This stylish premium-priced film scanner wants to save you from lab scans for good

Film photography is still having its renaissance moment. Anyone who’s ventured onto Instagram recently will have noticed feeds chock full of 35mm photos. However, film photography has two hurdles: cost and control. Prices per roll are shooting up, and then there is the cost of development and scans, while surrendering your images to the lab for scanning cuts out fine-grained control over the look of your final shots.

However, for savvy photographers looking to save money in the long run and regain control, removing one part of that equation might be possible. Home scanning has never been more accessible, and current options on the market prove that. At the affordable end, camera-scanning systems like the Valoi easy35 have become a favourite of mine because they’re fast, affordable, and incredibly easy to use.

Dedicated scanners, such as Plustek’s OpticFilm series, are a little pricier, but still a worthwhile investment for anyone scanning regularly. These scanners offer excellent image quality and infrared dust removal, but they are famously slow, and operating them is a test of your willingness to sit through the process.

However, into this race comes a new contender from Soke Engineering – the Knokke – a premium 35mm film scanner scheduled to launch on Kickstarter next year for a whopping €999. The pitch lies somewhere in between camera-scanning, like the Valoi, and a dedicated film scanner, like the Plustek – fast, yet automated, professional-quality scans at home. But for considerably more cash than most of the current crop of home film scanners, what exactly are you getting?

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The Knokke is promising a high 4064DPI resolution, 120dB dynamic range, and true 48-bit color depth, all housed in a futuristic minimal design that looks more like boutique audio gear than a film scanner. The Knokke will read the film's DX code to log film type and ISO into the metadata of each file, and will launch with its own dedicated scanning software called Korova.

But can a scanner improve the film scanning process enough to be worth a nearly four-figure price tag? The appeal of DIY film scanning is the hands-on control; scanning yourself lets you decide the light, colors, and contrast. You’re not stuck with whatever automated profile a lab’s machine applies. For professional film photographers, the question will be whether the Knokke can combine the quality of the best lab scanners with the speed and immediacy of home camera scanning, while offering fine control over results, and do it better than the plethora of cheaper options on the market.

With an unproven design and software from a previously unknown company, there is a lot that Soke Engineering has to overcome to get this on the list of best film scanners. Until we see real-world tests, it remains an exciting, stylish, and ambitious answer to the home-scanning trade-offs every analogue photographer has felt. But if the Knokke truly makes scanning fast and enjoyable, it might just justify its place in your budget.

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Looking to start scanning right away? Check out our guide for more of the best film scanners.