Used to scan my negatives with a $20 flatbed from Goodwill for 2 years, now I'm using a proper Plustek and actually seeing the grain in my photos

Honestly, I thought my shots were just soft because of bad focusing, but after I got that Plustek 8100 last month I realized my old scanner was basically a potato, has anyone else had that moment where you upgrade and realize your gear was the problem?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora_martinez17d ago

My Plustek 8100 showed me things I never even knew were in my negatives. Grain was suddenly this whole universe I couldn't see before. @karenf40 you're not wrong about that, a bad scanner basically acts like a noise filter and smooths everything out. That's not always a bad thing but it's definitely not accurate. I think a lot of people shoot grainy film and just never know because their gear is hiding it.

valgibson8d ago

Yeah, that's a really good point about grain being a whole hidden world. The Plustek 8100 is famous for that, it's like taking a veil off your negatives. People get used to that smooth, digital look from cheap flatbeds and then they upgrade and realize their "clean" film was actually just being blurred into submission. It changes how you shoot too, once you know what's really there you start to see grain as a feature, not just some noise to be avoided.

karenf4017d ago

Maybe it's just me but sometimes a crappy scanner hides how grainy your film actually is.