darkroom lab. I figured I´d have to spend a quite number of rolls before spending the cost of a better scanner. So, back again to waiting 3-4 weeks. In the meantime, I kept to myself still exploring photography, practicing, learning and researching the usual channels, and suddenly one video appeared on my youtube playlist about scanning with a DSLR from a guy Nate who develop a plug-in for Lightroom called Negative Lab Pro. Interesting.

I immediately started testing the software using current gear just to see it at work. It looked promising. I thought I could buy some cheap light pad, a cheap macro manual lens, and with my tripod start the scanning process. I did, and there goes another mistake. The cheap light pad bended easily, the film needs to be flat on the surface, and I was using the cheap frames from the Epson v600 (which I kept after trashing the scanner), and the lens I bought was the Nikkor 55mm 2.8 micro AIS, and it took me a while to notice than when the camera is face down in order to focus on the film strip, the lens barrel slowly falls downs affecting the focus on the camera. Crap. Good money on crap. Bad idea.

So getting a flat surface required better light source and something better to hold the film. Hence, I bought the Logan Electric light pad, and the Digitaliza 35mm film mask, and instead of that old Nikkor lens, I got an extension tube to try it on some of my Fujifilm lenses.

That was another bad idea. The pad was smaller than the Digitaliza film mask, which would become unbalanced when moving the film strip across the surface of the pad. Extension tubes are only sharp in the center of the image, all around the edges gets blurry bad.

Some time passed, and now, we have a pandemia. Quarantined at home, little less to do besides work all day, I thought how about another try at Negative Lab Pro, and replacing the tubes with a researched and better quality macro lens, not expensive, not cheap either. the Nikkor 60mm 2.5d micro for about $140, which I bought as “Ugly” grading from KEH. Man, I can´t see anything ugly on the lens, it is beautiful, just no caps. Big deal.

And for the final touch, a cheap bubble level, to make sure both the camera and the film strip are flat and leveled to ensure better focusing. What a difference. The scans are much better, sharp, edge to edge, and the plug in from Negative Lab does an amazing job rendering different film stocks. I chose my trusty Fuji X-T1 just because I love it so much, a Nikkor lens adapter, and the Nikon macro lens, and voila. Success.

If I´d start from zero, I´d save enough for a sturdy light pad, a good macro lens, an old DSLR or mirrorless camera, a shutter release cable, the Digitaliza film mask, a dust blower, and the latest version of the Negative Lab Pro. I promise, it´d save you some of your hobby budget, and enjoy film photography.