dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

I have tried to find the answer to when film negatives were first scanned and digitized. Google has yielded no information and either I am not entering the right question or the info isn't there. I suspect it was about the time one hour developing became popular for 35mm film at drug stores. I also wonder if the big names such as Fuji and Kodak used it in film processing. Can anyone on the forum give me an answer?

oldtigger Loc: Roanoke Virginia-USA

don't know when they started but i stopped doing it in 1982 when my scanner lamp quit working.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

Thank you. That takes it back farther than I imagined. I thought perhaps the early 90's.

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

I expect that it was much earlier. The first digital scan was done by Russell A. Kirsch in 1957. It was a 5 cm square B&W photo of his three month old son. I suspect that negative film scanning came not long after.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

Wow Erik, thanks for the info. I never would have guessed that early. I was a senior in high achool the Fall of that year.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

I bought my first flatbed scanner in 1981 (it weighed as much as my Kaypro II computer at that time, my first "Film" scanner in 1983, still have that one but can no longer use it. Both attached via SCSI Ports.
I know they were done commercially long before then.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Dragon, I wouldn't have any idea, but I would look to Hollywood for the answer. Just my guess! ;-)
SS

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

It depends. Does sending a photograph by wire considered scanning? It seems to be similar because the photograph is converted to energy with then turns on a light at the other end to expose another sheet of paper.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

I was thinking along similar lines which technically may take you back to the 1890s or even 1873 if you want to look at the development of rudimentary television.
But then it is all going to come down to definition.

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Here is a link to a video about the process I am talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LetlcmqZFyA

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

I had a fellow photographer friend who had a wire machine,1950's / 60's. He picked up a fair amount of work in our area, Midlands, for the National Daily Newpapers (London). I sent my offerings via 'Red Star' rail network.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

The inquiry was about digitizing, not simply scanning a pic! ;-)
SS

blackest Loc: Ireland

Well the fuji frontier series machines use a laser to create the positive image from the negative. When you first got the option of having your photographs put on CD they were already scanning your negative in the produce of producing a print anyway. Sadly the scan was really only as good as was needed for a 6 by 4 (and I thought I was being smart just getting the cd and no prints so I could post process at home then print).

The first hand held scanner scans I did (on an Amiga) were actual black and white and it was the ratio of black pixels to white pixels which determined the shade of gray in the final image.

I actually cloned by hand too you could see the pattern so you might have say 1101 then 0000 (just using 1 for a black pixel and 0 for a white pixel as shorthand here) so the collection of 0's would be where a scratch on a photo was so i'd just continue the pattern over the scratch and then converted to gray scale and the scratch would be repaired.

That was on a photo of my grand parents must have been taken in the early 40's (my grand father died in the mid 50's before I was born). These days you could scan and fix in a few minutes what took me hours to get a low resolution image. The monitor I was using was only 640 by 480 resolution too.

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

Thank you everyone for your informative replies. I never realized the process was in use as early as it was.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The place where I worked bought an HP scanner - B&W - that cost $1,000. When the glass broke, they wanted almost that much to repair it.