Scanning 126 and 110 negatives

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 01:08:14 -0800, Terry Tomato wrote:
 > Hello!
 >
 > I've got some 126 and 110-format negatives that I need to find a
 > way of scanning...
 >
 > Does anyone have any bright ideas about how to scan these formats?
 > I already have a 35mm-capable scanner (Canon CanoScan 4200F), but
 > ham-fisted attempts I've made to construct a mask for it haven't
 > been particularly satisfactory.
 >
 > If anyone knows of a particular scanner model that can scan 126 and
 > 110 negatives, or knows of a ready-made mask I could use with my
 > existing scanner, it'd be much appreciated!

126 should be no problem, at least physically. The film is 35mm wide
and should fit into a standard film holder. The frame is 28x28mm,
meaning the top might get cropped a bit. The likely difficulty will
involve getting a good image from a scan of old film that will likely
have faded. If the negative is older than 1973, it'll be on C-22 film
which started out with a denser orange mask and different color balance
than current films.

110 is more difficult. The only scanner I know of for which an official
16mm film holder exists is the very expensive Nikon Coolscan 9000. The
optional film holder costs over $300. There's a diagram for a paper
mask in a photo.net forum post at
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008Xj7" target="_blank">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008Xj7</a>
This is for 9.5mm Minox negatives, but I see no reason you can't
enlarge the width of the opening to accommodate 13x17mm 110 negatives.
I haven't tried it myself, since almost all my 110 film is slides.

The only other approach I can think of is to locate some 110 slide
mounts. Then you can cut up the negatives you want to scan, mount them
individually, and scan them in a 35mm slide holder. If your scanner's
software can't handle negatives in slide mounts, Vuescan can. GEPE
still makes 110 slide mounts, but they have glass windows that I
suspect will interfere with scanning. If you have access to a large
photo store that's been around a while, they might have some 110-size
cardboard mounts in a closet somewhere, as those haven't been made
since the 1970s. There just aren't many other options.

Good luck.
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 >> Stay informed about: Scanning 126 and 110 negatives 

In article <ctab1s$g1d$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk>,
  Terry Tomato <nospam RemoveThis @nospam.com> writes:
 >
 > I've got some 126 and 110-format negatives that I need to find a way of
 > scanning...
 >
 > Does anyone have any bright ideas about how to scan these formats? I
 > already have a 35mm-capable scanner (Canon CanoScan 4200F), but
 > ham-fisted attempts I've made to construct a mask for it haven't been
 > particularly satisfactory.
 >
 > If anyone knows of a particular scanner model that can scan 126 and 110
 > negatives, or knows of a ready-made mask I could use with my existing
 > scanner, it'd be much appreciated!

I've scanned both types of negatives. For 110 negatives, I used a
Polaroid SprintScan 35. This is an old model (you can pick them up on
eBay for about $25-$75) that uses an unusually simple carrier. I was able
to create a custom 110 carrier out of a couple of pieces of cardboard,
with holes cut out for the frames and taped together. This solution
worked well, within the limits of the Polaroid's capabilities.

I'm sure I could have done the same thing for the 126 negatives, but by
the time I got around to those, I'd gotten a Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite
5400. What I ended up doing for most of the 126 negatives was to scan
them in the standard 35mm carrier. Because the 126 negatives are the same
height (or width, depending on the strip's orientation) as 35mm
negatives, they fit physically in the 35mm carrier, but the inter-frame
spacing is off and the tops of the frames are cropped. Most of the photos
I wanted to scan were framed too high, so cropping off the top wasn't a
big deal. As to spacing, I just did them two at a time, ejecting the
carrier and re-aligning the negatives between frames. For the few frames
that had important stuff at the top, I either cut the negative strip into
single frames and inserted them sideways (cropping one side or the other)
or I scanned them on an Epson RX500 flatbed with a transparency feature.
Because I did this without a carrier, I got some odd moire patterns, but
that was better than having peoples' heads cut off. (Obviously, none of
these were high art, just family snapshots from the '60s and '70s.)

--
Rod Smith, rodsmith RemoveThis @rodsbooks.com
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.rodsbooks.com" target="_blank">http://www.rodsbooks.com</a>
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Scanning 126 and 110 negatives 

Minolta's Dimage Scan Multi line (the original, the II and the Pro) support
16mm as well. They're not cheap either, it's another option, especially if
you run across a used unit.

On 27-Jan-05 23:48, Ted wrote:
 >
 > 110 is more difficult. The only scanner I know of for which an official
 > 16mm film holder exists is the very expensive Nikon Coolscan 9000. The
 > optional film holder costs over $300. There's a diagram for a paper
 > mask in a photo.net forum post at<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Scanning 126 and 110 negatives 

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:12:03 -0800, Paul Coen wrote:
 > Minolta's Dimage Scan Multi line (the original, the II and the Pro)
 > support 16mm as well. They're not cheap either, it's another
 > option, especially if you run across a used unit.
 >
 > On 27-Jan-05 23:48, Ted wrote:
 >
  >> 110 is more difficult. The only scanner I know of for which an
  >> official 16mm film holder exists is the very expensive Nikon
  >> Coolscan 9000. The optional film holder costs over $300. There's
  >> a diagram for a paper mask in a photo.net forum post at

I have a page on my Web site discussing my experiences with scanning
110 film (mainly Kodachrome slides, but I also discuss negatives). It's
at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.tedsimages.com/text/scan110.htm" target="_blank">http://www.tedsimages.com/text/scan110.htm</a> It's one of the most
popular pages on my site, and most of the queries that take people to
it are some variation on "scanning 110 negatives."

This suggests that the demand for 16mm film holders on scanners is much
greater than scanner manufacturers realize. The Pocket Instamatic and
its competitors were very popular cameras for snapshooters in the 1970s
and 1980s, and many people have collections of fading negatives in that
format. Perhaps it's worth contacting Nikon and Minolta (who else makes
film scanners these days?) and letting them know about it.

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 >> Stay informed about: Scanning 126 and 110 negatives 

Terry Tomato wrote:
 > Hello!
 >
 > I've got some 126 and 110-format negatives that I need to find a way of
 > scanning...
 >
 > <snip>

Just wanted to say thank you very much to those who answered my original
query. It all proved very helpful and the scanning is now done.

Cheers
Terry<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Scanning 126 and 110 negatives 

Terry

Fold an index card in half, in the middle make a 110 format
size hole, by cutting it out with an Xacto knife. Now trim the
edges so that the whole thing fits in your scanners film holder.
Enjoy!!

Subminiature lives!!

Al Doyle

"Terry Tomato" <nospam RemoveThis @nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ctab1s$g1d$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk...
 > Hello!
 >
 > I've got some 126 and 110-format negatives that I need to find a way of
 > scanning...
 >
 > Does anyone have any bright ideas about how to scan these formats? I
 > already have a 35mm-capable scanner (Canon CanoScan 4200F), but
 > ham-fisted attempts I've made to construct a mask for it haven't been
 > particularly satisfactory.
 >
 > If anyone knows of a particular scanner model that can scan 126 and 110
 > negatives, or knows of a ready-made mask I could use with my existing
 > scanner, it'd be much appreciated!
 >
 > Cheers!
 > Terry<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Scanning 126 and 110 negatives