Epson 3170 or HP S20?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RogersRanger
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RogersRanger

I got married on March 26th. I didn't have a professional
photographer, but I had 3 or 4 semi-pros running around with 35mm
SLRs. I thought that I would go to Costco, get my film developed and
have my negatives put on a CD so I could edit the photos and print
them out at Wolf camera relatively cheaply. Well, I found out that
Costco's scans were in such a low resolution, printing would be out of
the question for anything but 4X6s. Since I have about 40 rolls of
film, having them professionally scanned is out of the question for
me.

I have an extremely limited budget. I was thinking that the most cost
effective route would be to buy my own scanner, and scan in my
negatives. I have been reading these forums, and have figured that
everyone is going to tell me to buy a dedicated negative scanner. The
only scanner I can find in my extremely limited price range is the HP
S20. I have found the S20 for about $140-160. The S20 only scans at
2400 dpi. Would this be good enough for scanning ISO 100 film to be
printed at 8*10?

If not, I was thinking about going for the Epson 3170 ($170-200). I
know it is not a dedicated negative scanner, but it seems to have
pretty good reviews.

Since both of these products are similarly priced, I was wondering
which one I should get. Any suggestions? Thanks
 
Roger. I have the S20 and a Microtek Scanmaker 5900 (similar to the 3170).
I have done comparison 35mm neg and reversal film scans, and the S20 wins hands
down. This is using HP's software.
To improve on the S20 even further, Ed Hamrick's Vuescan could be the ticket.

For 8x10 prints, the S20 should do fine.

Jeff.
 
If you are NOT going to scan any larger than 35mm, buy a dedicated film
scanner. The best bang for the buck seems to be the Minolta Dual Scan IV
(or III if you can find it on closeout). Yes, these are a bit more than you
wanted to pay but you can EBay it when you are done and recoup most of your
cost. If you do things quickly, you can put it on your credit card,
complete the scans, and have it sold on EBay before the charge comes due ;)

Doug
 
RogersRanger said:
I have an extremely limited budget. I was thinking that the most cost
effective route would be to buy my own scanner, and scan in my
negatives. I have been reading these forums, and have figured that
everyone is going to tell me to buy a dedicated negative scanner. The
only scanner I can find in my extremely limited price range is the HP
S20. I have found the S20 for about $140-160. The S20 only scans at
2400 dpi. Would this be good enough for scanning ISO 100 film to be
printed at 8*10?
Click to expand...
8x10 should be OK for S20.
If not, I was thinking about going for the Epson 3170 ($170-200). I
know it is not a dedicated negative scanner, but it seems to have
pretty good reviews.

Since both of these products are similarly priced, I was wondering
which one I should get. Any suggestions? Thanks
Click to expand...

I can only confirm what others said - get S20. While it's not perfect it
will get you decent scans from decent negatives. I also have S20 and do all
my scans with it. I'm not very happy about it but it only costed me $60
(bought last year on eBay, new) so I can't complain :) I also read those
"good reviews" for 3170 and decided to try it. I had to return it after two
weeks struggle to get anything from it similar in quality with S20 scans.
I might have slightly better color, and somewhat better noise, but all
images
are blurry. Even though their claim is 3200dpi optical resolution, ih has
far less details than 2400dpi that S20 gives. Good that the shop (Fry's)
accepts returns for "non-satisfied" reason :)

Andy.
 
- said:
If you are NOT going to scan any larger than 35mm, buy a dedicated film
scanner. The best bang for the buck seems to be the Minolta Dual Scan IV
(or III if you can find it on closeout). Yes, these are a bit more than you
wanted to pay but you can EBay it when you are done and recoup most of your
cost. If you do things quickly, you can put it on your credit card,
complete the scans, and have it sold on EBay before the charge comes due ;)

Doug
Click to expand...

Wow, that Minolta Dual Scan IV looks really good. It is about $100
more than the S20, but it seems to be far better. I think I will go
with that one. Thanks for the info. Where do you recommend I
purchase it?
 
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