Myths About Slide Scanning and Negative Scanning: Scanning Film With Flatbed Scanners

Myth: Flatbed scanners do a good job scanning film

The manufacturers of flatbed scanners would have you believe that their scanners do a good job scanning slides and negatives. This isn't necessarily the case. Let's look at some examples to see the how well a good flatbed scanner performs compared to a dedicated film scanner.

We will examine scans of three images - two slides and a color negative - on two scanners; the Epson V750 and the Nikon 5000 ED. The Epson is a good quality flatbed scanner. The Nikon is a dedicated film scanner.

Ektachrome Slide

Flatbed (click for the full-sized, uncropped JPEG image 1.7MB)	Dedicated film scanner (click for the full-sized, uncropped JPEG image 3.4MB)

Kodachrome Slide

Flatbed (click for the full-sized, uncropped JPEG image 1.6MB)	Dedicated film scanner (click for the full-sized, uncropped JPEG image 3.1MB)

Kodak Color Negative

Flatbed (click for the full-sized, uncropped JPEG image 2.7MB)	Dedicated film scanner (click for the full-sized, uncropped JPEG image 4.9MB)

Discussion

As you can see from the examples above, the scans from the flatbed scanner are generally significantly softer, showing less detail. Additionally, the color fidelity is not as good. The Nikon scanner produces images showing detail down to the grain of the film.

(Flatbed scans on Epson V750 scanner. Film scanner used is Nikon 5000 ED. Light ICE used in all scans.)

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