The Nikon is slightly better, retrieves a bit more tonality with dense negatives, bit more shadow detail with slides. It's all very subtle. In terms of resolution, I see no huge differences either. The Coolscan can scan strips of 6, while my scanner is manual advance.

Wilson! Thanks for the comment, man. Bummed to hear your 7400 hasn’t been focusing spot on. I haven’t had that experience with my 8200i fortunately. The scanner produces very sharp results. Your current set up sounds insane! I’d like to try this with my 5D mark IV sometime. Happy to know it’s working for you. Stephen launched Kosmo Foto in November 2017, shortly after Analog.Cafe became a thing. But in contrast to Analog.Cafe’s slow readership growth as I searched for my role in the film community , Stephen’s film exploded with 10,000 rolls sold in the first nine months since the announcement. Yes, scanning is a pain, and since there are zero options that are affordable and easy enough to use, I have decided to have a lab scan all my film for the time being, and – hard as it is – shoot less so I can still afford it.If you have a scanner, then all it costs to use is time (lot's of time). If not, would you rather put your money into a good digital camera or a used scanner. Lenses made to handle film were designed with nothing more than air between the rear lens element and the the film. Air as a refractive index of one, glass has a refractive index higher than one. When you use the same lens with a digital camera, the cover glass in front of the sensor will shift the light rays passing through it with the amount of spatial shift being dependent on the rays incidence angle. Film scanners usually have a thin cover glass in front of the CCD sensor. I measured the XE scanner CCD sensor cover glass at about 0.5mm so there shouldn’t be any issues working with a digital camera sensor cover glass.

In this article, I will be sharing my learnings from the two years I’ve spent with PrimeFilm XA, including my understanding of how it compares to other methods and how to make the best use of it. The Pacific Image Electronics PrimeFilm 3650Pro3 makes the mechanics of scanning relatively easy, with an automatic feed for strips of film and a slot for slides.Feeding the film. A flat, dust-free film needs to be suspended in air or specialized oil to be scanned properly. DSLRs require film holders to keep your emulsion distortion-free in place. Most of the ones I’ve seen are relatively easy to use and allow you to go through the entire roll without having to cut it. Flatbed scanners are perhaps the most annoying in this aspect as every five frames will have to be precision cut, carefully maneuvered into the plastic casing and placed under the glass. You will then likely have to tell your scanner which frames to scan first, next, and so forth. Most dedicated 35mm film scanners will force you to do the same, save some part of the hassle. Thankfully, PrimeFilm lets you feed your film directly into the scanner with an option to batch scan the entire roll at once — though I do not recommend doing that. You can even scan mounted 35mm slides with PrimeFilm . Speaking of distribution: Mono is easier (even cheaper) to get where I live than Fomapan Classic 100, which is the same film, according to Stephen .