Is it possible to scan 35mm film negatives using a canon TS3420 and Digikam?
My attempts usually produce huge white .png files of nothing (because a flatbed scanner does not allow the light to go through the film and it bounces back)
What I have found on the web goes usually as follows:
“If you have a TS3420, all you have to do is launch photoshop… “
or
“Digikam is compatible with a plethora of specialized film scanners…”
I use Digikam on Fedora and Open Suse. Using photoshop is not in my immediate, short term, nor long term plans. Purchasing a specialized scanner would require making room for another peripheral.
Does anyone know of a Scanning Negatives with a TS3420 on Linux for Dummies guide?
That seems an issue that’s completely independant of whatever software you use… And valid for any flatbed scanner.
Did that concern film scanning?
Your first issue is scanning the film stock. Digikam, photoshop etc come in afterwards to convert those negative scans in usable images, but they do not do the actual scanning.
Those programs delegate the scanning to other software; in digikam’s case the software used is SANE (which has a frontend XSane, and perhaps others).
EDIT: Now that you jogged my memory, I have used a flatbed scanner to scan negative film. One important point was to make sure that the mat side of the film is facing the scanner bed (and not the glossy side!).
For the rest, take it one step at the time, and get a usable scan before worrying about the editor to use…
I’d never really considered any workaround to use a normal flatbed scanner for film scanning.
A quick search online suggests a few workarounds, from using reflective card behind the film, to plonking an iPad (with a white image on screen) on top of the film to provide backlighting.
Hi,
The sensors are located beneath the glass. A flatbed scanner, which is designed to scan transparent documents, must therefore emit light from the lid downwards, through the film.
@C8H10N4O2Montreal
Your model does not appear to be designed for this purpose.