Digital Negative Developing

__howdy__

__howdy__

Striker
Looking for some advice. Came across a stash of negatives from the 90's. I would quite like to scan these in digitally, and I walked into a store today to enquire to find the price was much higher than I expected. I have around 50 reels of negatives, so I googled DIY kits. Came across a couple at quite reasonable prices, but I have to say I have no idea what I'm doing.

The advice I'm looking for is, is this a simple enough task and are there any that you would recommend? They aren't anything special photo wise, just family stuff. Was thinking of buying this: https://www.kjell.com/se/sortiment/...MImcqHl8S52AIVDomyCh0IzggQEAQYAyABEgIBF_D_BwE
 


You could pick up an Epson flatbed scanner second hand that'll handle 35mm negs for not a lot of money - sub £50 - and probably sell it on for what you paid once you're done. Even new they're not that much: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Epson-B11B207311-Perfection-V370-scanner/dp/B009EOPQD4

Or, if you have a digital SLR and a macro-ish lens you could digitise them that way too, ideally over a light box but you could make a ghetto one with some (non textured) tracing paper over a masked off window if you were desperate and not hugely fussed about having highest quality digital copies. Works out a lot quicker than scanning, once everything is set up.

Plenty of step by step guides to scanning with DSLRs online, here's one for slides as an example but the principle is the same:

https://www.chrisfinke.com/2017/07/30/scanning-kodachrome-slides-with-a-camera/

I've no idea how much swedish money is though, so that one you posted might be even cheaper and probably do the job.
 
I also have an Epson (v500 IIRC) and while it's decent enough at the job I think I'd lose the will to live scanning 50 rolls of 35mm with it, unless the pictures were sufficiently interesting (amazing photos, lost family or historical stuff etc) to keep me engaged. Some people find it more enjoyable though. If there was a way of being selective over which frames to scan it would be much less daunting.

There are alternatives that might be easier but one of the Epson flatbeds is probably the best balance between quality and cost.
 

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