StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Last time this was asked seems to be in 2003. Anyone have advice for a good scanner? It needs to support 35mm film, and it's for home use, so a budget of 700USD+ is probably not the best advice.

Epson V600/700, Canoscan 9000F, Plustek 7600.

The better place to ask such questions is rangefinderforum.com which holds residence to many film die-hards.

The main question is how much film do you need to scan and how fast do you need to get it scanned? The big difference I've found between consumer scanners such as the Canon 5600F and the higher end stuff like the Epson V700 is speed. Scanning at high quality settings on the consumer grade stuff is like watching paint dry, it often takes well over 5 minutes to scan a single frame of film. Multiply that by a roll of 24 and you'll be at it for hours. With the Epson you can do a ton of frames at once and it'll scan the whole batch in the same time it takes to scan a single frame on a 5600F.

IMO it comes down to how often you'll be scanning film and how much time you're willing to spend/waste doing it. If time is important and you have a lot of film to scan then shell out the cash for the V700 or something at that level. If you're only scanning a few frames once every few weeks then the consumer grade stuff will do just fine.

aerius wrote:The main question is how much film do you need to scan and how fast do you need to get it scanned? The big difference I've found between consumer scanners such as the Canon 5600F and the higher end stuff like the Epson V700 is speed. Scanning at high quality settings on the consumer grade stuff is like watching paint dry, it often takes well over 5 minutes to scan a single frame of film. Multiply that by a roll of 24 and you'll be at it for hours. With the Epson you can do a ton of frames at once and it'll scan the whole batch in the same time it takes to scan a single frame on a 5600F.

IMO it comes down to how often you'll be scanning film and how much time you're willing to spend/waste doing it. If time is important and you have a lot of film to scan then shell out the cash for the V700 or something at that level. If you're only scanning a few frames once every few weeks then the consumer grade stuff will do just fine.

Actually, I hear that on the professional grade or uber high end consumer grade scanners like the discontinued Nikon Coolscan 9000, you are looking at half an hour per scan. But you get a fantastic scan and dynamic range. Only thing is that it is bloody expensive.

That's only if you crank it to max resolution and check all the options like dust removal & colour correction. For scanning film, you're not going to get more than about 2400dpi out of anything short of the Nikon 5000ED. I've scanned Velvia 50 slides with an Epson V700 and from 2400dpi on up there's no difference except for the file size, it doesn't even come close to pulling all the detail off the slide. So figure 2400dpi as the highest resolution you'd use on a scanner, at that setting a V700 will be a lot faster than a Canon 5600F.

On a sidenote, I do have some Velvia 50 slides which where scanned with a Nikon 9000ED at full resolution. It still doesn't pull everything off the slide and can't quite deal with the huge dynamic range.

aerius wrote:On a sidenote, I do have some Velvia 50 slides which where scanned with a Nikon 9000ED at full resolution. It still doesn't pull everything off the slide and can't quite deal with the huge dynamic range.

Obviously it's time to invest in a drum scanner

phongn wrote:

aerius wrote:On a sidenote, I do have some Velvia 50 slides which where scanned with a Nikon 9000ED at full resolution. It still doesn't pull everything off the slide and can't quite deal with the huge dynamic range.

Obviously it's time to invest in a drum scanner

At that price tag, I'd rather invest in either a Leica M9, or a Pentax 645D...

phongn wrote:Obviously it's time to invest in a drum scanner

I may be a government worker but not even I have that much time on my hands.
Maybe if I shot 4x5 and only took a few scan worthy photos a year. But then it would make more sense to let a pro service scan it.

But if I do win the lottery I'll get a drum scanner and hire someone to do the work for me.