Need suggestions for a good film scanner

[schrackman]

Preferrably one within my budget! lol

What do some of you folks use?

[Xia_Ke]

I dunno, as much as people talk crap about flatbeds, I stand firmly by my recommendation of the Epson 4490 Photo. Works great and you can get a refurbished model, like I did, from Epson's website for $109 and free shipping

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/c...s&oid=63060806

[drg]

For home use I've got a couple including a fairly new flatbed which is one of the MICROTEK ArtixScan line. It allows for glassless scanning which I believe make a big difference. Not a high volume scanner, though individual scans are reasonably fast. Individual for slides/film is based on carrier size and how full you have them. Plus it's a really good flatbed for scanning large prints. It will scan a wide variety of film formats which is really handy.

At home I've also got a 'reference scanner' built originally for law enforcement/legal and is branded by Polaroid/Kodak. If you ever saw one of the old PolaScan or HP scanners, that's exactly what it looks like. Fast, noisy, high DMAX and you can produce raw scans. Great for dumping into ADOBE Photoshop or Lightroom, but it doesn't have any built in noise or dust reduction capacity. O.K. I've got software. It will scan down to the grain or color blobs of dye based films but is 35mm/slides only.

At work there's serious stuff including a Braun slide scanner (which I use to bring home frequently) that looks like a vertical mounted carousel slide projector. In fact it is built on the same platform. It eats slides like candy and fills hard drives at an incredible rate! Good scans. There's a Nikon 4000 which never has had much use and a drum scanner with various attachments for many different formats of film.

None of these get the workout they once did. That's one reason I've got the flatbed as it gives me more desk space in the small office and I can use it for several different tasks.

[ComicDom1]

Epson 4490 , V500, V700, V750

The 4490 is your best bet if you are on a budget.

The 4990 is discontinued but if you can find one used, its a nice way to go. You will end up paying $300 and up for one of them if they have all the software and negative holders.

Good luck,

Jason

[schrackman]

Thanks everyone! The Epson looks like the affordable choice for me. Hopefully I'll be able to get one within the month.

[42Carlton]

Epson 4490 , V500, V700, V750

The 4490 is your best bet if you are on a budget.

The 4990 is discontinued but if you can find one used, its a nice way to go. You will end up paying $300 and up for one of them if they have all the software and negative holders.

Good luck,

Jason

My interest is in scanning 35mm negs .

Do these Epson units flatbeds come with software to remove small amounts of dust ? Does the Epson software automatically select each negative from the frame and allow you to automatically process and store them ? How long does the highest res scan take for the whole bed, ie with as many negs in the carrage as possible?

I have been using an old HP scanjet 6200C for years for scanning photos - but am wanting to scan alot of family photos in relatively high quality for archiving purposes. So I am familiar with the time for scanning and selecting areas and adjusting the colors, contrast, etc...which usually takes from 2minutes to 10 minutes per scanned image. I find that 150-200dpi scan resolution of an 8x10 print works fine for me.

Clearly the issue as so many express is the trade off between time vers quality.
Was thinking of a negative scanner and there seem to be a wide range of better older units Konica Minolta's and Nikon, and newer lower cost units ( like with 5 MP cameras inside). Again the quality on the Nikon Coolscan is superb but the scantime is a killer for massive processing.

The newer 5MP camera based fneg scanners seem to be targeted at easy of use and speed. These are the Ion, Vupoint and Wolverine - maybe more. Anyone know of actual results posted somewhere to see what the scan quality is of these units ?

I don't need total perfection as per the higher end film scanners, but still have a taste for quality 8x10's even now that I have dropped my SLR and special lenses and carry a Canon Digital Elf in my pocket for most of my photos. However all the old SLR negs are really high quality and I'd hate to spend months scanning them only to have low quality 8x10s !

Attached is a 40 year old B/W photo recently scanned in that reflects the image quality level I am seeking. Large JPEG is reduced by 60% to fit and the second a small section of the original 1007 x 1320 pixel scan.

Any recomendations ?

[GB1]

Haven't really read the thread, but using Flatbed scanners for film is definitely a second-rate way to go. They do make some sense if you're on a tight budget, though.

I have the very expensive Nikon Coolscan 9000 scanner and love it, but I needed it to scan 120 film. Coolscans have some great bells and whistles to remove dust, correct colors, remove grain and so on. I think you can get a 35mm only one with decent max DPI for a 'reasonable' cost, though they are definitely not inexpensive.

[ComicDom1]

I used to have an Acer Scanwit, but I believe they were bought out by BENQ. I sold off my Scanwit and bought the newer BENQ Scanwit 2740S. Unfortunately I have not used it lately but I really need to get off my butt and do so. It has digital ice built in. It does require a card in the computer for it to connect to.

I also hear if you can find a Minolta in good condition they make a pretty good 35mm scanner as well.

The problem with the 35mm Scanners is that as the Operating systems change, updated drivers are not always available. I have not shopped them in a while, but they used to be available on Ebay and you might find a barely used or good one on there.

I just checked and the drivers are still available for the Scanwit 2470S for the pci Acard scsi card that mounts in your PC for windows XP and other operating systems.

Jason

[ziggy01]

I shoot slide film almost exclusively because I understand it better and I'm not yet ready to pay 23k+ for the s2 dslr. I have 35mm slides, 120 mm slides and SuperSlides that I'd like to get converted to digital images. These images are more valuable to me than snapshots so I'm thinking the resolution should be high? But, this is all new to me. I see myriad choices for film scanners that fit many budgets. However, my overriding concern is image quality as well as operation and reliability. I've read the Nikon Coolscan is a good if pricey scanner. Unfortunately, the reviews I've read suggest it doesn't work on Vista? What about Win7 or Mac? Alternatives? I'd really appreciate anyone's input on this. Thanks in advance. Kevin

[jerysbond]

Thanks for the posting, It is really helpful to me. I want to buy a new scanner. Nice information.
My heartiest thanks for sharing.

[GB1]

I have a Nikon Coolscan 9000. Pricey, about 2 grand, but scans up to 4000 dpi and handles 120 film (the kicker .. you could get one for a lot cheaper if you didn't need that capability). It has various modes that eliminate dust speaks on scans, recover dark areas, etc. They work well.

I have seen some incredible deals on scanners as of late, even in Staples, for as low as in the 100s.. no idea on their quality.

G