What's the best scanner for me....

[Peter^]

Hi Guys,

I've got a Reflecta i-scan 3600, and it sucks, so I'm going to have to look around for something else.
I do about one role a week, 75% B&W, some color, always negatives. I want to digitally process before printing. So I'm looking more for a quality than a quantity scanner.
So which scanner do you think will satisfy my needs best?

- Peter

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

What's your budget?

 

[sooner]

I just picked up an Epson V700 and love it, slightly better than my K-M Scan Elite II and the batch processing is faster and more efficient. Plus, it gives you lots of choices for future film sizes up to and including 4x5. I suspect you can't get any better than this scanner unless you spend $1,000 or more on a high-end Nikon. But if that's your budget and you aren't into volume scanning, then check those out.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Yes, Nikons are probably the best, and are fast, too; the Epsons are great value, but they're really slow and tedious.

 

[dfoo]

You can often pick up nikon scanners cheap (there were two 4000's going for $450 recently in the classifieds). I originally bought a v700, and then unsatisfied with the quality I got a coolscan 5000. It would have been better to get the nikon 9000, which is only a bit more than these two scanners put together 😉

 

[rya]

I bought one of the 4000s just mentioned by dfoo. I am fairly satisfied by the scans, but would consider the 5000 or a V. The software works better with those (I am using a mac).

If you were going to only print digital files I would recommend spending the money on a V or 5000 or greater. If you scan all your negs I would recommend a roll adapter.

 

[venchka]

Say what?

Say what?

Yes, Nikons are probably the best, and are fast, too; the Epsons are great value, but they're really slow and tedious.

I don't get it. I set up my Epson in batch mode and...
1. Go to bed.
2. Go to work.
3. Fix dinner.
4. Watch NCAA hoops.

Come back later when my 130+ Mb files are finished.

What's tedious about that?

 

[dfoo]

I bought one of the 4000s just mentioned by dfoo. I am fairly satisfied by the scans, but would consider the 5000 or a V. The software works better with those (I am using a mac).
...

I have the 5000, but I've read online that the 4000 & 5000 quality is very similar. The biggest difference is the speed. Did you try vuescan? I find this very good, once you get past the unusual UI design.

 

[thomasw_]

There are 2 questions the OP needs to answer before any advice is meaningful.

:> 1. From which film formats will you be scanning; 2. What's your budget?

 

[majid]

The Nikons are great, with very low shadow noise (the mark of a good scanner, along with quality optics), but their LED point lighting is unforgiving of scratched negatives and you can't use ICE on B&W. The Minolta 5400 is a better scanner for that purpose.

 

[dfoo]

That is definitely correct. Dust & scratches are the enemy of the coolscan scanners. Even though the negative looks clean, it probably isn't, and you'll be spotting the negative all day. For your old black and white negatives, get an anti-static cloth, and lots of cans of compressed air. For your new negs, scan them immediately after drying and make sure your workflow concentrates on no dust!

 

[Peter^]

There are 2 questions the OP needs to answer before any advice is meaningful.

:> 1. From which film formats will you be scanning; 2. What's your budget?

I'm only doing 35 mm. As to the budget - I'll spend what I need to be happy. But I would be a lot happier at $ 200 than $ 2000.

- Peter

 

[taxi38]

I have a minolta dimage 5400mk1(cold cathode) and I couldnt be happier;well I could be with an imacon(also cold cathode light source) but thats a great deal of money!

 

[daveywaugh]

For the money I have found the Minolta Scan Dual IV pretty hard to beat. Certainly not a Nikon 5000 but surprisingly close. I would then spend the extra money on VueScan and loads of film 🙂

 

[JPSuisse]

This is actually correct! I'm using a 5000 too. I ended up selecting the people that develop my negatives based (partially) on the fact that some people put the negatives in a clean protective plastic film. I cut the negatives open and scan immediately without dust and scratches. Without the protective foil, I would get dusty and scratched negatives. Now, using the ViewScan's raw scanner files and Lightroom, I've got a really good mix of digital analog workflow!

Greetings, JP

ps.-If you're willing to scan your slides (not B/W) to JPG the infrared cleaner also works well on the 5000. But, ideally, do the job once and correctly write after developing!!!

 

[dfoo]

What I do is

- develop
- dry in my home made film dryer
- immediately take full strip of negatives to the scanner and scan the whole bunch

in this way my negatives are very clean and require minimal spotting. I've found if I cut & sleeve prior to scanning I invariably get some scratches, and always more dust. Negatives are a dust magnet, and they are invariably impossible to completely clean. Negatives with large dark areas are the worst!