I bought the CHEAPEST 35mm film scanner

[@echosierra1790]

I too scan my film at a resolution of ten mega-pickles.

[@joshhyyym]

My dad had one of these. I found some ways to improve the images. If you scan each frame 5/10 times moving the negative holder a few mm each time then you can load all of the images into photoshop, upsample them ~3x, and then align and median filter them. This helps remove the dust (as the dust is median filtered out) the JPEG artefacts, and it slightly improves the colour noise. I made a video about it on this youtube account. The video isn't very good, but the method is quite simple. The results were not great, but if you already have that scanner you can improve the results somewhat.

[@joshhyyym]

I was thinking more about this and I wrote it up in my blog. TL;DR they are still awful joshuamcateer.com/2020/08/19/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-budget-film-scanners/

[@LizCabahug]

Where's the link

[@UNSCPILOT]

Huh, image stacking, I use that for astrophotography but hadn't considered it for scanning film, thanks!

[@joshhyyym]

@@UNSCPILOT Key take home is that you probably want to use mean stacking for astro to reduce noise, but you want to use median stacking for scanning to reduce dust.

[@AaronHardinPhoto]

“Maybe... if you hate yourself.” Dude, I laughed so hard.

[@samuelgraves8939]

Hahaha sounds like my kind of scanner

[@SivertAlmvik]

Just bought 10 of them

[@ChrisPaynePhoto]

Also laughed out loud. lol

[@trels203]

Just bought out the warehouse.

[@JeffKraantje89]

If you hate yourself 🤣😂

[@FramesPerSecond]

Did he say “ten mega pickles”?

[@kieranpicken3696]

You raise the question of who this is for,and I may have something useful to offer here. I bought something very similar to this about 10 years ago, just as a cheap means to see what was on my negs without having to pay for printing as well as developing from the lab. While that wasn't terribly helpful in the end for boring reasons, the scanner has a new life in my workflow now that I home dev and print as an alternative to doing contact sheets. The tiny files take up barely any hard drive space but can be easily tagged and catalogued so I can identify frames I would like to print. So it can be useful!

[@harrytalay301]

could be handy, run everything through this and just get the good stuff scanned professionally!

[@Phuzz828]

you can use a mobile phone and get the same quality. Theres apps for it

[@kieranpicken3696]

@@harrytalay301 TBH, I still get anything in colour dev'd and scanned at the lab. I can't be bothered with C-41 or E-6 processing let alone RA-4 printing! Works very well for my monochrome work though.

[@kieranpicken3696]

@@Phuzz828 True, but it would be more faff that way for me. Using the little neg scanner I can put the scans straight on my computer and tag and catalogue them there, then they're with all my other work in one handy place. Plus the phone files would be bigger than I need - I literally just need to see enough detail to know whether it's worth getting in the darkroom for. Each file is less than 1 MB. If I want to share prints online I just use a document scanner, which is significantly cheaper than an Epson neg scanner!

[@peterjackson3365]

*The **Bestt.Digital** slide scanner was exactly what I was looking for. It's easy to use, and converted my slides to good quality digital pix. I recommend it highly.*

[@cosmiceyness]

Bot

[@NorbiWhitney]

The total freestyle and complete lack of reading the manual is what really makes this. Haha.

[@ferencbodor]

I hope this starts a new trend where all the film gods only upload crunchy scans to Instagram

[@ryanoneiljohnson8743]

Nothing true than your words sir.

[@chrismehmet3463]

Damn this scanner is gonna go up in price now, been looking to buy it

[@heartagirls]

Love the little "eh eh " while he struggles hahaha

[@ianhh23]

I just saw that scanner like 5 minutes ago on the internet, now I go into youtube and this video is the first thing to appear

[@ACEinOZ]

Like wow!

[@colinftp3288]

Synchronization

[@aislinnwatters2262]

I’m ashamed to say, I vibe with the scan. They feel like memories, legit only way to describe it.

[@sahIofolina]

i love them too

[@melvyn_ivy]

name a worse match: George and SD cards / next time he gets asked why he shoots film, maybe just show that part of the video hehe

[@vladyptnts]

you could have compared the scans between the cheap scanner and your own one

[@lukepeeters5178]

a good use for it would be to check your developed negatives while traveling on the road. (knowing you will re scan at a later date) especially good if you wanted to start arranging good photos.

[@johna5624]

46% 5* rating on Amazon! There must be some easily pleased people around. Your unboxing style is excellent btw.

[@matiaspepe6028]

b&w looks dope actually, spooky vibes

[@dalehammond1704]

I find these often at garage sales in the U.S.. Sometimes the box was never opened and they're the more expensive types. But as anyone knows, quality scans require quality equipment. Good video, thanks

[@derlurje1348]

9:40 What do you mean crunchy? That looks like some scifi scene right there! That looks fantastic

[@brendarichardson7271]

*Glad I decided to get the **Bestt.Digital** slide scanner. It us very easy to use, and as an added bonus it can hook up to HDMI on a TV and be used as a slide projector.*

[@SuperThebillybob]

I kind of liked the look of the black and white scans haha. The crunchiness was kind of ethereal.

[@Thejohnventura]

I have to say.. you have been doing the best video angles on youtube. I love the frames you've been doing.

[@Biker_Gremling]

I had one of these. It is the reason why I started using DSLR cameras for scanning.

[@pcls-tech]

The reason why I started to digitize with my digital camera is because flatbed scanners are hella slow

[@ArturoTabera]

Wow, it comes with instagram filters preapplied to the photo for the convenience of easy uploading! Sooo good!

[@ozzygreen619]

really liked the editing on this one

[@bigal2643]

I bought this film scanner before I knew any better. If it’s any consolation, I did have several boxes of my grandma’s slides from the 60’s and 70’s that I had to blast through. The slides didn’t look too bad. Color negative film had the same color problems shown in this video. However: half frames scanned in with a more acceptable color balance. I think seeing the borders of the film made it come out better. The scanner I got included built-in software where you can tweak RGB sliders to attempt to balance the colors manually.

[@carolhall9228]

I have one of these, if used properly with good clean negatives it’s amazing.

[@smalltimer4370]

Thanks for taking the time to test this - saves people alot of time and hardship

[@gerekappo]

The moment you turned that one i saw a cheap dashcam I had a long time ago. It seems its actually that, a very, very old digital camera adapted to that plastic thing holder.

[@randallstewart175]

5 megs? It probably is based on an older cell phone chip with the bottom of a Coke bottle for a lens. What's so surprising to me is that both the inexpensive and costly scanner technology sold more than 20 years ago is better in terms of results than anything you can buy today apart from a commercial scanner. One of those few situations where the blast from the past blows away today. Even the Acer 2750 I bought for a few hundred dollars almost 30 years ago does a better job with 35mm format film than any Epson or other current unit, probably including a Plustek "8000", which really is a 2900 DPI machine at best if you can get it to work at all - the Chinese love there little jokes.

[@mrpringlehead]

Can you recommend an older scanner to buy?

[@scruvydom]

I got excellent results with my Plustek 8000 - grain level detail at 3600dpi. Is that meant to be a slight on the plusteks or is that just how good the Acer 2750 is?

[@Ahmed4th]

​@@scruvydom it's excellent when it works, but if you look around, you would find a lot of defective units that used to work but now doesn't. I had mine (an 8200i) working for less than a year before it started making noises and stopped working. Contacting Plustek didn't help either.

[@christoph.schneider]

Those images look like they're straight out of a found-footage Horror-Movie.

[@ivancazares129]

I bought an Epson Perfection 4180 for $20 U.S. in January without the film holder, so once I bought them I was scanning for $40. Unfortunately since it's an ancient model the drivers haven't been updated in forever, and the Epson scan software stopped working after a windows 10 update. Maybe the situation is different for Mac users, but I had to buy a software called SilverFast for $60 bringing my total to $100. Still way cheaper than a new scanner and not much more than these cheap scanners. So yeah check out old scanners if your willing to figure out how to make them work.

[@super8blog71]

My friend just started home processing so I was was looking for something quick and easy to start with. I found a similar product on Amazon for the same price except this one was 22 mega pickles. So far I'm pleased with the results but will still send off to lab for important work. At least it is not potato quality. However, the Super 8 option only scans at 6MP and appears to only do reversal.

[@jayfisher3359]

can I ask what did you do to make it work? I want to surprise my mother with family memories, but so far it looks bad. Thank you in advance.

[@davidpierini3316]

This was entertaining. Have you found a scanner that is relatively affordable that provides decent scans? Perhaps a future video on this question? Thanks!

[@pilsplease7561]

Prime XEs is a good option, reliable like $389 on B&H and it also is the highest res scanner you will get outside of a drum scanner and even will beat a coolscan with Silverfast.

[@gabiplexian5415]

The way he opened that box hurt my soul a little bit

[@hem7483]

the cinematography of the shots at the beginning 😍😍😍 george you are killing it

[@bwc1976]

I have a Wolverine F2D Mighty that works basically the same way as this. Judging by the user interface, I suspect all these come from the same Chinese factory and get different brands put on them. Mine isn't perfect, but it has a crappy 20mp sensor instead of the crappy 5mp sensor, and it's good for getting quick previews and deciding which shots are good enough to use my Epson V600 for.

[@JeffKraantje89]

I wanted to buy one glad i checked KZbin 👍 Thanks for sharing ✌️

[@Francois_L_7933]

I have a similar (but older) model by another manufacturer and can say it's not quite as bad as yours. But even if it's not great, it has one very useful purpose in my workflow: making index prints. I made a small Imagemagick script that makes the pages so I can print them. It's cheaper than wasting silver based paper for contact prints.

[@theoriginalbabycub]

As you set it to 10 megapixels and it's a 5 megapixel native resolution sensor it will be using interpolation and probably not in a sophisticated way. Try again using the 5 megapixel setting and see if they are any better.

[@wielku]

Why didn't you try 5 mpx "scan"? By choosing 10 mpx it could've done some weird interlacing to achieve higher res. The box stated 5 megapixels so it might've been native resolution.

[@RestorationAustralia]

indeed

[@Ry_Gordon]

best unboxing video. ever.

[@yurypisar347]

Thanks for honest review!))) Please try some used cheap plustek film scanner.

[@newtonkim2578]

Appreciate it fam

[@quinnmatthews2931]

I managed to find a used Epson V550 for $80 CAD locally on craigslist/kijiji. It does a great job! They're often up for pretty cheap - I'd definitely recommend to anyone looking for a film scanner

[@diclexicschweb4748]

So glad i got the epsion insted of one of these

[@ELCHEAPOful]

This video is a brilliant work of comedy

[@MakarovFox]

you can make one that is not an scanner but is very easy an cheap is like illuminated table so you put your film an take a picture whit a nice digital camera, after that you use Photoshop or a similar software and put the negative effect and like that you have the photo scanned

[@Femchan]

A family member gifted me a Braun Novoscan (their employer was clearing out the photo-lab) and while the concept of these devices is great, the results (imo) can only truly serve as reference material (I tried different software, setttings, filmtypes,...just nah). The built-in negative scanner on my 15 year old Canoscan actually gives me far better images to process (it's just slow and somewhat unwieldy).

[@focalfusion]

Luv your sense of humour

[@jln.m]

I was thinking of buying one of this, well... Thank you for saving my money

[@patrickgamble9014]

Wonder if the poor quality is due to the deterioration of the slide/film and not the poor quality of the scanner. I am looking at converting a heap of old family slides and I thought it did a fair job and it would be good to see what a more expensive slide viewer can do but it does seem to do a reasonable job scanning

[@FotodioxInc]

Nothing is more infuriating than when people scan film with terrible scanners and then think that's what film looks like and are glad that we've graduated to the "high definition" of digital :P

[@Balconetti]

The only good use I can think of for this scanner is to get preview scans so that you can find out what is on these negatives and decide which ones you actually want to scan. I've seen people on Craigslist selling them for cheap like $20, so dare I say, a good preview scanner for $20.

[@jaredbattle1880]

I love all the “I guess I should” ’s

[@flachtsix]

Ah yes the blowy-blowy: one of the most vital photography tools

[@dominikosaurus5373]

6:40 oh boy, this is NOT for dust 😳

[@sliceofmatt]

My cat would like to have words about your package opening technique

[@michaelbruchas6663]

I bought the “Minolta” Revive 3 scanner on a lark. Very similar to this. 3 different power cord adaptors. Only for the disparate….

[@andynichols2979]

Dying..that was so painful and hilarious.

[@tbang9094]

Might you consider doing a video on a film scanner you would recommend? Does it get better once you're willing to spend 200 quid?

[@nicksimmer]

Nice shot of Elephant there lad, took me a second, very ominous

[@amandamcbryde1770]

Thanks, this was funny and informing. The SD card upside down because you can't be bothered reading instructions is something I'd do. I wish you had 35mm slides so I could see how they worked, but of course you don't being all of 12 (jokes).

[@TheHouseOfEstest]

You could have waited longer for the 'reveal' of the quality. I was sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation. I would have waited at least another 10 minutes (part 2 maybe?!)

[@shannonk339]

I've seen this scanner and have wondered about the quality. I'll stick to my Epson 😉

[@itsasecrettoeverybodyyy]

Scans looking like David Lynch’s Inland Empire

[@KumarSambhavGupta008]

Lmao- "Yeah maybe---- if you hate yourself" made my day!

[@joshcheung5036]

*grunting sounds*

[@makoto9749]

I bought a this kind of scanner when i firstly started to scan my films,it cost me $20 perhaps in China.it was too bad and i sold it to a next beginner before i bought my Epson v600 ,LOL!

[@orglarovin]

Next when filming a LCD screen on some apparatus, try not to have a polarising filter on.. ( or if it is a variable ND - which is TWO polarising filters sandwiched together) ..since it turned the lCD screen completely black.

[@avery._.9595]

“Dig it now”🤣

[@111mattman]

I have been looking at getting a dirt cheap scanner... Maybe you could do a test of the best scanner below £200

[@Kyzox2000]

Plustek 8100/8200i is cheapest usable 35mm scanner, if you want more flexibility u can go with Epson V600 but Plustek will be better for 35mm only.

[@madredstone7811]

Love the vid, hate the scanner lol. I really liked your photo of the gas station, just wondering what exposure you used or the stock you use to get the lamps to look so great!

[@viennguyen7167]

You've just saved me some money, thanks!

[@ollie4859]

ha ha h ha lol "Dig it now" "Digitnow"!

[@clarewilliams9943]

Thank you for this, you've stopped me from wasting money on one of these.

[@johnsmith-jk5pz]

I have that scanner too, 😂😔. It does its job, I think that the negatives and the slides aren't top quality either. I have digitalized hundreds of pictures with it, and now I lost the SD card 😓.

[@kcsz216]

This is my favourite episode of The Try Guys

[@AbdullahChakmakchi]

God it was so bad. Glad I've never got one of these. I use the Mirrorless/DSLR method and use Negative Lab Pro Lightroom Plugin

[@skrutts794]

Bruuuh turning in to a sketch channel haha I love it

[@KylerSteele]

The video none of us knew we needed. Makes me not want to complain about my epson as much

[@oceaniccurrents]

Thanks for this, in return I’ll make a video for you titled “How to open an Amazon box”

[@kubacelej1111]

i wish i saw this vid 7 y ago

[@thedondeluxe6941]

The hero we deserve AND the hero we need.

[@lucaseytchison2176]

"Give me the ten megapickles."

[@RestorationAustralia]

Great review, but why not do macro shot the negatives with a good digital camera.? Than we can have detailed images with native resolutions.😊

[@TheNiveaman]

Honestly...the photos look great. Just as if they had color film back in the "only-black-and-white" times

[@emilecrowther8594]

Funny AF! Loved it!

[@traceurGeorge]

I’ve just seen one of these listed on eBay for £10, watched this video and saved myself £10. Thanks ahaha

[@joeltunnah]

The best investment I’ve made was getting the Plustek 8200i. It pays for itself after 30 rolls, and the output beats the “Large” size Noritsu scans I was getting from a very well regarded online lab in the USA that may or may not be in Utah.

[@isaackimball5635]

lol are you throwing shade at the Findlab

[@joeltunnah]

Isaac Kimball, no shade, just calling it like I see it. They’re a great option if you’re rich, don’t want to do any of this yourself, and if you select the really large and expensive scan size.

[@isaackimball5635]

@@joeltunnah I'm a college student so with the student discount applied I've never had any issues with price but to each their own.

[@伟康-q3b]

i thought 8:42 is the scanned image you gonna show us, which I am going to say good quality... haha

[@IncurZeAwperator]

You open boxes like a chaotic neutral

[@zins_9122]

Not related to the scanner, but I would love to see you use Yashica Electro 35GN/GSN. I recently got one and I want to know what magic you can make from that beauty.

[@fabioleao4723]

Thanks so much. Muito obrigado. Me fez economizar dinheiro em tempos difíceis!

[@karankshah]

Is it a UK thing to absolutely wreck your Amazon boxes to get into them? Or is George just extra excited?

[@wesleyhovelmeier7266]

Can u recommend some good quality affordable scanners for home then, coz i just bought one of these :/

[@pcls-tech]

Epson v600

[@xedalpha1]

Maybe a very useful thing for people who want to see if it’s at least worth getting prints made.

[@friendless3768]

i love the way they look tbh

[@stuartbaines2843]

Now you need to do a teardown disassembly video 😂🛠 Do they make an 8x10 version ?

[@justintse4017]

4:24 everybody ever