Philip Pemberton wrote:
> I'm currently in the market for a film scanner. At the moment, I'm
> looking into getting a second-hand Minolta dImage Scan Dual III, a
> Nikon Coolscan LS-2000 or a Nikon Coolscan IV ED.
There is lots of stuff about these in the archives.
The Nikons are great scanners with a couple of caveats. Their light
source tends to accentuate dust, so one that doesn't have ICE is likely
to give you dust problems. I don't remember which do and don't have it.
Also, Nikon scanners have always had slightly shallow DOF, with the
result that some users have a lot of trouble getting sharp edge to edge
scans. Others have no complaints.
> Does anyone here own or use any of these scanners? What are your
> opinions on it?
>
> I'm really only interested in something that has better scan quality
> than my Epson Perfection 2400 Photo (which is a great little flatbed,
> but for negative scanning it's a bit poor - focus is dire, and you
> lose a lot of detail). Resolution-wise, 2900dpi or thereabouts would
> be fine. Feel free to make any other suggestions, but my price limit
> is (at the absolute most) £200 so don't go suggesting a Minolta dImage
> Elite 5400 or anything like that. I'm working off a student budget so
> don't really have much to spend.
The Canon FS2710 (NOT the FS2700!) is a nice capable 2700 dpi scanner
that shouldn't be very expensive. It's 2720 dpi, has no DOF issues and
works well. doesn't have hardware dust removal, but less problem than
the Nikons without it.
> Interface-wise, USB would be great, but SCSI is OK too assuming I
> can get a cheapish SCSI card for it.
Some older USB scanners were slowed up by USB 1.1. SCSI is much faster
than 1.1.
> If anyone on-list is selling a scanner broadly similar to the ones
> I've mentioned, please let me know offlist. I'd prefer to buy from
> someone in Europe, if only because the nice folks at HM Customs and
> Excise have been getting better at picking out expensive items and
> charging VAT accordingly (I have no problem with paying VAT, what I
> object to is the obscene 'handling fee').
Yeah, that's a problem. I'm willing to sell my FS2710, which comes with
SCSI card and cable, pretty cheap, but I'm in the US.
> I'm also toying with the idea of buying a copy of Hamrick Software's
> "Vuescan" scanner driver. I've read a few reviews and played with the
> demo, but I'd like to hear from people who use it. Do you think it's
> worth the money? Is it better (in terms of scan quality and accuracy)
> than the driver that came with your scanner? What scanner are you
> using with it?
I'm one of those who swears by VueScan. I've never used the scanning
software than came with my film scanners. Here are a few shots scanner
with the 2710 and VueScan that show off ful piel detail and the use of
film profiles in VueScan
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/Mona/index.htm> .
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/VuesProf/>
>
> Thanks.
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