Epson 4990 or Microtek i900?

[paul stimac]

I'm looking to buy a new scanner that will take an 8x10 and don't have thousands to spend. Any input appreciated.

[Gary Nylander]

Hello Paul,

I am a Canadian photographer living in Kelowna, B.C. ( http://www.garynylander.com ) I don't have any experience with the Epson 4990, so can't comment on that machine but I am the owner of a Microtek i900, I bought my machine in the summer of 2004. I shoot large format and one of the things that I liked about the reasonably priced i900 ( cost me $800 ) is the ability to scan 4 x 5 to 8 x 10 negatives, as most other scanners at that time including the the Microtek 1800f, the Epson 1680 ( with transparency adapter ) were priced in the $1500 - $2000 price range ( Canadian prices ). I also liked the fact that the i900 has the ability to scan up to 4 x 5 with no glass in the way of the CCD reader otherwise it comes with a glass tray for the larger size negatives , to get around this I made my self some custom made negative carriers, for my 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 negatives so I could scan these too with out any glass in the way. Over all I would say its a well built machine and does a good job of scanning the large format negatives, although I am only printing out to about 16 x 20 inches in size ( I have the Epson 4000 printer ) and also I am only scanning black and white which my not be as challenging to scan as color transparencies. I Hope this info helps.

Gary Nylander

[Matt g]

I've just got an Epson 4990, and am extreemly impressed. It does a grand Job on 6x7, 5x4 and 8x10 although the initial scans can seem soft to begin with some tinkering with the settings has yielded some very good results with colour and b/w trannies and negatives.

For the price it can't be beat.

[bglick]

I think the 4990 will be much superior... I agree with Gary in the sense the i900 is well built for the money and if your enlargement factor needs are minimal, this scanner will suffice, but the actual resolution the scanner can resolve is quite poor....even at the highest optical setting of 3200 dpi, don't expect more than about 1400 true dpi.... I scanned test targets on the i990 to determine this.... but 1400 dpi is not bad, as at 300 dpi to the printer, with a tad bit of sharpening and uprezzing, you can acheive 5x enlargement factor, well within Gary's final print size. And if you shoot 8x10 film, that is a 50" print. If you want to print bigger, the 4990 will get you approx 2200 true dpi, so doing the same, almost 9x enlargement factor.... still not quite as good as a true film scanner, i.e. Nikon 9000, but for LF, this is the best it will get as I doubt we will ever see a new LF scanner being introduced. Even the 4990 is just a slight improvement over the 4870, mainly in its film handling capability, not optical dpi. If you shoot color film, this is nearing the max. deatil you can get from the film before grain becomes an issue. Of course Vevlia will have more detail remaining...

BTW, no scanner can acheive its full optical dpi, unless, theoreticaly, the dots of the film are perfectly aligned with the scanning grid, which is NOT real world scanning. In most cases, from my testing, a scanner, or a good digital camera can record accurately 60 - 70% of its optical or sensor capability. There is some interesting reading on this subject, Norman Korens site and Nyquist theory are two good Google searches if you want to learn more. BTW, is the 4990 out in USA yet?

Bill