 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| PhotoKB HomeDiscussion Groups Digital Photography Digital PhotoDSLR CamerasZLR CamerasPoint & Shoot CamerasFilm Photography 35 mmLarge FormatMedium formatDarkroomFilm and LabsOther EquipmentPhoto Technique Nature PhotographyPeople PhotographyTechnique GeneralGeneral Photo Topics General TopicsAustralian PhotographyUK PhotographyDirectoryPhoto Clubs |
Photo Forum / General Photo Topics / General Topics / April 2005Scanner advice?
Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. WayneS I've had Canon, HP and Epson. I have been extremely happy with my Espon 3200. (I should get paid for this) Epson 4990, $449 from Epson US dollars: "This powerful performer scans multiple slides simultaneously, as well as negatives and photos. And, with its built-in transparency unit, it accommodates film up to 8" x 10". Housed in a sleek outer case with an illuminated scan progress indicator, this scanner delivers intricate detail, due to an astounding 4800 x 9600 dpi resolution, 48-bit color depth, and 4.0 Dmax. And, it easily restores faded or damaged film and photos with Epson Easy Photo FixT and DIGITAL ICET Technology." Understand that flatbed scanners are seen as a compromise; if you want top-of-the-line scans of negatives, buy a dedicated film scanner. I'm sure the experts will chime in shortly. > Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & > slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. > > WayneS >Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & >slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. If you're willing to pay $600, the new Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 II is going to be a very good buy. I've got the previous gen. product and it's excellent. As long as you're just looking to do 35mm stuff, you can't beat the feature set and price. 5400dpi, LED illuminator (no more cold-cathode flourescent), Digital ICE4, autofocus, 4.8 Dmax, true 48-bit scans (not 36 or 42 interpolated to 48). The older Scan Elite 5400's should drop like a rock in price to make room for the new model, and they're still a good deal. Replace the LED illuminator with a cold cathode tube, add proprietary grain/color correction instead of Digital GEM/ROC, and you've got the older unit's specs. For medium- and large-format negs, a flatbed works. For 35mm, you need as clean a scan as you can get, and a flatbed isn't going to provide that. The difference in sharpness between a flatbed and a film scanner is night and day. If $600 is too much of a budget, the Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV is a 3200 dpi scanner that's under $500 and should perform very well for you. You give up the Digital ICE for a software-driver dust removal (higher CPU impact), but the specs are still good.  SignatureCentral Maryland Photographer's Guild http://cmpg.org Thanks Rob, $600.00 is not out of the question. I was looking at the Minolta line. I was reading a few posts on a MB and there was a thread re: the Minolta software being not so good. I will be scanning 35mm negatives. I have an older flatbed but the results on scanning prints are less than desireable. Thanks for your input. WayneS >>Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & >>slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > you. You give up the Digital ICE for a software-driver dust removal > (higher CPU impact), but the specs are still good. >>Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & >>slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > you. You give up the Digital ICE for a software-driver dust removal > (higher CPU impact), but the specs are still good. I have a question about that also. I want to scan 35mm negs and the lab I use wants to charge $35 per roll for high res scans!! I have another lab I can use but takes a little longer to get things back and I would have to mail in my orders, which I am a bit leary about. Anyway, I was thinking about getting my own scanner also but would have no clue where to start. I'm not sure what dpi I would need ... when a lab says "high res" what is that generally?? Jennifer Motta www.jennifermotta.com >about getting my own scanner also but would have no clue where to start. >I'm not sure what dpi I would need ... when a lab says "high res" what is >that generally?? "High res" means absolutely nothing in and of itself. You'd have to call the lab and ask what resolution they scan at. Some places consider 4800dpi to be high-res, some 2400dpi, some go as low as 1200dpi. A 35mm frame is .94 x 1.42 inches. For a target resolution of 300dpi at the printer, you need to scan at: 1280 dpi for a 4x6" print (4.1Mpx) 2560 dpi for an 8x10" (8.3Mpx) At 5400 dpi with a 35mm frame, printed at 300dpi, your maximum print size (optical scan, no interpolation) would be about 17 x 25" (37.1 Mpx) SignatureCentral Maryland Photographer's Guild http://cmpg.org >>Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & >>slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] >you. You give up the Digital ICE for a software-driver dust removal >(higher CPU impact), but the specs are still good. Thanks for the great information; I've been looking at these units myself. Can you tell us a little about the feed and the speed? My Epson flatbed takes almost an hour to scan 8 35mm negatives, and of course I have to set them up manually. How does this work on the Dimage? Do you feed strips into it, and it automatically determines where the pictures are? How long does it take to do a strip of 4 or 5 pictures? Thanks, -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mike Kohary mike at kohary dot com http://www.kohary.com Karma Photography: http://www.karmaphotography.com Seahawks Historical Database: http://www.kohary.com/seahawks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >course I have to set them up manually. How does this work on the >Dimage? Do you feed strips into it, and it automatically determines >where the pictures are? How long does it take to do a strip of 4 or 5 >pictures? Thanks, You can feed a 6-frame filmstrip or 4 mounted slides. They are positioned in a fim carrier which clamps the material in place for scanning. In the case of strips, you align the frames with the windows in the carrier. There is a batch scan mode that makes a "best guess" for cropping, but I typically set my own crop frame. How fast the process takes depends on the resolution, film type and amount of reconstructive processing. A low-res scan of a color positive or B&W neg. for the web with no ICE, color adjustment, or grain reduction takes less than 30 sec/frame with autofocus. A full-res 5400dpi scan of a color negative with ICE, grain reduction, and color adjustment can take a while. Here's a ballpark: Machine: Pentium4, 3.06GHz, 512MB RAM, PS7.0 w/DiMAGE Scan 1.1, SATA150 hard drive. Time to scan single 35mm slide frame @ 16-bits-per-pixel, 5400dpi, Digital ICE, grain reduction, color/contrast adjust, auto-exposure - just under five minutes 30 seconds from the time the scan button was pressed to the time the image appeared in Photoshop. Since the autofocus occurs at preview before crop marks are set, it was not included in the time given. Negative film takes a little longer. SignatureCentral Maryland Photographers' Guild: http://www.cmpg.org >>course I have to set them up manually. How does this work on the >>Dimage? Do you feed strips into it, and it automatically determines [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > >Negative film takes a little longer. Thanks. Quality and not speed is most important of course, but I was just wondering. I think it's about time I dived into picking up a dedicated film scanner to archive all my old negatives. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mike Kohary mike at kohary dot com http://www.kohary.com Karma Photography: http://www.karmaphotography.com Seahawks Historical Database: http://www.kohary.com/seahawks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks for all the great information. WayneS > Just wondering what scanners people are using for scanning negatives & > slides. Looking for a model in the under $500.00 range or so. > > WayneS |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.