Well, now, let's put stuff in the right perspective.
Drum scanners are not all created equal. Like ordinary "linear" scanners, where were low- and high-performance models.
Besides the "cons" already mentioned, at least some drum scanners can deliver a superior image quality vs ordinary scanners. Expecially with large originals.
Let's see a direct example.
I took a 645 slide and scanned with both my Nikon SuperCoolscan 8000ED (just serviced by a Nikon authorized lab) and my Scanview Scanmate 11000 (un-serviced, sadly).
Please note that we're NOT talking about resolution charts (where differences are larger): this is an
ordinary 645 100iso slide, taken with a Pentax 645 some years ago.
To avoid showing different sizes, I carefully upsampled the Nikon 8000 scan to the 11'000 ppi resolution of the drum scan, and sharpened with much care.
Here is the comparison crop at pixel level (Nikon on the left).
Details are almost there (but still, the drum wins: see the gratings and the logo), but look at the effect of upsampling to the "grain" (not actually grain, let's say grain clouds). It's much finer on the drum scan.
The drum also has nicer, cleaner shadows and no trace of blooming in the highlights.
I don't have the original scans here now, only this crop; but in the future I'll post more comparisons if needed (but I'd prefer to have the Scanmate serviced, before).
Fernando
