The Great Soprendo
Striker
OK go easy on me - I come from the traditional end of the photographic spectrum and know very little about this stuff...
I do a little digital photography (snaps with a cheapo compact) but have recently rediscovered my old film kit (and acquired some more...). I expect I'll continue with that but maybe one day also add a dSLR to my collection. Obviously nowadays even film photographers get involved in scanning and digitally editing their photos, so I'd like a gentle introduction into that world. However I don't want to spend a lot to start with.
Scanner - I'd like something that will be good for scanning 35mm and 120 format (mainly 35mm) negatives and transparencies, including scanning quite a large quantity of old ones. The scans may not all need to be hi-res, but I do care about quality and would like the option of making high quality scans for up to (say) 10 inch prints, maybe just occasionally. I've seen a lot of people talking about the Epson V series....the V750 seems a bit expensive for me, the V500 may be affordable though. Or would one of the cheaper ones (V330/V33) be good enough? Anything else worth looking at? The dedicated film scanners I've seen seem to be either crap or hideously expensive.
Software - I don't really want to do anything too clever in terms of manipulation, but probably just something a little more capable than Microsoft Photo Editor that came with my PC...to straighten horizons and other fairly basic editing functions. I also don't have a high-end PC so don't want to even attempt to run power hungry applications. Photoshop Elements seems like the most highly regarded of the 'amateur level' programs, but even that is a bit expensive for the latest version. Having said that, Amazon are selling version 7 for £25 or thereabouts which seems like good value. It may be more than I need though - is there anything free or otherwise cheap that comes recommended?
Like most things I guess you get what you pay for, but I also want to keep things fairly simple until I get more competent at this stuff.
Thanks all, and any other hints also very welcome.
I do a little digital photography (snaps with a cheapo compact) but have recently rediscovered my old film kit (and acquired some more...). I expect I'll continue with that but maybe one day also add a dSLR to my collection. Obviously nowadays even film photographers get involved in scanning and digitally editing their photos, so I'd like a gentle introduction into that world. However I don't want to spend a lot to start with.
Scanner - I'd like something that will be good for scanning 35mm and 120 format (mainly 35mm) negatives and transparencies, including scanning quite a large quantity of old ones. The scans may not all need to be hi-res, but I do care about quality and would like the option of making high quality scans for up to (say) 10 inch prints, maybe just occasionally. I've seen a lot of people talking about the Epson V series....the V750 seems a bit expensive for me, the V500 may be affordable though. Or would one of the cheaper ones (V330/V33) be good enough? Anything else worth looking at? The dedicated film scanners I've seen seem to be either crap or hideously expensive.
Software - I don't really want to do anything too clever in terms of manipulation, but probably just something a little more capable than Microsoft Photo Editor that came with my PC...to straighten horizons and other fairly basic editing functions. I also don't have a high-end PC so don't want to even attempt to run power hungry applications. Photoshop Elements seems like the most highly regarded of the 'amateur level' programs, but even that is a bit expensive for the latest version. Having said that, Amazon are selling version 7 for £25 or thereabouts which seems like good value. It may be more than I need though - is there anything free or otherwise cheap that comes recommended?
Like most things I guess you get what you pay for, but I also want to keep things fairly simple until I get more competent at this stuff.
Thanks all, and any other hints also very welcome.
