Not looking to spend a ton of money, but was wondering what the best options out there for a good scanner that does both film and prints? Hoping to spend less than $1000.... less than $500 would be better. 
Best film & prints scanner (prosumer grade)
- Thread starter PhotographyCorner
- Start date
- Status
if you don't need ICE/Flare dust removal capability, Minolta Dimage Dual Scan III or IV are both quite highly rated.
Yeah, I've heard good things about the Epson 4870. Has anyone actually used one? I would love to hear someone's feedback that actually has one.
I've tried the Minolta Dual Scan III and it didn't really give me good results. It could be me not knowing how to operate that thing properly but on the Nikon Coolscan IV, I just let it scan automatically and the result is fantastic.
I know judging from the price difference between the two, we shouldn't be comparing them but since the post said that it's prosumer range of equipment he wants, then I say get a second hand Nikon Coolscan IV for its quality and fuss-free operation. A second hand Coolscan IV should be cheaper now that the Coolscan V is out.
I know judging from the price difference between the two, we shouldn't be comparing them but since the post said that it's prosumer range of equipment he wants, then I say get a second hand Nikon Coolscan IV for its quality and fuss-free operation. A second hand Coolscan IV should be cheaper now that the Coolscan V is out.
Damn... so many choices, so little time and money. Does anyone know a good place on the web that I can compare prices and qualities of various scanners side by side?
Does anyone know a good place on the web that I can compare prices and qualities of various scanners side by side?
PhotographyCorner said:Yeah, I've heard good things about the Epson 4870. Has anyone actually used one? I would love to hear someone's feedback that actually has one.
does anyone know how much this scanner cost?
xllms
PhotographyCorner said:Yeah, I've heard good things about the Epson 4870. Has anyone actually used one? I would love to hear someone's feedback that actually has one.
I just bought one about 2 weeks back. I got the minolta scan dual IV but sold it after a month to get my Epson cos I had too many TX-1 negatives to scan and stitching was a pain. Here's a smple of the scans:
http://clubsnap.org/forums/showthread.php?p=732410#post732410
Advantages:
1. Great colour management tools and pre-scan screens
2. Allows 35mm to 120mm formats. Its simply versatile!!!
3. Allows print scans as well, but i have not tested it at all. Just did scans of b&w, slides and negative film.
4. if you scan just to save cost and then choose the frames you wanna print, this scanner will scan a flatbed of 24 frames of pictures (Assuming 6 frames per strip of negative) so you can choose from your pre-scan. or you may even wish to scan your entire strip of negs and get a better view!
5. the digital ice is POWER!!!!! with the minolta, i had to do a lot of touch up for dust and minor scratches on the negs. with the digital ice feature on the epson, it frees me a lot of pain!!! but i guess, nothing really beats the real ICE feature in the higher end scanners like the coolscan
Disadvantages:
1. its too big for my preference. so i can't put this baby into my dry cabinet. dust creeps in and i got to use a blower.
2. colours can shift dramatically if you change the position of your marquee on the prescan. i dunno why this is so... perhaps the curvature of the negs and the scan bed causes colour diffraction.
well... to read an in-depth review of the scanner, follow this link... you ought to, anyway, spending $800 on a scanner is no joke
http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson 4870/page_1.htm
anyway, i'm really glad i managed to get this scanner. i've been using it every night for the past 2 weeks liao!!! never regretted it
hope this answers some of your queries... the link to photo-i.co.uk certainly helped me with my decision
- Status
Similar threads
