Scanner Hire for Photographers

The scanning facility at Otter Prints is solely for photographic film – negative or positive –
with facilities to scan various formats from 35mm up to 5x4”. We have an impeccably-kept
Imacon (now Hasselblad) Flextight 949 which is regularly serviced and maintained by the
UK's go-to Hasselblad service engineer.

You can hire the scanner for a half- or full-day, allowing you to scan negatives or transparencies at your own pace. You'll be situated at the desk below, in a friendly shared space with fellow creatives.

To get the most scans completed in the shortest time and be cost-efficient, we recommend scanning images into a RAW format, and working on them away from the scanner. This gives you overall control, allowing you to output the images to your chosen file format once the film has been digitised.

If you are new to the scanner or have not used a Flextight/Hasselblad scanner of this type before, we offer a tutorial service, a guided lesson for up to two customers, complete with three full-resolution RAW scans. All prices are shown on the Pricing page here.

All negatives are slightly different sizes, depending on the specific camera you created the images on. As a loose guide, the full-size files (at 300dpi) are roughly as follows, cropped just inside the black borders:

35mm - 8580 x 5900 pix - 720 x 500 mm - 150 mb

6 x 4.5 - 8660 x 6630 pix - 730 x 560 mm - 170 mb

6 x 6 - 6900 x 6900 pix - 580 x 580 mm - 140 mb

6 x 7 - 8700 x 6920 pix - 730 x 580 mm - 180 mb

5 x 4" - 9300 x 7450 pix - 780 x 630 mm - 205 mb

The scanner produces a .fff (3f - ‘three f’, or ‘triple f’) RAW file type, supported by the Imacon/Hasselblad software, Flexcolor, which you can download for free here. For a more controlled, modern and simplified workflow, we recommend outputting your images through a third-party plugin called Negative Lab Pro, supported by Adobe Lightroom – download a trial version here.

We advise scanning your images into a folder on our Mac, then copying the whole folder in one go onto your own external hard drive – please remember to bring one along with you. We will not hold onto the images for longer than a week once you've visited as the file sizes are so large.

You’ll also have access to our kitchenette (with fridge), where you can make your own teas and coffees. Alternatively, you can buy delicious artisan food and snacks from our neighbours Rye Bakery, Lungi Babas or Burrito Boi, all located at The Station in Frome.

If there’s anything we can assist with, ahead of booking with us or coming for a tutorial, please give us a call, we'd be very happy to help.