When I first started digitalising my film negatives I was using an ipad as a ‘lightbox’ and my Nikon D500 to take the image. This led to spending too much time, in my opinion, in front of the computer trying to get my images as I wanted them. Discontentment led to using a flatbed scanner instead and I now get the results with significantly less time in front of the computer.☺️ However, there are still some issues that make my current setup less than perfect.
Dust. Inherent in using film and the bane to get clean images. I remember talking to a fellow photographer who said he got through computer mice at an alarming rate while removing dust spots and this led him to using a gaming mouse because of their stronger construction. I know I cannot completely erradicate this problem but is there anything I could do to minimise this irritation?
Marks. The scanner I use frequently produces lines through an image, details here. This issue is sorted out by re-scanning the negatives not a major problem but irritating.
You can image my feelings then, when browsing a charity shop I saw….
With Vista compatibility this is not a cutting edge 2021 model. As someone who has a small collection of old computers this could potentially justify there existence.😏
The specifications aren’t exactly head turning either.
But it was the devices’ potential for making my life easier that I was looking at. Not only that but the £9 price tag for an unopened and seemingly unused device, that finally led me to the cash till to part with my money. There are machines of this type that now scan with 20 megapixels, so I was interested to see what this kind of device could accomplish at a much lower spec of 5 megapixels.
Firing up Windows XP on a computer( I had to hold back the tears of nostalgia) and inserting the CD that came with the Photofix Copier quickly saw the driver and accompanying PhotoImpression 6 software safely installed.
The film negative holder which accommodates 6 negatives is quite sturdy and well made, more substantial than the one that comes with my Epson Perfection V370. Unlike my Epson Perfection V370 flatbed scanner though, you have to manually feed the carrier through the Photofix Copier one at a time.
So my first test was to see how long it would take the Photofix Copier and my Epson V370 to digitalise 6 negatives and save them to disk. There are not many options for output on the Photofix Copier.
File Type Slide Negative
Color Depth 24 48
Dpi 1800 3600
So I chose Negatives, 48, 3600. On the Epson V370 I selected 48 and 3200, the closest match.
So how did they do? Epson V370 9 mins 13 seconds, Photofix Copier 6 mins 30 seconds. Ohhh. So to digitalise a 24 exposure film the Photofix Copier would save me …ermm…about 10 minutes.Uhmmm🤔
But what about the dust and more important image quality? The Epson V370 produced 75MB Tiff’s, the Photofix Copier 104.5MB Tiff’s??? But what are they like?
First the V370 image
Now the Photofix image
The band on the left of the Photofix image is my error for not putting the negative in the copier properly. The Epson V370 image is soft which I would normally correct with a little High Pass sharpening. The colours are vibrant and as I remember them and being the reason for taking the photo.
The Photofix image is sharper looking but the colours are flat. The Photofix Copier uses interpolation to get its maximum size images and in doing so creates a rather overly sharpened look to me. On the positive though, compare the amount of dust on both images. The Photofix has a lot less, meaning less time. I will have to do some more tests but I could apply some denoise to the Photofix image to tone down the aggressive sharpening effect.
Lets have a look at another example, again the Epson V370 first.
The Epson V370 has done a good job at keeping the colours in their place.
Now the Photofix image.
The Photofix image is noticeably cooler. But I think I prefer this image over the Epson.
Let’s just apply some denoise I spoke about earlier.
I’m tempted to say that in the case of the building I prefer the Photofix image and the lack of dust I’m going to have to remove. Clearly this is subjective and personal preference plays a large part in what I do to my images.
I’m going to have to do some more tests but at this moment in time the Photofix Copier while it isn’t the panacea to my scanning issues or replace my Epson V370 , it will have a place in my digital workflow.
arhphotographic 