I have been somewhat struggling with the getting the family archive digitalised since I bought the Oly 60 mm Macro lens in 2016, with a few add-ons to get cracking on a task which has seen like a proper Sisyphus task.
The family archives spans photos covering 110, 126, 35, 120 and Polaroid film formats and is a proper mix of paper copies, slides and negatives with a few un-processed rolls of films, starting with a 120 Ilford FP3 from somewhere in the 50s and running up to about 2005.
Where to start at that Mountain, with a camera and a lens "optimised" towards shooting 35 mm slides and negatives?
Turns out that the problem was solved by throwing money at it...
A forthnight ago, I stumbled over a video from the creator 1 Month 2 Cameras on youtube, touting the Epson FF-680W, a scanner I was unaware of, so a bit of further browsing and then Keith Cooper released a video of the same machine.
So I bought one:
This thing is a proper gamechanger. I got it delivered on last Thursday, set it up and had a go on Friday and Sunday I had taken care of most of the paper copies, to the tune of several thousand copies scanned and somewhat archived. Scanned in 600DPI TIFFS, which is the largest size the scanner handled without interpolating the scans, which it can do up to 1200 DPI, it took about 3 second pr scan, and the feeder took up to 50 pictures in a stack (30 recommended, but curiousity didnt kill the cat). It also does JPGs at 300 and 600DPI.
Having used scanners on and off since the mid 90s, I have always had it down as a bit of a tedious process, but since I last dabbed with it doing photographies, the software has come a rather long way, and FF-680 does both back and front scanning, if it is set up to do it, and it does it in the same pass. The software will also promt you to build a file structure around decade or year, time of year or month and then a user defined name. This makes export into a date based LR catalog/file tree quite easy and also gives a rather decent and managable file structure.
I now have a decent control on the hoard and what the scanner is good for as well as what it has some trouble with mainly some dimpled photographic paper in vogue in the 60 and 70s, which seems to leave a random set of white spots on the scans. Most likely there is some sort of reflection/shadowing going on, which makes the dotted bits unscanned.
I now know reasonable well what I have in the hoard and has a bit of ideas for how to properly build the archive up, and has an idea about what went down the drains when the hoard was stored in my parents basement when they had a water ingress. I have scanned almost all sorts of sizes from passport sized prints which is does as long as the photograph is left with borders intact, cut down to just the frame, it is touch and go if it will scan or malfunction, and up to A4, which is as high as it goes, sizewise.
A few samples:
Orginal, with a less than nice colourcast, and the auto conversion. Both done by the same pass through the scanner and colour correction fully enabled and automated. The original pic is shot on slide, then the slide is re-shot on negative film in the 90s.
Best opened, original most likely a 6X6 contact print.
Polaroids, auto corrected. This format has its own setting in the scanner, not entirely sure how it differs from the Paper copy one.
Just to drop a few. None of the examples has anything done with them in post, they are straight off the scanner.
Just looked at the hoard as it stands, with most of it being scanned, leaving a couple of crates I didn't locate and a whole lot of pre 30s pictures mounted on cardboard and/or in albums. The count is a bit over 4K and was done in a few hours over a couple days.
What is now left is the slides, negatives (to some extent) and the afore mentioned pre 1930s hoard.
For those, I have a Epson V600 on order and some doubts how I will manage to integrate the files from that into the current automated structure. Time will show. The dreaded hoard is anyhow given a new lease of life as I now have reasonable control on whats in there.
In conclusion: The Epson FF-680w is 10/10 and I would highly recommend for anyone with a hoard of paper copies.
The family archives spans photos covering 110, 126, 35, 120 and Polaroid film formats and is a proper mix of paper copies, slides and negatives with a few un-processed rolls of films, starting with a 120 Ilford FP3 from somewhere in the 50s and running up to about 2005.
Where to start at that Mountain, with a camera and a lens "optimised" towards shooting 35 mm slides and negatives?
Turns out that the problem was solved by throwing money at it...
A forthnight ago, I stumbled over a video from the creator 1 Month 2 Cameras on youtube, touting the Epson FF-680W, a scanner I was unaware of, so a bit of further browsing and then Keith Cooper released a video of the same machine.
So I bought one:
This thing is a proper gamechanger. I got it delivered on last Thursday, set it up and had a go on Friday and Sunday I had taken care of most of the paper copies, to the tune of several thousand copies scanned and somewhat archived. Scanned in 600DPI TIFFS, which is the largest size the scanner handled without interpolating the scans, which it can do up to 1200 DPI, it took about 3 second pr scan, and the feeder took up to 50 pictures in a stack (30 recommended, but curiousity didnt kill the cat). It also does JPGs at 300 and 600DPI.
Having used scanners on and off since the mid 90s, I have always had it down as a bit of a tedious process, but since I last dabbed with it doing photographies, the software has come a rather long way, and FF-680 does both back and front scanning, if it is set up to do it, and it does it in the same pass. The software will also promt you to build a file structure around decade or year, time of year or month and then a user defined name. This makes export into a date based LR catalog/file tree quite easy and also gives a rather decent and managable file structure.
I now have a decent control on the hoard and what the scanner is good for as well as what it has some trouble with mainly some dimpled photographic paper in vogue in the 60 and 70s, which seems to leave a random set of white spots on the scans. Most likely there is some sort of reflection/shadowing going on, which makes the dotted bits unscanned.
I now know reasonable well what I have in the hoard and has a bit of ideas for how to properly build the archive up, and has an idea about what went down the drains when the hoard was stored in my parents basement when they had a water ingress. I have scanned almost all sorts of sizes from passport sized prints which is does as long as the photograph is left with borders intact, cut down to just the frame, it is touch and go if it will scan or malfunction, and up to A4, which is as high as it goes, sizewise.
A few samples:
Orginal, with a less than nice colourcast, and the auto conversion. Both done by the same pass through the scanner and colour correction fully enabled and automated. The original pic is shot on slide, then the slide is re-shot on negative film in the 90s.
Best opened, original most likely a 6X6 contact print.
Polaroids, auto corrected. This format has its own setting in the scanner, not entirely sure how it differs from the Paper copy one.
Just to drop a few. None of the examples has anything done with them in post, they are straight off the scanner.
Just looked at the hoard as it stands, with most of it being scanned, leaving a couple of crates I didn't locate and a whole lot of pre 30s pictures mounted on cardboard and/or in albums. The count is a bit over 4K and was done in a few hours over a couple days.
What is now left is the slides, negatives (to some extent) and the afore mentioned pre 1930s hoard.
For those, I have a Epson V600 on order and some doubts how I will manage to integrate the files from that into the current automated structure. Time will show. The dreaded hoard is anyhow given a new lease of life as I now have reasonable control on whats in there.
In conclusion: The Epson FF-680w is 10/10 and I would highly recommend for anyone with a hoard of paper copies.
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