Scanner Recommendations

[dryice66]

Greetings from Hong Kong!

I've enjoyed RFF in the last couple of months and I get the impression there are lots of 'scanners' out there. I am less than thrilled with some of the commercial minilab scans I get here. While adequate for uploading to flickr and emailing to friends and family, I would like a good quality scanner, that doesn't cost the earth for:

1. creating high res / tiff files for archiving (if the pics are good enough)
2. just generally creating good quality scans that I can improve happily in Photoshop.
3. Ideal for Macbooks and PCs - you could say I have a foot in both camps.
4. Occasionally printing off superlarge prints.


I will be scanning 120 negatives and 135 of course, both colour and black and white. Mostly low-lights situations with lots of people. Not sure how useful this info is.... but anyway...

I already have a three-in-one HP1210 which is pitiful but adequate for documents but not much else.

What scanner would you recommend?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[Rhoyle]

I have an Epson 4870, which I'm fairly happy with for MF. It's a little soft for 35mm, but I use it anyway and have fooled a fair number of people. The 4870 was replaced by the 4990, which was a notlcible improvement. Then the 4990 was replaced by the V700 (?), which is supposed to be a noticible improvement over that. If looking for something new, and I couldn't afford a good MF film or drumscanner, which I can't, I'd go with the V700.

 

[DavidH]

I use a KM5400 for 35mm - and its been fantastic for the last 3 years of solid work. Silverfast Ai is my software of choice for this machine.

And a V700 (Epson flatbed) for 120 - which seems very good (it's a recent addition to my heap of photo gear and I havent had a chance to truly thrash it yet).
But it only comes with Silverfast SE...and I can't buy the upgrade just yet to Ai so have been using the Epson software - it works but its clunky. Maybe I'll try Vuescan with it - I have a copy somewhere...

 

[Keith]

The V700 or V750 is a good choice .... fair to good with 35mm and excellent for MF. I agree ... 'Silverfart SE' is a waste of time and I don't know why they bothered? 😛

 

[icebear]

nikon coolscan

nikon coolscan

Hi frozen CO2 ....dryice. I only scan 35mm using a coolscan V I'm not at all an expert but get fairly good results using vuescan software (i.e. already much better than any high res. picture CD !).
For 120 you will need the 9000 series. It was already difficult to get mine about 1/2 a year ago so maybe availability of dedicated film scanners is going down anyway... The built quality seems excellent and you suck off every bit of info from the negative that is on there. I'm happy with it.

 

[nobbylon]

i use the 4990 with silverfast AI and i'm very pleased with the scans. I get odd colour casts with reala but it is fixable. I haven't used a dedicated scanner so can't compare but for the money I'm happy with the 4990.

 

[sienarot]

I too am using a Epson 4990. No complaints here except the standard negative carriers are sometimes leave a bit to be desired if the negative isn't flat. I'm thinking of getting some better carrieres from http://www.betterscanning.com/

 

[Ben Z]

I would like a good quality scanner, that doesn't cost the earth


I will be scanning 120 negatives and 135 of course

I'm not sure what "the earth" means to you in actual dollars. I'll tell you what I have.

For 35mm I have a Canonscan 4000US, which was discontinued, that I bought from a guy switching to a DSLR, for $250. When new these had an excellent reputation. The only caveat is the proprietary software applies some sharpening that can't be turned off, so I follow net recommendation and use Vuescan instead.

For medium-format I have an Epson V700, which I got from an online retailer called New Egg for about $200 less than B&H was selling it at the time. It probably isn't as "good" as a Nikon LS9000 or 8000 but for the little bit of 120 I do it's quite good. The carriers are height-adjustable for fine-tuning sharpness and Vuescan lets me do 2 passes at different "exposures" which extracts its full potential d-max.

If I really want to make a huge print, which so far hasn't happened, I will send the original for a true drum scan. The results will be better than the Nikon or even an Imacon. Plus the V700 functions as a flatbed for scanning prints and documents as needed.

So my recommendation would be, if you're in economy mode, to buy two scanners, one being a dedicated film scanner for 35mm and the other a late-model flatbed for 120, like the Epson V700 or 750. Another option might be a used Nikon 8000, Minolta Multi Pro, or Polaroid/Atixscan 120.

 

[lZr]

I also use Epson 4990 and Twain software. Epson scanners are best performers for 120 films.

 

[chambrenoire]

I use a Canon CanoScan 8400F which I'm not that happy with. I want the Epson V700!

 

[rich815]

You'll be happy with a 4990 or a V750 except for yoru reason #4, but for that just get a drum or imacon scan done at a vendor for those few times you want super sized prints. Using the Epsons you'll be fine for MF scans printing up to 13x13 or so.

 

[dryice66]

Thanks everyone - did quick search on epson site.... looks like one of their models could do the trick... 4990 / v700 - have to check the costs...

😛

 

[DavidH]

And a V700 (Epson flatbed) for 120 - which seems very good (it's a recent addition to my heap of photo gear and I havent had a chance to truly thrash it yet).
But it only comes with Silverfast SE...and I can't buy the upgrade just yet to Ai so have been using the Epson software - it works but its clunky. Maybe I'll try Vuescan with it - I have a copy somewhere...

An update FWIW...
I found that Silverfast Ai gives vastly superior results to the Epson sw - I tried Vuescan and got nowhere...so this morning upgraded the useless SE version to Ai (taking advantage of the exchange rate) and am now rescanning everything. At last, some results good enough for work...
The V750 comes with Ai and some calibration tools...scan quality is said to be similar and the Ai upgrade is cheaper than the extra for the V750.