Within this post I want to show you the quality differences in analog scanning hardware and methods. For comparision I picked one picture for which I own a photo copy as well as an negative. Following four scanning methods will be evaluated:

• Iphone 12 photo of photo
• Epson Perfection v600 photo scan
• Epson Perfection v600 negative scan
• Plustek 8200i negative scan

All scans have been performed with the software “Silverfast 8”.

Iphone 12 photo of photo #

The mobile phone copy is really color accurate and almost all details are captured. The downside is the missing color dynamics. This method also requires the best working conditions like good lightning and no reflections.

Epson Perfection v600 photo scan #

In this scan the highlights are overshoot. The overall resolution anyhow is okay.

Epson Perfection v600 negative scan #

This scan looks a little blurry to me. Only the color accurancy is better then the photo scan.

Plustek 8200i negative scan #

This scan has the highest quality in opinion. Highlights are all visible and you can even see the film grain. It looks crisp.

Conclusion #

Its definitly worth to have a decicated negative scanner in order to archive highest quality for your photo archive. The flatbed scanner shall only be used for photos where no negative is available anymore. Still I want to mention that flatbed scanner quality is not as bad as other comments in the internet suggest.