Would like some advice on buying a scanner…. Epson V850 ?

froyd said:
If you decide to go with a Pakon, skip the eBay route and get it from AAAImaging. You'll get better service and support if anything should go wrong with the Pakon. Note that most of the Pakons out there are USED units as hey are essentially re-purposed equipment from minilabs that closed down. I have not heard of new old stock.
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You'll notice that the eBay link I posted is these guys at AAAImaging. They check everything is functioning well, and provide good service as I mentioned earlier. The Pakon really is a godsend for c41. Unbelievably quick, with good colours right out of the box. You can scan a whole film in the time it takes you to scan one file and develop in PP software with other scanners. Great for seeing what's on a film, and I believe some have worked out how to do contact sheets.
Pete.
 
Thanks again everybody, I am now debating whether to buy the Pakon, but I am worried if I have troubles with it, it might be a problem getting it serviced since I live in Bangkok. I am also thinking about getting a Plustek scanner, I know that they are slower to scan than a flatbed scanner but with better results.

One more question about the V850/V800, are the negative carriers good, or would I be better off buying negative carriers from BetterScanning?

So many options that I have never considered.

thanks again…cheers, michael
 
michaelbialecki said:
Thanks again everybody, I am now debating whether to buy the Pakon, but I am worried if I have troubles with it, it might be a problem getting it serviced since I live in Bangkok. I am also thinking about getting a Plustek scanner, I know that they are slower to scan than a flatbed scanner but with better results.

One more question about the V850/V800, are the negative carriers good, or would I be better off buying negative carriers from BetterScanning?

So many options that I have never considered.

thanks again…cheers, michael
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Miachael- what's the most you are willing to spend?

How many frames do you imagine you'll want to scan per roll? How many rolls a month? Scanners without batch scanning capabilities can become tedious quickly. My limit would be 15 images per roll (35mm) and 3 rolls a month. More than that and I'd want something with a strip feeder, a high-end flatbed, or a Pakon.

To handle both of your formats in the same machine, the two default solutions are the V700-V850 or the Plustek 120.

The other option is a two machine set-up where a cheaper flatbed (eg v500) could handle MF and 4x5 whith something else dedicated to 35mm.

Don't underestimate the time that scanning requires. Only the Pakon is super fast. The Epson flatbeds are not fast but they can be set up and left to work while you do other things. The real issue though is color correction, that is a strong suit of the Pakon (for mainstream emulsions).
 
Epson V500/V600 do a nice job on 120 film. I like a sharp print and am happy with 12x18" prints from 6x9 negatives scanned on my V500.

With 35mm film, this scanner will be good only up to about 5x7" prints, in my opinion.

And, then there's the software question. I use Vuescan.
 
One that hasn't been mentioned is the baby brother of the Hasselblad / Imacon 848 that I own. It's the 343 and scans everything from 35 to 6x18 and with a little fudging 4x5. It's the same quality scan pretty much and is fairly small. I had one for several years and only sold it because I needed high quality scans from 11x14 negs and bought the Fuji Lanovia Quattro (huge machine and hard to service). The 343 is no longer made but can often be found in very nice shape for $3000 or so. It's a really fine professional machine and runs on current platforms and software.

I wouldn't recommend the old versions of the Imacon. They are SCSI and I don't believe they are serviced anymore Plus you'd have to run them on an old Mac or PC.
 
I want a Pakon f135+ so bad!
I'm located in Bangkok as well.
If there's any possible way I could bribe (pay) you to bring one back for me, let me know!

I'd ship one here but I'm afraid the post office will smash it up and customs will slap a ridiculous tax on top of it.
 
Also I'm currently using an Epson v500 for my medium format negatives and a Minolta Dimage IV for 35mm. The Epson is "ok" for scanning 35mm but very very soft. I noticed a huge bump in quality/sharpness when I used the minolta. The only problem is...the minolta is SLOW and it doesn't have ICE. I try to keep my negatives as clean as possible but I shoot so many rolls it just eats away at your time removing the leftover spots in post. Hence why I really want a Pakon F135+
 
michaelbialecki said:
Hello everybody,

I am going to America tomorrow for a couple of weeks and I am in need of a good film scanner. I...
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Hey Michael ... welcome to America!

I have had a few film scanners, and I have two now.

The key is now what company made them, but rather do they work.

An 8x10 or larger flatbed is great for anything bigger than medium format, but the best scans will come from scanners optimized for these smaller formats. I own a 35mm scanner and a flatbed. I use the flatbed for 6x9, 4x5, 5x7, negatives, digital prints, full page (8x10 or larger) or anything bigger. It's bulky, but I am glad I have the larger scanner, even though I love the quality of the dedicated 35mm scanner. This means that my 35mm film work is better than larger film formats, and even smaller digital formats.

[size=+1]Vivé la 35![/size]
 
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