What scanner.....

[kxl]

Get yourself a used Nikon Coolscan IV or V with SA-21 auto-feed unit. Drive it with VueScan.

G

I agree, or if you can find a recently serviced Nikon Coolscan 4000, it's another good and inexpensive ($300-400) albeit older option that accepts an easy hack that enables full roll scanning with Vuescan.

 

[MiniMoke]

Well, the deal is done, I grabbed a nicely priced Plustek 7400 on the Bay (end of auction around 1700 hours, not a good time to end an auction in summer!).

I'll have to live with the slow frame by frame scanning but will look forward to nice quality scans.

Thanks all for your input! The Nikons were too expensive at the moment, perhaps I'll get a Canon 9000F MkII some day for MF, but that has time. For now I'll stick to 35mm.

I'll try to get a lighted to evaluate the negs and make choice instead of scanning the whole rolls (that will normally be 39 frames with the tiny XA2 or the Trip 35).

 

[Santtu Määttänen]

I have an unorthodox idea (and what I mostly do). Don't scan negatives, scan darkroom wet prints 🙂 flatbed can do it nicely and quality is more then enough for digital repro print. Of course I scan some negatives, mainly fuji fp100c reclaimed negatives and for cases when I want negative enlargement for alternativd printing. So epson 850 is a nice one. I've used Imagon and it's amazing piece of kit. But wouldn't fit neither in my budget nor on my desk.

 

[V-12]

I'm not convinced that the flatbed is "inferior" - it's mostly a different way of seeing rather than "wrong." It's more like a print - smoother tones, invisible (or subtle) grain.

You could get the same result by using a very soft working film developer, slow film, and throw the focus out a bit, and then scan on a high resolution film scanner instead of a flatbed. You get the option then and aren't doomed to never ending soft scans if you don't want them.

You see, your way of 'seeing' is centred around making it fit the equipment, rather than making the equipment fit the photographers style. There is no way on this Earth that a flatbed can do as accurate a rendition of a 35mm negative as can a dedicated moderately priced film scanner. Even higher end flatbed's such as the V700-V800 are well behind for a 35mm scan (MF and up they are great), and it parallels the experience of darkroom users trying to print 35mm on a cold cathode enlarger against a condenser enlarger, the punch just isn't there with 35mm.

What you do with a high resolution scan is then up to the photographer, and with a bit of post-processing even a super sharp negative scan can look soft and blurry, if it suits your way of seeing, or if you miss the effects offered by a flatbed.

V

 

[MiniMoke]

I have an unorthodox idea (and what I mostly do). Don't scan negatives, scan darkroom wet prints 🙂 flatbed can do it nicely and quality is more then enough for digital repro print. Of course I scan some negatives, mainly fuji fp100c reclaimed negatives and for cases when I want negative enlargement for alternativd printing. So epson 850 is a nice one. I've used Imagon and it's amazing piece of kit. But wouldn't fit neither in my budget nor on my desk.

Good idea, but I hate lab prints (B&W never comes out as contrasty as I like) and I'm still some way from building a proper darkroom. I just develop myself (tried some slide developing last week and it worked fine...), but the whole enlarger business will perhaps come later. Lacking the space, time and money for the moment.... well money should be the least problem.

 

[J enea]

i think for the money the minlota 5400 is the best deal out there. hard to beat the quality of the scan with any other non drum scanner out there. I have the first generation one that I use for 35mm and a nikon coolscan 9000 i use for 120 film. I have usede the 9000 for 35mm and while the nikon is faster, the 5400 gives me better scans 95% of the time. if you shoot a lot of B&W film I recommend the first generation 5400 over the second generation 5400. the difference is in the light source and the first gen has a cold light which gives much better B&W scans. I bought a backup for my main unit on craigslist last year for $75 almost new in the box. so keep an eye out, they can be gotten cheap.