Film scanner recomendation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan Watt
  • Start date Start date
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Dan Watt

I posted this to r.p.e.35mm, and It was suggested that I pose here as well.

I am looking at getting a scanner for personal use, for under $500 and
with some sort of scratch removal (ICE or FARE) if possible. Some of the
Minolta's looked nice, but some of the reviews arent that great for the
models lower than the 5400. Right now the Canon FS4000 is at the top of
my list, but now I read that it does a poor job with slides, which will
be the bulk of the first 2000 or so scans that will go through it. I
read this can be fixed with VueScan, and I am definately considering
that option.

Does anyone here have any recomendations for scanners in my price range?
Again, this is for personal use, not for scanning, retouching, and
re-printing at large sizes (4x6 if I do print).

Daniel Watt
(e-mail address removed)
 
I am looking at getting a scanner for personal use, for under $500

Daniel,

I had similar requirements. I bought a refurbished Minolta Scan Elite II on
Ebay at around $365.

It had a 6 month factory warranty and ICE. It has worked flawlessly for me on
both negs and slides. You can spend more, of course. I am very pleased with
the value delivered.

John
 
Perhaps a Nikon LS-30 through eBay - 2900 dpi, which is more than enough
resolution for a 4x6 and is fine for 8x10 as well. They're cheap now and
they're dependable - I have had one for several years now.

Maris

Maris
 
I have had the FS4000 for many years: realize that Canon has not changed
this machine since it was first issued and that is why the price has
dropped. It is a very capable machine but it has real limitations. Vuescan
works well with slide material but the Canon software actually works much
better for negative materials. If you plan to scan Kodachrome it can be done
but there will be some needed tweaking. The thing is: this is a SLOW
machine, whether hooked up by USB 1 or SCSI. If you plan to scan 2000 slides
before the end of the decade I would suggest you investigate real world
scan times of different machines. On the other hand if you have the time
nothing near the price will yield scans of such high quality-4000 dpi/48 bit
color/3.2 density range: but count on about 5 minutes per scan at those
settings with 100mbs/scan file sizes.
 
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