1st scanner

I think a lot of people are going to recommend the V600 Epson. I've had a V700 for five years and it hasn't given me one problem. :)
 
Depends what film are you scanning, 35mm or 120 or larger?

For this budget definitely a s/h dedicated scanner for 35mm (Pakon, Nikon, Canon etc), Epson/Canon flatbed for medium format 120/220 rolls or large format.
 
I have a V700 but I can't say I found the much cheaper Canoscan flatbeds any worse. For 35mm though, I'd be all over the Pakon scanners. They're only 6MP I think, but it was plenty 10 years ago, it's plenty now.
 
V500, V600 if you need 120 or even 4x5. New, under 300.
Or Plustek 8200i SE if only 135 film. B&H have it for 330 new.
 
tsiklonaut said:
Depends what film are you scanning, 35mm or 120 or larger?

For this budget definitely a s/h dedicated scanner for 35mm (Pakon, Nikon, Canon etc), Epson/Canon flatbed for medium format 120/220 rolls or large format.
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Absolutely.

OP, please tell us what is your intended use or you'll get a wide variety of advice, as you can already see from the posts on this thread.

Do you like to thinker with your images and extract as much information as possible from the negatives, or do you prefer a mini-lab approach? Are you prepare to struggle with color correction to achieve your vision, or would you prefer canned profiles and sticking to the most popular film brands? Will you print the scans, and if so, at what size?

The quality vs convenience question, what formats you plan to scan, and what type of film (BW, C-41, E6) are all pretty important to answer up front.

Aside for the Pakon, where the focus is on speed, it's hard to find online info about the time it takes to scan. If you would plan to scan only 5-8 frames for 24 frame roll, a manual feed scanner would be OK and would allow you to process E6 better than a Pakon and dig into the shadow areas better. I have a Coolscan (in your price range) that does 6 frames at the time. It's a good compromise for me because I tend to select more keepers than most --due to my low standards, not high skill :) -- It takes me 1.5h to scan a roll, selecting 15-18 frames. I usually read RFF and watch photography videos while scanning, and I don't find the process burdensome.

If you shoot several rolls a week, you can quickly see that you'd need a much faster and more automated solution. At $300 the bulk-scanning solutions are either the flatbeds or the Pakon. Flatbeds give you format flexibility, Pakon gives you speed and great canned color profiles for popular films, neither is as good as a stand alone scanner, but they can be good enough depending on you purpose.
 
Used scanners are like used cars with no odometer. They all look good because they sat on a shelf. Pig in a poke.

Minolta and Nikon are no longer repairable. Would love to buy compatible software for my MK 5400. But whatI want is Silverfast Studio and it is $300. It is scanner specific and the scanner may break tomorrow. KM software is not compatible current Mac OS.

B & H sells Plustek 8100 ( 259 ) and 8200 ( $479 ) and both come with Silverfast SE 8. The difference is ir dust removal which does not work with silver retained films anyway, tri x, tMax, delta . For color, buy the 8200 or you will spot for hours.

For 120, buy and Epson flat bed.

My son has a Plustek and it works well.
 
Ronals, very true!

However, at the $300 level, it does not take long to cover the investment. I would have had to pay $10-$15 locally for scanning service of the quality I now get at home (though granted I was spending far less for lower quality at Costco). At 30 rolls, I will amortize the cost. I'm a third of the way there in 3 months. Even if my scanner croaks in the next four months (running just fine now, but who knows) I'll feel pretty good. It gave me an opportunity to learn scanning, and produced some great scans. From a purely financial point it would not be a terrible proposition either. The auto feeder and other accessories I have could net me close to $150 on ebay.
 
froyd said:
Absolutely.

OP, please tell us what is your intended use or you'll get a wide variety of advice, as you can already see from the posts on this thread.

Do you like to thinker with your images and extract as much information as possible from the negatives, or do you prefer a mini-lab approach? Are you prepare to struggle with color correction to achieve your vision, or would you prefer canned profiles and sticking to the most popular film brands? Will you print the scans, and if so, at what size?

The quality vs convenience question, what formats you plan to scan, and what type of film (BW, C-41, E6) are all pretty important to answer up front.

Aside for the Pakon, where the focus is on speed, it's hard to find online info about the time it takes to scan. If you would plan to scan only 5-8 frames for 24 frame roll, a manual feed scanner would be OK and would allow you to process E6 better than a Pakon and dig into the shadow areas better. I have a Coolscan (in your price range) that does 6 frames at the time. It's a good compromise for me because I tend to select more keepers than most --due to my low standards, not high skill :) -- It takes me 1.5h to scan a roll, selecting 15-18 frames. I usually read RFF and watch photography videos while scanning, and I don't find the process burdensome.

If you shoot several rolls a week, you can quickly see that you'd need a much faster and more automated solution. At $300 the bulk-scanning solutions are either the flatbeds or the Pakon. Flatbeds give you format flexibility, Pakon gives you speed and great canned color profiles for popular films, neither is as good as a stand alone scanner, but they can be good enough depending on you purpose.
Click to expand...

Scanning speed is not an issue, I try not to tinker to much with the Images and for right now if I print it would be 4X6
 
For 35 mm B&W I use a plustek 8100 with vuescan. Very happy with it. For colour, I'd get the 8200 with IR dust removal. Its very small and has a case to put it in when you're not using it.

I've no experience with scanning larger formats, but would suggest an Epson, they seem to be held in high regard. They're pretty big though and seem harder to put away when not in use.

Cheers,
Michael
 
projectphill said:
Scanning speed is not an issue, I try not to tinker to much with the Images and for right now if I print it would be 4X6
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Just about any scanner will render files adequate for 4x6 prints, so anything from a cheap Wolverine scanner up qualifies. You almost can't go wrong and it would come down to cost and convenience (some scanners are a pain to use).

The next question would be material to be scanned (prints, BW negs, C-41, negs, slides) and then size 35mm only or NF and LF as well.
 
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