Flatbed scanner or film scanner?

[DuchanC]

I want to transpose my 35mm color and b&w negatives to the PC, and I'm wondering what the best route would be - flatbed or film scanner?

Greetings
Duchan

[mjs1973]

I'm wondering the same thing... I had a cheep Microtek flatbed scanner that had a 35mm film attachment on it and that worked pretty good, or at least I thought it did for what I used it for, which wasn't much, but it broke and the one I replaced it whith doesn't have a film adapter. I scanned some negatives last night with my flatbed scanner. I had to invert them in photo shop to get a positive image and I didn't like it one bit. I priced some film scanners online this morning and they seemed kind of high, compared to a flatbed, but I did like the compact size of them.

[mikishots]

I want to transpose my 35mm color and b&w negatives to the PC, and I'm wondering what the best route would be - flatbed or film scanner?

Greetings
Duchan

Ever tried a dedicated film scanner? By far the best choice. It will bring out details in the film that you didn't even know were there.

Expensive? Yep. Worth the money? Hell, yes.

[gahspidy]

I use a film scanner, Minolta Dimage scan Dual lll. I have seen others on this forum that were using flatbed scanners and their images usually had a weird sort of surreal painting look to it. I have had great results with mine and they are not as expensive as you may think. They have just come out with the Minolta dimage Scan lV which has higher resolution ( 3200 dpi) than mine, great software bundled with it, and a street price to be found at just under $ 300.00. BTW, these Minolta Dimage series have been reviewed in many different photography and digital imaging publications with very high marks and an excellent value. If your going to scan negs or slides, a dedicated film scanner will give you the best results. It is a timely process however, so be prepared to spend many hours doing your scans. I actually like the process. Good luck

[Clicker]

Hello! Because of Gary I purchased the Dimage Dual Scan IV, (Thanks again Gary!!!) i've only been using it the past 4 days, but Love the difference it makes......I went through PC Nation.com and found it for 265.00 with no shipping & Handling. If you want to see what difference it makes...My posts are a perfect example... right click on my user name on the left side of this post, choose ' View Public Profile" then a seperate web page will open up... Choose " view threads started by Clicker" then look at
Thread : A 4-year old and her dog ( Flatbed scanner from a matte print)
to see the difference a dedicated film scanner makes look at
Thread: Wet street @ Night -- dedicated Film scanner.

I pulled up all kinds of reviews on the Minolta Dimage and it got rave reviews... Google it, and read for yourself !

Also, while researching the dimage i went ahead and got another scanner temporarily ( No one had the minolta in stock, not the stores here in the U.S. anyway! ( like Best Buy, Comp USA etc..) anyway, i tried a Pacific 3600 resolution scanner, it was neat because you didn't need a holder for the film, you just inserted the film and it fed through, well, it created alot of 'noise' on prints, and the reviews on it pretty much said that it was a good idea behind it, but it didn't follow through.... It seems the best scanner ( ?) was the Nikon Coolscan, but at a *cool* $1,400.00...........

I would definitely follow up on Gary's advice !

[Billy Car]

I like my Nikon 5000ED transparency film scanner, and did pay a pretty price for it, but the results are great once I got the USB 2.0 connection worked out on my legacy Mac running OS 10.2.8.

Now I'm replacing my UMAX 2400S with Transparency Adapter (both for sale ...) with a newer flatbed. Any suggestions?

The new Epson 4180 is on sale with a Rebate ... looks great, except it has the film scanning which, of course, I'm already satisfied with by using my Nikon.

Suggestions?