I have been lurking here for a few months hoping to learn which scanner I
should buy for a project I have, but my needs are different from everyone
else's, and I still don't know. So I'll just ask.
I have a couple hundred 100-foot rolls of 35mm negative film, exposed and
processed, and I am looking at the pix with a Tamron FotoVix or whatever
it's called. It's a little lightbox with optics and a TV camera that sends
a video image of the picture to my Mac. It's a nice way to screen the
pictures, but I'd like to scan and save the couple percent that interest me.
These are my unique requirements:
1. Ability to thread 100-foot rolls without cutting into strips. Maybe
this means a scanner with holes on both sides to run the film through, or a
scanner who's film holder doesn't slide in end first. I can handle the film
outside the scanner (currently it goes from a bulk loader through the
FotoVix onto a bulk loader).
2. All my scanning will be of B&W negatives. The film is already exposed,
so I have no control over that. It is gaf Type 5531 Versapan negative film,
100 feet by 35mm.
3. Motor drive from one exposure to another is not necessary because I
rarely want to scan adjacent exposures. In addition, the exposures are not
the standard 35mm format. They are 25mm tall, which I suppose is standard,
but only 19mm wide.
4. I prefer USB or FireWire but I can always buy a SCSI interface if
necessary. The computer is a Mac.
5. Ability to scan from top film-edge to bottom film-edge isn't necessary,
but it would be very nice, because each frame has a unique serial number
exposed on to it between the top film edge and the sprocket holes. (It's
irrelevent, but the camera that produced this interesting format was made by
the DeVry Motion Picture Equipment in Chicago. I don't know when it was
made, but a repair to the camera is the soldering of a 1935 copper penny
over a hole in the body.)
Does anyone have any good advice for me?
Dave Suurballe
