The Film Scanner I Always Dreamed of Owning

[@L0rdGwyn801]

The Squarespace bucks are adding up! Seems like this channel really has gone through every possible method of film scanning. You might say Kyle has reached the final... Frontier.

[@Good_Rituals]

Dad I told you not to comment on videos!

[@mitchellhughes5180]

@@Good_Rituals 🤣

[@teymthebeast]

@@Good_Rituals 🤣

[@stedalejandro]

😂😂😂

[@WildlifeMoto]

I need to show this to my wife. She's already mad at me for "cluttering" the house up with a Patterson tank and a Plustek.

[@LarryManiccia]

😂

[@VariTimo]

I too went insane a few years ago and bought a Frontier scanner. I bought the SP500, the SP3000’s little 35mm brother. These are truly beautiful machines. I hope everyone buying one of these appreciates that. They don’t make something like this anymore and I don’t know if they’ll ever make them again. Especially on that high a level! I’m saying this because we only have the ones that are left and labs need them. So in the end if you’re a rich kid buying one of these. Take good care of it and sell it to a lab if you ever stop using it!

[@DuncanCox]

There is no rabbit hole too deep for Kyle McDougall! Love it!!

[@KyleMcDougall]

🤣

[@shaoshuai_on_film]

You posting this just after williem feels like fujifilm is secretly sponsoring these videos 😂 but in reality they are distancing themselves from film day by day 😢

[@URBONED]

I work in a lab, and although they aren’t producing much film (we do have some Fujifilm disposables in stock with Japan made film in them atm) you might be surprised to learn ALL of the back end stuff is produced by Fujifilm. All the paper we print on, all the ink, all the chemicals for our C41 processor, all the miscellaneous stuff we use like twin check stickers (the numbered stickers on your film). So although Kodak is the one making all the film you use, it’s Fujifilm giving it somewhere to go once it’s all been shot.

[@ZachACameraGuy]

​@@URBONED Wow thanks for the very interesting information.

[@istvann.huszar420]

These prescan speeds are mind-blowing and the images are so sharp! Now you have a full-fledged professional photo lab.

[@RÅNÇIÐ]

Damn, bro got himself professional grade lab gear. I really miss hearing computers click and clack while they're processing. Really takes me back. But can you imagine if they made a modern version of this thing? It'd be crazy.

[@edkraken7011]

It would probably be a lot smaller ahahahahah

[@Frisenette]

And cost the same as a Plustek.

[@caleblatreille8224]

I love your videos but never thought I'd classify them as "oddly satisfying," but watching the images switch from the low-res image on that ancient monitor to seeing the full hi-res actual images just hit EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

[@NeonShores]

Definitely did not expect Willem and Kyle to post very similar videos at the same time. While I'll never have a scanner setup like this it is really cool to see a home lab with one of these. Great stuff!

[@Muazo]

McDougall Labs - Opening soon.. lovely machine and amazing shots.

[@KyleMcDougall]

😉

[@mitchellhughes5180]

This guy will not stop finding new ways to scan film!

[@markcrummett7831]

Boy, does that bring back memories! I piloted a Fuji Frontier in various one-hour labs back in the oughts. Once it’s set-up and properly maintained, it’s a beast.

[@maxandrup8141]

The speed of the scanner is unbelievable! This is so cool, thanks for sharing!

[@reformedfilmlab]

The scanner that started Reformed Film Lab. 2 of them in our early days alone and then we added Noritsu's to the lab line up as we grew. Definitely my favorite scanner. - Mike

[@SloopJohnBeeRockabilly]

I used one when I worked in a film lab around 20 years ago. Loved working there👍📸

[@SloopJohnBeeRockabilly]

…and I can’t remember how we used to develop and scan all the APS film 🤔🤷‍♂️ There must have been a carrier for scanning. But I can’t remember the development process. The film must have just come straight out of the little cassette into the developer. Don’t recall using the black bag/box for film extraction. But how we returned it to the cassette I still can’t remember 🤔🤣

[@splodinjoe]

Man this brings back memories of working in a lab. Seeing the CMYD controls brought me right back. I used to process 100 rolls a shift or more. That includes running them through the developer as well. You get pretty fast once you get into the groove.

[@lorrainehealy1811]

Amazing to have that level of immediate color control at your fingertips, Kyle. Happy scanning!

[@javixo1997]

It's amazing how it gets the color right immediately! I'll be building myself an RGB light for camera scanning, the initial tests show very promising results and explain why I've had so much work to do in post when scanning with a high CRI white light. There's no doubt Fuji knew what they were doing when they installed RGB lights in this that scanner

[@cstp842]

Have you profiled you camera to the white light? The good results from the RGB light is almost all in the processing done automatically.

[@darkslide-q8m]

The RGB light idea sounds great! Have you thought about adding an IR light to your setup? IR can be super helpful for dust removal in software like SilverFast. By the way, according to the SP3000 manual, its light source uses R×64, G×40, B×50, and IR×144 LEDs. I’m also surprised by the high CRI value achieving that with gallium based RGB LEDs can be tricky. Looking forward to seeing how your results turn out!

[@RedStarRogue]

I miss the colour accuracy of lab scanners. Camera scanning/NLP is great but the results can be different from frame to frame.

[@VauxhaIIOpel]

the noises this machine makes could be a video of their own; the whirring and clicking is almost mesmerising

[@StevenGrant_Photographer]

Good for you Kyle. You deserve all your success. Looks like a dream come true.

[@KyleMcDougall]

I appreciate that, Steven!

[@RedStarRogue]

My god man, you're a mad lad for buying that. I used to operate a Noritsu when I worked in a small lab 6 years ago, but I've never had a chance to try out a Frontier.

[@robinfleet]

I used to enjoy using of these, working in my local lab. This took me right back! Congrats on getting one in your house!

[@KyleMcDougall]

Cheers, Robin.

[@dovinue9289]

had the pleasure of working on one of these machines for a friend who is a commercial photographer. Absolute best colors with a quick workflow from any scanning workflow. And the dust removal is crazy.

[@KyleMcDougall]

The dust removal is definitely impressive.

[@mattbray_studio]

when i saw the thumbnail, i thought it must have been at kamera store, i can't believe you got one for your studio, that's so cool

[@JK-ct8dq]

Wow, it is beautiful! Of course including your photos.

[@AdamAllen]

Wow, Congrats! I gave up home scanning once I saw the drastic difference from a lab using this scanner.

[@jerrylee188]

same, also because the simplicity, dust removal, time saving, etc etc etc. Home scanning is really just for people who loves (or have time) to play with them...

[@sergiogomes1345]

I’ve used a Noritsu and this at my film lab job years ago. The frontier is quirky but the results are unmatched

[@AREKU]

Oh, congrats! This brings me back, I used to use one of those a couple of years back when working in a photo store. I remember using "Highlight Soft" often for landscapes in particular.

[@7head7metal7]

My favorite lab uses these, the results are truly beautiful!

[@rudantu]

It even looks so clean and fresh! Not yellowed like most 90s 2000s tech

[@xenon2Merchant]

Dream machine and very nice pictures scanned... Excellent results.

[@toripuru_wav]

this was mad fun to see, what a great piece of asset to have for film photogs....

[@CalumetVideo]

I used one of those in the early 2000’s. I think this is the best scanner aside from the drum scanners.

[@lawrencedgriffin]

Congratulations on the scanner Kyle, I am so happy for you. I missed the address as to where I was supposed to send my film to have it scanned. All the best my friend!

[@KyleMcDougall]

Thanks, Lawrence!

[@jeremyrowlettmedia]

Would love to have one of these. I've seen one floating around online but the amount of money is just crazy

[@oussmayo]

Congratz, we need some scanning setup comparisons next!

[@eyeswideopen565]

great video! I didn't know you Fuji had something like this. All the pictures came out amazingly!

[@TheRenalicious]

The sentiment has come up many times in various blogs and vlogs is that this is something we're lacking in the modern day and age: a fast, easy to use, high quality way of processing film into digital. Of course the Frontier costs a pretty penny, but hot damn do you ever get what you pay for. The speed, the accuracy, the effortlessness of the final result 🤯

[@delarageaz]

i think it's great that i've worked with lots of scanners like this one in the 2 different lab i worked at as a teenager cause i'm now terrified of these hahaha, scanning with a mirrorless got me back into film this year 😊

[@Renzsu]

What a lovely machine to work with, so intuitive!

[@alexismmef]

Congrats on the dream machine! I am sure you will put it to some really good use!

[@SathyaPeacock]

These scans look gorgeous man, congrats on the scanner :)

[@KyleMcDougall]

Thanks, man! If you ever want to scan some film, the door is always open to use this!

[@SathyaPeacock]

@@KyleMcDougall appreciate that

[@just_eirik]

God this looks so fun! This video could be triple the length. Just watching you scan and talk about your thinking while editing, is so fun! The colors are amazing! Makes me so envious. I want to learn to edit my digital photos like this.

[@genernator]

WOW! That first scan blew my mind. Shoshone! I got stranded there way back in '91. Pop. 25?? A bad place to be stranded!

[@aaronalbores3999]

I think that when i talk about how i love "the film look", this machine takes a lot of credit for that. I'm lucky enough to scan my own rolls of film with it and i love it. I love how the screen renders not only a low res image, but also an extremely contrasty and saturated one. It's like it's showing you the extreme version making it easier for you to identify clipping points, and if you manage to leave it roughly ok, the results will be amazing. I also love the sound of it running through an entire roll of 35mm

[@thebitterfig9903]

It appears that a lot of how Fuji does their JPEG and film sims are directly based on the color science of these Horizon scanners. Similar settings, and Hypertone evolved into D-Range Priority.

[@alyro-ls1dv]

Congratulation to this very nice machine. It's good to see they are still working strong (at least yours) and bringing so much joy to you and helping to make professional scanning available on a different scale. Good job you found a space to have that setup and already from your nice video one can tell that this was made for a professional workflow and therefore is less tireing than working on homebrew solutions, which I don't critisise by that, just you transfer the impression of a thoughtful workprocess on this great system in your video, just like it and had fun watching it to the end.

[@robdixon5016]

I ran those scanners for years! They are amazingly good. Congrats! Id love to get one as well.

[@KristofferTrolle]

I think a lot of us got to the same conclusion (looking at other KZbinrs also starting to buy expensive scanners again), to me camera scanning is good for sharpness but I cannot get the colors I want, and looking at peoples scans the Frontier SP3000 always looked the best to me. Very nice purchase Kyle, not jealous at all 🙂

[@KyleMcDougall]

I think colour conversion is the next 'frontier' for camera scanning. I've been very happy with NLP, and I feel like you can get really good results once you learn a workflow, but it's not as consistent/easy as the Frontier. I'm sure there are people currently working on solutions.

[@hell-bentfpv]

The camera store I work at has one of these for scanning the film we develop for customers. Several of our regulars come back to us over our several competitors (big city) specifically because we use this scanner

[@vha42]

Fun machine to work with, used to work with these back in 2000. Hypertone gives funky shadows in some cases and especially bad for clothing that have reflecting details , for instance ugly Christmas sweaters, dresses with shimmer or glossy polyester. Fun working at the lab the first Christmas when my boss at the time still was fine tuning the machine. Pro tip : avoid emptying your coffee cup the scanner keyboard. A collage of mine did, but luckily it went fine, but as he got told : a new keyboard for the console would be 4500 usd (the part where 50 000 nok in the 2000s) Happy scanning

[@mikulasroubicek4642]

Interesting, I've never had any of these artifacts. Using the latest sw version, never had to turn Hypertone off.

[@vha42]

@ could have been my boss that turned everything to 11, or the fashion of Christmas 2001 in Norway where a bad match for the hypertone?

[@mikulasroubicek4642]

@@vha42 haha, could be, or maybe they just fine tuned it.

[@stanislasledoux1838]

Back to the future 🤩! You must wanna rescan everything !

[@KyleMcDougall]

Haha, yep, tempting!

[@SaxSpy]

wow those look great!

[@Where_Have_All_My_Files_Gone]

Amazing. I want one too.

[@bunnytobin]

Haha wow this is so insane that you have one of these in your house. I remember getting most of my scanning done with one of these back in the day and even working on one for a year or two when I worked at a lab. I preferred it greatly over typical drum scanning at the time, and scanning Fuji film especially seemed to be so extremely close to actual darkroom printing it was shocking. I worked right out of school as a "fine art" color printer for a few different photographers in NY, and this scanner was the first time I thought to myself "Hmm, ok there's something to this digital...".

[@KyleMcDougall]

Interesting to hear you say that. I've heard many people comment on the similarity in look to darkroom prints.

[@BesQueue]

Crazy that there are no modern scanner that have rendered these obsolete

[@valerie_screws_around]

There is no financial incentive for any manufacturer to invest in making a new, professional-grade film scanner, therefore there are none. Also Camera-Scanning has technically surpassed these scanners already in terms of Resolution and scanning speed.

[@slothsarecool]

There was one startup working on one for 35mm only, much more modern, I forget the name 😅 Aurora, something like that, they wanted to provide them to labs

[@olipinter]

​@@valerie_screws_around What's needed is to reverse engineer the exact colour conversion technology that is inside of these Frontier scanners. I know there are many plug-ins that get close, but they don't compare to what we see inside of this windows 2000 based software. Surely it can be done?? Pair that with some medium format camera scanning and we're future proofed.

[@VariTimo]

@@olipinterIt can definitely come super close but the main thing is the nuance of the Fujicolor Crystal paper color science that Fuji spent a lot of money to develop and the RGB monochrome readout with adjustments based on the filter points. That’s what really makes them still so incredibly viable.

[@girliedog]

What an awesome set up, I love that the old tech is still viable in this age of AI.

[@MF_Plissken]

damn that machine is pure platinum. its almost like making music on an old fairlight or synclavier :D. nice to see some images that arent just b/w with cranked up contrasts and s curve levels for a change btw. beautiful light there

[@valdezapg]

Colors look fantastic. Interesting how with just a few clicks you get great results, and all these modern methods with lightroom plugins, silverfast software, etc. have so many sliders and options to adjust to get the right result (and it probably does not look as good in the end as this does).

[@VariTimo]

Negative Lab Pro: Frontier color model, Lab standard contrast, Crystal LUT at 50%, and only use the exposure and mid tone CMY/RGB sliders and you get quite close to the look and correction process.

[@utterlee]

It looks so much easier to get the colour and brightness right on this than it does just using modern software.

[@vitz0924]

Good fuji commercial scanner.Amazing photos,❤

[@URBONED]

I just started at a lab and it’s really interesting to see all the different presets on yours vs what I’m used to day to day. I’d love to mess around with ours more but don’t want to mess anything up as they can be temperamental. We are processing 50-100 rolls a day with just one person on two machines and so I believe ours are all setup to work as fast as possible. This has inspired me to want to dig a little deeper through the menus though, even just when I’m scanning my own film.

[@KyleMcDougall]

Yes. Lot's of settings and things to experiment with. I've settled on sharpening/grain control off. And full auto or tone control.

[@URBONED]

@ nice, I believe ours at work is the same. We don’t really touch any post processing stuff aside from colour balancing and density adjustments. We can only afford about 5 minutes per roll so unfortunately we don’t get to delve into much else. Nice to know it’s there. I’m intrigued to test out soft tone adjustment on my next roll though.

[@JasperBunschoten]

Windows 2000 NT brings back memories!

[@paulv22]

Very nice! congrats. It'd be good to hear a comparison of the Frontier vs. camera scanning. Obviously the Frontier will win for productivity, but for ultimate results, I'm curious. Thanks.

[@ChrisDN]

Aw, heck ya... that Win2kPro screen; nostalgia!

[@davidcunicelli1430]

Jelly! So very good.

[@ErrorTH]

I'll never stop being amazed by how efficent the real™ equipment is. This compared to plustek... damn... You get razor sharp social-media ready scan in seconds.

[@peteb5461]

Absolutely gorgeous, now that was a find!

[@SamirVIE]

So interesting! Amazing!

[@mofotose]

Unless you already have a way to install the OSes and softwares make sure you have clones of the disks in each computer.

[@joetrrs]

I've been using my noritsu LS600 for the past 8 years and every time I go through scans, I'm amazed. Was lucky enough to get it for very cheap before prices shot up and film got super popular again. It'll be part of my process until it gives out.

[@VariTimo]

Likely won’t give out if you take care of it.

[@rick-deckard]

what a treat!

[@ApostolosNikolaidis1]

A comparison with the Nikon Coolscan you had would be really insightful! Thanks and enjoy!

[@wvwildlifecam9159]

That brings back some memories. I worked with the SP-2500 for several years. At least that one had better software for edits. All the 2500 had was the key controls and just an auto correct I believe. But in the main pc that controlled the printer I could go in an edit further. Those older machines are build to last. Only major thing I seen was when it started printing off frame. Even though it shows correct frame on the screen. When it would rescan your 35mm film again would scan the frames wrong. Turned out those belts in the carrier went bad. Hopefully that tech looked those over well. However as always just keep an extra bulb on hand for just in case. I know in the lab where its used daily. I believe we had to replace the bulb every 6 months I could be wrong on that.

[@Offstagemusic]

One day I will own one of these scanners.

[@ggwildlife]

amazing work.

[@soccerjockey]

These scans look incredible!

[@dash.-6836]

Kyle is just living the dream

[@camerafusion]

Great, something else I now want 😆

[@PaulRiecke]

I worked on a Fuji SP2000, the SP3000 is definitely a step up. How do you calibrate the scanner for the different film types, or do you not have to? You put some neutral density with your color corrections but it matters little to the Fuji scanner. Parts could be a problem, lucky you have a Tech connection so you're covered. Fuji color enlargements on photographic paper were beautiful. Glad to see you're keeping it working.

[@F9FCJ429]

The Holy Grail of negatives to bits. Alas, I’m still stuck camera scanning, but a man can dream! All the research that went into this machine is why, when digital is called for, I reach for the GFX100S. The film transfer curves they created for their minilabs are used in their film emulations today to get the most satisfying results with the least futzing of any digital workflow.

[@pedrorafaelsolorzanocampos608]

👏👏👏👏👏👏 Congrats, nice "toy".

[@carlosquijano2827]

Congratulations! Enjoy. 🎉

[@H____enry]

Haha, this is such an outrageous system to have at home. I want one.

[@chromagraphphotoart]

And TODAY the best way of scanning film is... (tomorrow is another day...) Good job, I din't splurge out on camera scanning to replace my outdated V850. Now I have to save ALL my pocket money 😊

[@PicturesOnMyMind]

Wow! thats lovely, and man, it looks very cool as well! The colour scheme looks like one of your road trip photos! i just had a Google and they are cheaper than the Flextights!

[@Biosynchro]

TBH, this kind of thing makes me wish I shot film! If you get a chance to scan some slide film, please do show us how that goes.

[@carbonejack]

Crazy cool...

[@TheSchnauzie]

Thanks Kyle for sharing this video

[@championthewonderhorse9733]

I hope you are planning to bring out a book featuring your work in the UK soon!

[@KyleMcDougall]

Hoping to release some stuff in 2025.

[@Ben-cx8de]

Superb machine, I went from the SP2000 (even heavier) to the 3000. Both great machines and the output was very similar aside from resolution. My 3000 developed issues and was not economical to repair unfortunately. Sold it for spares.

[@Ben-cx8de]

Was your fuji tech based near Bury St Edmunds by any chance?

[@KyleMcDougall]

Heavier?! I can't even imagine. 😂

[@KyleMcDougall]

No. Closer to London.

[@sahandnayebaziz]

I wish they would make stuff like this again today, feels like they would fly off the shelves if a smaller version existed

[@wimjansen7453]

Wow! Happy for you!

[@mr.negative_film_store]

You’ll never go back to DSLR scanning. Nothing can compare to Frontiers. Congratulations on the purchase! My opinion is that some of those Hypertone, highlight soft settings etc can give you an unpleasant HDR look. I never use them. I choose the right film for what I’m shooting, make sure I expose properly, and then all need to do most of the time is +1 density and I have a completely finished image. No editing at all.

[@VariTimo]

Hyper tone is fine. Highlight soft is iffy most of the time but can work in very certain situations.

[@mr.negative_film_store]

@ yeah ok, I haven’t touched them since I first played around with them as they gave me terrible results. I vaguely remember highlights soft or shadows soft being the worst. I haven’t found the need for them either, I’ve been very happy with just some minor density & colour adjustments.

[@VariTimo]

@ Yes. There are only one or two setting you need to change. I’ve tested the living hell out of my SP500 and Fuji really knew what they were doing with their default settings.

[@KyleMcDougall]

Cheers. Yeah I've spent way too much time running tests, and the only issue I ever found with Hypertone is when using it paired with highlight or shadow soft in a contrasty situation. That's when you get weird halos, etc. But leaving it on with tone set to standard has worked fine for me. Either that or hypertone off, tone standard.

[@mr.negative_film_store]

@ that’s and interesting point, from memory I think I was using a couple of them together. Perhaps that’s why I was getting a strange look. I will have to try them again.

[@ZombieRofl]

Willem also likes this scanner 😉

[@Batou_73]

Now you have to do one were you compare the same frame from frontier vs your expensive camera scan vs cheap camera scan setup. Then I can finally decide how broke I want to be 😅. No really that would be awesome!

[@balintshootsfilm]

It is so satisfying to see how fast you can run through frames with this and the quality is just out of this world. Will this scanner replace the medium format camera scanning setup?

[@earvinquero2037]

Im so happy Im done with film. All this time consuming and troubles. Now I fully embraced digital monochrom.

[@rjbiii]

lol see this is how I've come full circle back to lab scans. I went down the rabbit hole of home scanning and I've never been satisfied with the results. It's fine for rolls that I didn't take seriously or for stuff like Phoenix. I've since decided to just pay for the lab scans from a lab with a fuji frontier and a noritsu that does a good job of color correcting.

[@ale_s45]

amazing

[@ScottyGibsonn]

i don't get why people don't specify how much they paid when making videos on such a niche tool, clearly whoever would watch this would want to know how much you paid for it and where ya found it, ebay, fb marketplace, etc.

[@KyleMcDougall]

Happy to answer that. Found it on ebay. Paid £3500 + £300 for delivery/setup.