Scanning provia 5x4 & 6x9 on these scanners

[ADG]

Anyone out there who can tell me which would give me the best quality scans for output to a Canon S9000 photoprinter at A3+ (13x19")
Epson 4870 scanning 5x4 or Minolta Scan multi pro scanning 6x7/6x9
User experience preffered, and it goes without saying as a LF user I'm very picky about print quality.

Thanks to all

[Donald Hutton]

The minolta every time. I have both. To be honest, the Epson does quite well with Provia (much better than Velvia), but the Multi Pro equipped with the Scanhancer will blow it away, even in a 6X7-4X5 contest. When I bought my 4870, I did some pretty extensive testing. The Epson is good on negative film - the SMP is better on chromes. At 13X19, there is far more in a piece of 6X7 Provia than you can print at that size, so film format really doesn't matter. You'll get a lot more out of shadows with the SMP - the Epson scan will be blocked in these areas.

[julian_4860]

I've got the minolta, and using the glass holders, I can't imagine wanting anything better. Problem is you get a lot of dust with the glass holders, so you will spend time spotting. I use Vuescan for BW and colour neg.

[Leonard Evens]

I have an Epson 3200. I can do 6 x 7 and 6 x 9, but I have no doubts at all that the Minolta Multi or any similar medium format high quality dedicated film scanner will do better. The Epson 4870, as best I can tell, can do at most 20 percent better than the 3200, if it can do that. You will be better off with the Minolta if you are not going to go larger than 6 x something. On the other hand, if your budget is limited, you may find the Epson aadequate for your purposes. I've made 11 x 14 prints from scans of 6 x 7, and they look fine. even from relatively close-up. You might even be satisfied with 13 x 19 prints, but grain sniffers would be able to tell the difference.

[Dave Moeller]

If you're using an Epson for scanning 120, you owe it to yourself to check out Doug's MF film holder: http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mfholderintro.html (http://home.earthlink.net/~dougfisher/holder/mfholderintro.html)

This is one piece of hardware that I can recommed unconditionally. (I have no relationship with Doug other than being a satisfied customer.)

My 120 scans improved pretty dramatically when I started using Doug's holder, and the Anti-Newton glass insert is great for films that curl a lot (like the J&C films).

Although a dedicated film scanner is still better, the race gets a little tighter with one of these things in your arsenal...and the solution's still pretty cheap compared to a film scanner.