Since no one can tell me which digital cameras other than the Sony Mavica FD83 can convert negatives to positive can anyone tell me which scanner can do that. The catch is it must include everything from 35mm to 8X10 negatives. I.ve been shooting film since the middle of the last century.

Thank you

Anthony Cutrono

-- Anthony Cutroneo (acutroneo@triad.rr.com), February 10, 2000

Answers

Hardware doesn't convert negative to positive, that is done by software. Once you have scanned the negative, just tell your favourite software to negate it.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan@snibgo.com), February 11, 2000.

It's true that software does the conversion, but the above solution works only for B/W images. For color, you have the orange tint you have to worry about too. Off the top of my head the only one I have in mind right now because i'm using it at the moment is the Vuescan software from hamrick.com

If you're using a digital camera to scan in all your images, that means you're not worried about resolution or sharpness. Therefore look into any flatbed scanner that has a transparency option. That should do what you need.

If you're serious in scanning in for archiving, consider PhotoCD services which can save on time but costs quite a bit. Else you can look into some scanners you can purchase. Nikon and Minolta makes a medium format film scanner but then you are looking for large format scanners. If you're unable to find a film scanner, I would suggest finding some flatbed, which Agfa comes to mind for some reason, that has a transparency option as well as a true optical resolution of around 1800dpi or more (my suggestion) and a high density rating. These scanners do not come in cheap, so you might want to check the PhotoCD option

-keat

-- Keat Lim (keat@keatlim.com), February 11, 2000.

Fortunately you are looking to convert B&W. The conversions of color negatives can be done with Photoshop (and I expect other programs also) after scanning. What I have read, however, is that the conversion is not standard (corrections are needed) and individual pictures will vary so that there is work involved. I may be reading something into your question but, the I'm pretty sure the proper method would be scanning, not using a digital camera to shoot the negative over and then convert. You might be able to do it on B&W, color would definitely not go well. The memory capacity is too low for the negative sizes you are talking about. Especially not one of the Sonys using a floppy.

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), February 13, 2000.