Scanner tests, the truth

[polypal]

Although there is a commercial side to the link I decided to show this link.
It is a good help for those who are lost in the woods of scanners, specifications etc.

Most scanners that are suitable for 6x6 and even the Xpan pano's are described and tested.

It may be a good help to find out if those extra 2K need to be invested for the purpose you have in mind.

http://www.filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html

Sorry guys I am bending the rules a bit but this company not only shifts boxes with scanners.
They happen to know what they are talking about!

Paul

 

[jotloob]

Hello Paul

Thanks for that link .

I have looked up the results for my scanner , and now I know , the scanner is not worth the money I payed for it .
As a consequence out of that result , I will deliver my scanner to the local recycling station .
Any suggestion what to do thereafter ? ? ?

Jürgen

 

[polypal]

Hello Paul

Thanks for that link .


As a consequence out of that result , I will deliver my scanner to the local recycling station .
Any suggestion what to do thereafter ? ? ?

Jürgen

Hello Jürgen,

To start with thanks for not falling all over me for showing this link.
To explain for others who do not understand:
This company gives unbiased valuable information about scanning and scanners.
That is more important than a strict following of forum rules regarding commercial links.

As long as you are happy do not be fooled to spend lots $$$$.
If this site gives you reason to doubt, look at the alternatives and especially the financial consequences.
How often do you scan is also important.

I forgot where your local recycling station is please inform me in time so I can collect the "old" Epson!

Paul

 

[bensonga]

If I'm not mistaken (which I may be...the memory is not so good anymore), I think I have the same scanner as Jurgen (Epson V750 Pro).

I guess I must fall into that category which is referred to in the conclusion of the review on this scanner as "users with not too high requirements", because I have been pretty happy with this scanner (for medium and large format film scans).

Oh well....I least I know where I stand now along the spectrum of possibilities. On the plus side, apparently I'm not one of those persons who could be criticized for being "too picky".

Gary
Alaska

 

[polypal]

I think this should be looked at in perspective.
Scans that will be used for large prints will definately profit from scanners like the Nikon 9000.

For those of us that use the scans to show their work at the forum and use these scans for medium size prints the difference may not be large enough to cough up over 2K euros extra for the Coolscan with suitable filmholder.

The good thing is the attention asked for suitable software to allow quality scans.

Paul

 

[peterbkk]

Imacon

Since 1999 I have been very pleased with the results of my Imacon Flextight Photo, especially for scanning 6x6, 6x7 and 35mm slides. Not so great at negatives but fortunately I have never been a big user of negative film. Very reliable, acurate and tough. Only required maintenance once in its life when a firmware update screwed up the processor board. Imacon fixed it for free.

Unfortunately, the Flextight I bought uses a SCSI interface (seemed the best option in the 90s). Now, it'll will only work on an old Mac Tower G4 which I keep solely for this purpose. Of course, that G4 can only use an older version of Mac OS X and FlexColor so its days are numbered.

To reduce my risk, I hired a young uni student an a when-available basis to come over and work through my better images, scanning them at best resolution in to TIF files. So, even if the Flextight / G4 does die, I wont miss them much.

So, to get back to the point of my email, if you are serious about scan quality, look at the Flextight scanners, now part of the Hasselblad product line.

Regards
Peter

 

[matt335]

I use a Epson V700 with happy results

Thanks Paul for this link. I am a relative beginner to scanning film and transparencies... I always appreciate direction like this. I admit that my V700 is just a flatbed scanner designed primarily for scanning non-transparent photos with the ability to also scan negs and slides. For its price it's a very good option that scans all my negs, slides in 35mm format and also my medium format negs and slides in 120mm. What I do find frustrating in the 35mm format is that I love to capture the full frame of the 35mm space. I love to get the slight black edge ala Henri Cartier-Bresson's work. The 35mm carriers are great, but in some cases it's not possible to get the full frame scanned. You have to jostle the neg around inside the carrier to make sure all the neg is visible. I am not sure whether all 35mm cameras expose the exact same size on the film area or not. But in the 120mm medium format size it is very good. And, as people have said, if you just want to present your work here in a forum, the V700 I think is adequate. But for printing I have used a professional service that scans with a real film scanner and the difference is remarkable. Like comparing a 6 megapixel digital camera with a 50 megapixel Hassey !

 

[polypal]

Hello Matt,

Your experience sums it up.
Scanners like the Epson do a decent job for quite a number of applications.
To go all the way you need heavy artillery.
That can be set to work on a need to do basis and is the most economical solution.

Epson or not I like the picture of the ship you posted recently very much!

Paul

 

[matt335]

Hello Matt,

Your experience sums it up.
Scanners like the Epson do a decent job for quite a number of applications.
To go all the way you need heavy artillery.
That can be set to work on a need to do basis and is the most economical solution.

Epson or not I like the picture of the ship you posted recently very much!

Paul

Thanks Paul. I am open to peoples' suggestions and experience as always.
Matt

 

[TJV]

Since 1999 I have been very pleased with the results of my Imacon Flextight Photo, especially for scanning 6x6, 6x7 and 35mm slides. Not so great at negatives but fortunately I have never been a big user of negative film.

It's interesting what you say about colour neg. With the Nikon 8000ED / 9000ED I just can't get good clean scans with colour neg. The grain is magnified by what I assume to be digital noise introduced by the scanner. I've always put this down to the orange base.

Are you able to post a couple of 100% crops from raw scans of colour neg so I can compare what I see in mine?

What model of Flextight do you have? I've been looking at an 848 (more like dreaming about,) with the hope that it would do a lot lot better than my 8000ED with colour neg as I'm sick of trannie and it's slim latitude.