Scanner recommendation for contact sheets

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim Hatfield
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim Hatfield

I have a film scanner which is fine for single frames, however
I need something I can use like an old contact printing frame,
from the chemical days, where I can print six, 6-frame strips on a
single sheet of A4 for filing side by side with the sheet of negs.
Ideally it should:

- be "reasonably priced"

- work with Vuescan

- work with Vuescan on Linux

- either SCSI or USB but I think USB would be easier

Jim
 
You probably have it already. It is not a piece of hardware, it will be a
piece of software. A lot of digital manipulation and album programs have an
automatic way of making a contact sheet, using the images in a particular
folder.

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have it under File > Automate > Contact
Sheet.

Have a look through all the parts of whatever Photo Programs you have.

Roy G
 
I am currently using an Epson 2450 Photo scanner to scan 35mm film
stored in Print File pages. It takes two passes to scan 6 strips and
three if I have gone beyond 36 exposures. I have cut out my own
template (mask) to place on the glass. This procedure works very well
with Vuescan. The later Epson printers will allow even more film
strips to be scanned at one time; but I don't think any of them, even
the latest, will do it in one pass without removing the film from the
storage page. To me, the multiple passes is better than the handling a
single pass would entail (and then only with the latest Epson
flatbed).

For printing I use Qimage which allows me to easily print the two
scans (6 exposures x 3 strips each) on a single sheet of paper. The
37th and 38th exposure strip can be fitted as well, but the procedure
is finicky. I imagine other software will enable you to do the same
thing.

Keep in mind that these are proof sheets. Any attempt to create
decent-sized prints from such scans will probably not work well. You
must also use the histogram in Vuescan to get good contrast in the
proof images since they are surrounded by so much black.

Regards,
Charles Kinghorn
 
I should add that the Epson 2450 will only scan single strips of 120
film. I will have to get a later version of this scanner, or another
brand, one with a wider transparency area, to do a proper job scanning
120.

Charles
 
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