Scanning Medium Format 120 Film (Podcast 479)

This is part 4 of our Film Fun series, in which I walk you through scanning medium format 120 film into the computer. The podcast released for this episode is just an iPhone optimized low-resolution version of the full-sized video, which will enable you to view during your commute...

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Martin Bailey is a nature and wildlife photographer and educator based in Tokyo. He's a pioneering Podcaster and blogger, and an X-Rite Coloratti member.

black and white, digitizing, film, Film Fun, medium format, photography, scan, scanning, techniques, tips

8 Comments

Charlie
Posted at 03:29h, 07 July Reply

Cool Stuff. Thanks for taking the time to podcast this little series. I was surprised you use the epson scan software since so many people don’t like it. I use epson scan software for some and perfectcolors photoshop plug in for some. It all depends on the negative or my mood.

thanks again 🙂

Charlie
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 08:59h, 07 July Reply
  
  You’re welcome Charlie!
  
  You know, I looked into some other software, but as this really isn’t something I’ll be doing a lot now, I don’t think it’s worth buying something else. Plus, if other listeners buy or own an Epson scanner, this is already available to them.
  - Alex Saunders
    Posted at 04:10h, 12 August Reply
    
    Thanks for sharing your experience in the four part series. Videos were great, look forward to seeing more in the future.
    - Martin Bailey
      Posted at 16:21h, 29 August Reply
      
      You’re welcome Alex. I’m pleased you enjoyed these.
Luc Renambot
Posted at 01:48h, 10 July Reply

Wouldn’t output to 16bit gray or 48bit color output, or you didn’t notice any difference with 8bit output ?
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 16:22h, 29 August Reply
  
  I don’t understand your question Luc. I used 24-bit color, which is plenty. Where do you get 8bit output from?
  - renambot
    Posted at 10:12h, 15 September Reply
    
    Basically 8 bit per channel. My gut feeling would be to scan at 16-bit grayscale since it’s a B&W negative.
    Not sure if there’s more information in the color channels (probably depends on the hardware and driver handling of the data).
    In the old days, some people would scan 16-bit per channel in color (48-bit image) and maybe keep only the green channel (more noise on the other channels supposedly). Or do a “Silver Efex” process on the RGB data.
    Just wondering…
    - Martin Bailey
      Posted at 14:08h, 15 September Reply
      
      Aah, I see. I’m using color because the negatives are not 100% black and white. They have a very subtle sepia tone in them that I do not want to remove by scanning in B&W.