Ok, I may well just use AgX for the moment, but I started a research process and I wanted to see it through.
I've been slogging my way through the archives for the past two weeks and found a lot of great info, but also began to get overwhelmed by all the bits and pieces, so I'm hoping some kind souls may be able to help me target some scanners to put on a watch list.
Here's my list at the moment:
Leafscan 45 from leafstuff.com
Polaroid Sprintscan 45
Artixscan 2500
perhaps an Eversmart or iQsmart
perhaps a Howtek
others?
Some more background info:
I've been shooting 645 and 69 very seriously for 4+ years, scanning on an Nikon 9000 with glass carrier, and printing Museo Silver Rag on Epson 4800, 3800, and now 3880 printers. I mostly use the Nikon software to get a NEF file in very wide scanner gamut. This gives me lots of room to work first in Camera RAW than in Photoshop CS5. I currently shoot roughly equal parts color neg and color slide (though I've shot a fair amount of black and white in the past and do have one current black and white project).
I want to find a 4x5 scanner that will let me replicate my current workflow as closely as possible. I have a budget of maybe $2000 for the scanner, plus an absolute maximum of $1000 for shipping, setup, parts, accessories, and so on. I had been planning on wet mounting on a v750, but the info here and the Collaborative Scanner Comparison has me pretty well convinced me that the v750 won't meet my expectations.
I have access to old G3, G4, and G5 Macs and am comfortable setting up and working with old equipment, but I also don't want to spend months tracking down obscure parts and testing and calibrating. I want a scanner I can setup, configure and get to work. I'm game for wet mounting if necessary, but would be glad to avoid it. My studio space is limited, so I can't a accommodate a scanner that is much bigger than my Epson 3880.
The Eversmarts, iQSmarts, and Howteks may be perfect, but the options are a bit bewildering and with all these scanners it seems like the key for me will be finding a seller who I can count on to give me a complete working solution. So besides scanner recommendations, does anyone know any particularly good sources or vendors?
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