Question : Problem: Negative Scanner

What is a good negative scanner I can buy? How fast can it scan them in? Is the resulting picture still a negative image?

Answer : Problem: Negative Scanner

Are you talking about transparency negatives (like you get back from the photo shop with your prints?).  If so any flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter will do this.  The adapter is just a kind of light box that fits into the lid, the normal lamp that reflects of the item being scanned is switched off and then the scanner shines a light through the film onto the detector instead.

They come in various qualities the best way of buying unless you're going to use transparency scanning professionally is with the lid contaiing only a small area that has the adapter in it rather than the whole lid.

I can't give you much advice on which make, as far as I can tell they are all much the same in  the middle range.  I have a Umax which runs on a Win98 machine but have heard that getting XP drivers for this manufacturer can be troublesome.

As far as the image goes you get a copy of what you see (so yes, it's still a negative) so to reverse the image you'll need a photo editor. Again I use PSP but any good editor will do and I know there are free/shareware utilities that will do this.  You usually get an editor bundled with the hardware anyway.

Happy scanning!

M :o)