Dedicated film scanners under $1000

[splitimageview]

Surely the colour is due to the software not the scanner?

The Pakon has lots of Kodak smarts built-in. No one knew color like Kodak... And the software is dedicated to the scanner. Throw it any type of film and the colors are nailed. Very little adjustments necessary, this is a huge time saver compared to using older Nikon scanners (or any for that matter) with Vuescan. Vuescan does a good job with the scanning part but not so much when pre-selecting film types.

 

[Scapevision]

I gotta add to the colour part too, in my experience the coolscan's own NikonScan software produces better colour than Epson does, not to say that Epson lacks anything, just needs a bit more tweaks. PrimeFilm software was useless for me. For personal, not work use, I always scan raw vuescan and convert colour with ColorPerfect. Stopped complaining about colour neg scans after doing so 🙂

 

[Swift1]

I don't want to advocate a particular course of action, but I thought I would share some of my experiences.

I currently have an Epson V500, an Epson V750-M, and a Minolta Scan Dual IV.

I scan primarily C-41 color film and C-41 B&W film.

The V750 does a much better job than the V500.

With color negative film, I very much prefer the V750 results to the Scan Dual IV results.
Scandig rates the V750 as having an optical resolution of around 2300dpi, and they rete the Scan Dual IV at 3000dpi.
If I scan a very good slide film, this resolution difference easily noticeable.
If I scan color negative film, the resolution difference is hardly noticeable, but the Scan Dual IV scans always have a lot more digital noise than the V750 scans.
I've pulled my Scan Dual IV out many times in an attempt to get better scans, and almost always I prefer the V750 scan.
I have sold 12"x18" prints made from 3200dpi scans of 35mm with the V750, and to my eyes they look very good.
I scan a lot of 120 as well as 35mm, and having one scanner for both simplifies things.