Film Scanner favorite?

[vmo67]

What are your folks using for a film scanner or are you sending it out to a pro type lab.

[Ted Harris]

vmo,

If you use the search feature of the site you wil find many threads on scanning. Most of the folks here use a combination of "consumer scanners" that is the Epson 3200/4870/4990/V700/V750, Microtek 1800f/i800/i900 or the larger versions of same for scanning film over 8x10 and send a bit of work out to have it scanned using high end scanners. A few of us use our own high end scanners and do some scannkng for others. For example, currently I am running both a Kodak/Creo IQSmart 3 and a Screen Cezanne. However, I believe the frustration with consumer scanners and the interest in the high end scanners continues to grow (albeit slowly given the price of the high end machines).

[Brian Ellis]

I've been very happy with my Epson 4990. I see no noticeable difference between prints made from its scans and prints made from the few drum scans I've had made as long as the print size doesn't exceed about 16x20, which is fine with me because my printer doesn't go wider than 17" anyhow. I haven't experienced any frustration with the 4990. However, I only scan 4x5 and 8x10 negatives. I don't think I'd be happy using the 4990 to scan medium format and certainly not 35mm.

[Don Hutton]

I use an Epson 4990 with Doug Fisher's mounting station. It gives great results for the small investment, but obviously, you want to try to feed it media which it is more forgiving on - like negatives as opposed to chromes - it has limited DR. Like Brian, for prints up to 16x20s, I can't see a huge incentive to get anything else. For MF and smaller, I use a Minolta Scan Multi Pro - it's awesome. I get better results scanning a fine grained 6x9 than I can get from a 4x5 on the 4990... But then an 8x10 on the 4990 knocks it's socks off (if it is not a contrasty chrome).

[Rob Vinnedge]

We invested in an Imacon 848 three years ago and have had great luck with it. It is called a "virtual drum scanner", meaning it really isn't one (CCD technology, but curves the film while scanning the resultant straight line at the apex of the curve). We've made several comparisons to a real drum scanner and have seen only slight differences between the two types. The ease of the Imacon vs. the difference won us over. Of course, it only scans up to 5X7, but we send out the larger film. The Imacon is quite expensive, but will quickly pay for itself.