Slide Adapter for scanners - Is it necessary?

[Zoomer]

Can I just place my negatives in my flat bed scanner, instead of using the adapter?

This is as I am too cheapskate to buy the adapter, for I am only scanning a few frames.

Will the quality be very bad?

Thanks and regards.

 

[denizenx]

the main thing is the backlight for the slide.. if u can get proper lighting yourself then it's ok... as for focus usually not a prob but u can always stack an extra frame or something...

 

[mervlam]

nah, u cant do that.

cos scanning relies on the reflection of light from the objected scanned.. the negative or positive film will appear too dark.

 

[denizenx]

I always wondered.... place a mirror behind it will work?

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by denizenx
I always wondered.... place a mirror behind it will work?

Nope. Scanning negs/slides need a transmissive, not reflective lightsource. FYI, I even tried using a lightbox on top of a scanner (just like those flatbeds with film adaptor), turned out quite horrible.

Regards
CK

 

[Tweek]

If you can use a light panel to illuminate and disable the scanner's lamp, you might just be able to scan. But the image may need lots of tweaking and processing as the scanner is not designed to scan with the lightpanel as the light source. Stuffs like colour balance, gamma etc will be screwed up.

that said, I don't think any scanner can let u disable the scanner's lamp, unless in the first place the scanner allows the use of a slide scan adapter.

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by Tweek
If you can use a light panel to illuminate and disable the scanner's lamp, you might just be able to scan. But the image may need lots of tweaking and processing as the scanner is not designed to scan with the lightpanel as the light source. Stuffs like colour balance, gamma etc will be screwed up.

that said, I don't think any scanner can let u disable the scanner's lamp, unless in the first place the scanner allows the use of a slide scan adapter.

In which case you won't need the lightpanel anyway. ;p

Regards
CK

 

[Tweek]

Originally posted by ckiang


In which case you won't need the lightpanel anyway. ;p

Regards
CK

yup, my point exactly.

 

[Adam Goi]

Try it for yourself and then give us your feedback!

 

[jasonpgc]

With just 40 cents, you can get a 4R print from your neg and scan it on the flatbed. You can avoid all the hassle in setting up the "adapter" and adjustment in PS. Ultimately you get a better scan from the 4R print if the original print is good.

If you really need to scan from neg, do consider the cheaper BENQ film scanners at >$600.