goo0h
Well-known
It seems as if the more I search on here and elsewhere on the web, the more conflicted I become. I'd like to buy a scanner for somewhere around $500US. Presently, this would only be for 35mm film. It would be used for both web stuff and printing. (I like the option of wet printing, but to be honest, do not want to spend a lot of time doing wet printing. It's something I've tended to find a bit tedious.)
In the (somewhat distant) past I shot almost exclusively black and white. With the Bessa R3A I bought this past Spring that trend has continued. Furthermore, I have tended to gravitate towards higher ASA... er, ISO... film. In fact I have a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600 that I shot @ 1600 and have some Xtol I'm fixin' to mix up soon. In the past I also liked shooting TMAX 3200 @ 1600, but forgot what it was developed in. At any rate, the issue of grain, while not something I overly obsess about, is something I want to be mindful of when it comes to purchasing a scanner.
Another issue with scanning is that I really do not want to spend gobs of time fiddling with things in Photoshop, which I don't current have. Since it seems pretty competent, or so I've gathered, I'll probably buy Vuescan for whatever unit I get. I don't mind doing a bit of tweaking when scanning, but I work at a computer all day, so don't want to fiddle with Photoshop all night. 😉
A couple of options I've considered so far are: the KM Dual Scan IV and the Nikon Coolscan V. The KM is more affordable, but at least compared to the upper-end Coolscans, apparently has more noise with higher ISO films. Does that also apply with the Coolscan V? I notice on eBay the Coolscan V is almost as much as buying new, especially if one hunts around thoroughly, so not sure if there's much of an advantage to buying it used. At least they seem to hold their value well. I've also seen some Coolscan 4000's come up for about as much as the V. If the bulk feeding is not used, is there any advantage to using a 4000 over the V?
In the end, I'll probably go with the Coolscan V wherever it can be had. Since I do use a Mac, eventually universal binaries will be an issue and I just don't see that happening with the KM units. A part of me is wondering if it would be better to wait until after Photokina, but I'm somewhat doubtful that a new film scanner is waiting on the wings to be announced.
In the (somewhat distant) past I shot almost exclusively black and white. With the Bessa R3A I bought this past Spring that trend has continued. Furthermore, I have tended to gravitate towards higher ASA... er, ISO... film. In fact I have a couple of rolls of Neopan 1600 that I shot @ 1600 and have some Xtol I'm fixin' to mix up soon. In the past I also liked shooting TMAX 3200 @ 1600, but forgot what it was developed in. At any rate, the issue of grain, while not something I overly obsess about, is something I want to be mindful of when it comes to purchasing a scanner.
Another issue with scanning is that I really do not want to spend gobs of time fiddling with things in Photoshop, which I don't current have. Since it seems pretty competent, or so I've gathered, I'll probably buy Vuescan for whatever unit I get. I don't mind doing a bit of tweaking when scanning, but I work at a computer all day, so don't want to fiddle with Photoshop all night. 😉
A couple of options I've considered so far are: the KM Dual Scan IV and the Nikon Coolscan V. The KM is more affordable, but at least compared to the upper-end Coolscans, apparently has more noise with higher ISO films. Does that also apply with the Coolscan V? I notice on eBay the Coolscan V is almost as much as buying new, especially if one hunts around thoroughly, so not sure if there's much of an advantage to buying it used. At least they seem to hold their value well. I've also seen some Coolscan 4000's come up for about as much as the V. If the bulk feeding is not used, is there any advantage to using a 4000 over the V?
In the end, I'll probably go with the Coolscan V wherever it can be had. Since I do use a Mac, eventually universal binaries will be an issue and I just don't see that happening with the KM units. A part of me is wondering if it would be better to wait until after Photokina, but I'm somewhat doubtful that a new film scanner is waiting on the wings to be announced.
