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A modern 35mm film scanner for home

soke.engineering

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Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#21

Post by deinonychus »

sbszllr wrote: post #6

As someone who has a mirrorless scanning setup for my film, and pondered getting a dedicated scanner... the price of this is quite steep given how inflexible of a tool it is. A second hand DSLR setup is going to be roughly the same price or less. I'm also not sure what kind of workflow improvements it actually offers. If you want fancy and experimental, filmomat has arguably a more interesting but pricier offering. B…

I almost missed the price. Wow you're right that's a lot! And the final retail price is 1599 euros. I have a good Plustek that cost me $300 or $400. Automated transport and unantiquated software sounds nice, but those features are not worth an extra $600-1,100 to me.

Am I missing something or is this supposed to be in another tier of image quality?

Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#22

Post by aeturnum »

stringsandchars wrote: post #20

Disappointed to see that the first reactions on HN are so dismissive. I'm both amazed and really pleased to see anyone attempting to launch a totally new scanner in 2025, and genuinely hoping the actual scans are really made at the resolution and color-depth claimed in the text: too many recent scanners are simply upscaled, lower bit-depth devices marketed with exaggerated specs. I also have a Nikon Coolscan 9000, so…

The open source aspect seems worthy of attention if nothing else. Even if this is a middle-of-the-road scanner - the community being able to customize, improve and support it would be incredible. Especially considering your scanner is considered one of the best despite being over 20 years old.

Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#23

Post by fusslo »

I wish the fancy scroll nonsense would go away.

For example I wanted to look at the first picture in the horizontal gallery that scrolls horizontally when you scroll vertically. However, there is no way for me to view the whole image. Either it is cutoff at the bottom, or it starts horizontally scrolling. Switching from vertical to horizontal scrolling is awkward and I just want to skip the gallery.

scrolling on that page feels slow, sluggish, and if you switch to spacebar, you actually miss significant content since it only loads/becomes visible halfway into the page.

Like others have said, dust is a huge issue. Some film labs cut film into short strips. some film is just a single image (for example if previously cut to fit into slides).

The film is designed to form into a coil. So, if there's grit or any hard material you'll end up with scratches on the negative itself.

--is it only 35mm as well? I don't think I see any mention of formats it supports. So I can only assume it's just 35mm.-- EDIT: found the 120mm section in the FAQ.

Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#24

Post by joshvm »

sbszllr wrote: post #6

As someone who has a mirrorless scanning setup for my film, and pondered getting a dedicated scanner... the price of this is quite steep given how inflexible of a tool it is. A second hand DSLR setup is going to be roughly the same price or less. I'm also not sure what kind of workflow improvements it actually offers. If you want fancy and experimental, filmomat has arguably a more interesting but pricier offering. B…

Filmomat looks fun. Many money. Love the hipster flex with the Weber HG-1 in background of the demonstration video. I do own an Intrepid enlarger (sort of experimental?), and I used to live near Ars Imago in Zurich who sell a "lab in a box", similar to Filmomat's Light system. The independent dev scene is pretty great, though none of it is particularly cheap and is rarely open source, which is disappointing.

> I'm also not sure what kind of workflow improvements it actually offers.

The obvious one is auto-feeding and portability, but without using it who knows. It doesn't offer IR, but even Filmomat's system needs a modified camera. You get that with most flatbed and Plustek-style scanners. I have a V850 Pro which wasn't cheap either, but it'll do a full roll in one go and I can walk away. Even if I shot a roll a day it would be more than fast enough. It has occasional focus issues, and you need to be scrupulous about dusting, but it works well enough. I've never been a huge fan of the setup required for copy-stand scanning and it's tricky getting the negatives perfectly flat in/frame. The good carriers are also not cheap, look at Negative Supply for example.

Frankly it also looks great, like the Filmomat. I think some of the appeal is a chunk of modern looking hardware and also the hope that it's maintained? My Epson works well, but I ended up paying for VueScan because the OEM software is temperamental.

Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#25

Post by ImPleadThe5th »

turnsout wrote: post #12

When it comes to the light source, it's a huge missed opportunity. The next wave of film scanning involves capturing Red, Green and Blue separately (separate narrow-band LEDs) to better isolate C-41 layers and counteract crossover on the image sensor. And yes, it should have an IR pass as well, for dust removal. With that said, I'm happy to see new film products released in 2025/2026. Hopefully this is just the first…

This sounds really interesting! Do you have any info about that scanning process?

Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#27

Post by sbszllr »

anfractuosity wrote: post #16

Hmm, does seem pretty expensive but sounds interesting. I've got an old Canon FS4000 for 35mm, which works ok for me. I'm curious what people recommend for 4x5 film. Is there such a thing as a cheap drum scanner.

I've been camera scanning 4x5 and I'm happy with the results. Take two offset photos and stitch them in post. Mind you, I scan with pixel shift for higher res.

Re: A modern 35mm film scanner for home

#30

Post by ZeWaka »

I don't see any infrared sensor. This makes it drastically worse than the competitors on the market, as it's an essential sensor for dust and scratch removal.

Did they not research the competition?

I can buy a brand-new 7200 (virtual) DPI machine with infrared, proper color metering, wide software support, and multi-exposure system for $400, less than half the price of this offering.

It also supports slides and single frames, whereas this has a min. of 3 in a strip.

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