How about something like a Howtek drum scanner

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I am working on perfecting my scanning with Epson, but once a year I get a bonus I can spend on whatever I want so this was an option I thought about. It is not so much the Epson is not good, but if I want to print digitally, I want the best file I can get. And if I don't have to manipulate the negative at capture, etc as much, then I consider that a plus and may also end up with something that I can scan or go into a dark room with.

[Pali K]

Steven, I started with an Epson v700 and do think at some point I had mastered it to the best of my abilities. I found a Scanmate 11000 complete setup locally on Craigslist at a price I could not turn it down and have been on a journey to master this process since. I agree with the comments that the learning curve is not easy and drum scanners do require annual maintenance. I enjoy this maintenance process just as much as well and have slowly figured out everything I need.

I mentioned an Eversmart Supreme or IQSmart 2/3 in another thread which is something you should research on some more. You can get these working with a fairly new Mac setup and they are extremely reliable without the fuss of a drum scanner. In my opinion, these scanners are very close to drum quality and will actually beat many drum scanners in controlled testing.

Pali

[Corran]

Listen to Pali, he's got a wealth of experience on the drums and other scanners. He knows what's up.

It comes down to personal preference. I have no interest in a drum scanner. If I need high-end scanning of a transparency, I can send it out. For me the high-volume batch scanning abilities, along with of course good performance, of a high-end flatbed outweigh the differences, especially due to my personal choice to shoot mostly black and white. Shooting slides on occasion is a fun diversion but I haven't made any serious work on slides for years, and when I did, my Cezanne was good enough to pull plenty off the film (DR) for my uses. More important to me is being able to scan 2 rolls of roll film and a couple sheets of film in one batch.

If you think a great deal of your photography will be on Velvia, and you are going to make prints and want to have "the best" tool for that, then by all means get a drum scanner. If you aren't shooting slides except occasionally, I don't see the value in it. Just "making your money back" in 50 scans isn't really addressing the ancillary issues of learning how to use it (well). And how many scans would you really be sending out per year?

You're ping-ponging all over the place, perhaps consider sitting tight until you know what you want to do in detail (film types, print sizes, for what use, etc.).

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Let's just say I dont have half a century to learn and perfect the craft of one film one developer and printing method. I am trying and learning as much as I can in a short time so I can find what I desire and focus on that. The downside is I am wired in such a way that once I master something I become bored. So I need to keep photography fresh and that means always trying something new and perfecting it and hopefully along the way I earn the right to be considered an artist.

[Corran]

If one takes half a century to learn one film and one developer, they must not be a very good student!

I am the quintessential "try different things" kinda guy...I love shooting new films and trying new developers. However when I need to sit down and MAKE WORK I also know how to use a few films and developers that I've put a lot of time and effort into, and get good negatives/prints. I'm less inclined to try stuff in the darkroom because it's so dang expensive and I do not enjoy DR work as much as shooting. So I'm less adventurous there. Trying to do better with that and be more open to creative ideas.

Anyway, you can spend your whole life fiddling and screwing around with all kinds of stuff, that's totally okay and I am fine with it. Enjoy yourself! But don't expect to master something without putting in the requisite time, effort, and focus. Oh, and mastering your materials and technique doesn't make you an artist, IMO, but that's another topic for another day .

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I agree. I am just trying to compress a lot of known knowledge into a short space so I can figure out what it is I desire and then focus on that. By 50 years I mean artists who found what they desired early on and then spent the rest of their career fine tuning it. And I also agree it is not how good you are with your tools. It is the end product. But you still need to master the tools. I am after the end product that I hope one day I will be remembered by. And it definitely is a topic for another day

[Thad Gerheim]

Steven, I'm no expert on this subject and that's the precise point I want to make. I do make my living from selling photos from the transparencies I drum scanned on my Tango drum scanner. I think there is some overblown information out there about these scanners. Karl Hudson of http://hudsongrafik.com/product-category/drumscanners/ came to Idaho to service and set up my scanner ten years ago and it has been running great ever since. Yes, I should have him come back and service it again after ten years. Karl showed me the basics on operating the machine in a few hours. Its not rocket science, although that is what Karl's dad did for NASA. I also have the Eversmart Supreme which is a great scanner too when running. The Eversmart is just as sharp and has good D-max, but there is such great tonality and D-max from the Tango. There's still good deals out there on both of these machines. I bought the Eversmart from Genesis in Phoenix and found the Tango in Seattle for $2000. After bringing it back to Idaho in a horse trailer I got a hold of Karl and was amazed that he would come to the backwoods of Idaho and help me out.
Good Luck

[Alan Klein]

I don't think it is what it does but how it does it. How it works is for someone else to answer.

Wet mounting on a drum makes the film as close to perfectly flat as can be achieved as it is held taught around the drum so the distance between lens and film always remains constant. Then there is the use of photomultiplier tubes which, as far as I understand, are several thousand times more sensitive to light that the technology used in, for example, the Epson V series. Whether you can get, need, or perceive, any or all of the advantages from the drum scanner depends, as others have mentioned, on the skill of the operator.
I own a Howtek D4500 and whilst I love owning it is not without issues. Mounting time, scanning time, consumable costs etc, all should be part of the equation.
Can I tell the difference? Nope, but I have never owned anything else :-) I suppose that's a bit like auditioning televisions in a shop; once you get it home you have nothing to compare it to so you just have to keep telling yourself it is better.
Do I have need for a drum scanner. Nope, but its a hobby so I liked the idea of the drum scanner to get the very best out of my film whether I can tell the difference or not

Can you show us examples of your Howtek scans?

[Pere Casals]

Can you show us examples of your Howtek scans?

I have seen some Howtek 4500 on sale for around 3-4K. How good is this scanner?

Here you have the collaborative test: https://www.largeformatphotography.i...an-comparison/ This is a fairly interesting information.

It has to be pointed that different machines may digitally optimize more or less the result.

A good excercise is downloading the crops and trying to make it match by sharpening or color adjustment.

I was surprised by the result, in particular in this case.





This is a competely repeatable test, anybody may download the crops and use Ps to compare after editing each sample to its best.

Sure that the howtek performs better in some situations, but having a V850 only sometimes it would be worth the extra work involved with the drum scanning.

[Alan Klein]

Listen to Pali, he's got a wealth of experience on the drums and other scanners. He knows what's up.

It comes down to personal preference. I have no interest in a drum scanner. If I need high-end scanning of a transparency, I can send it out. For me the high-volume batch scanning abilities, along with of course good performance, of a high-end flatbed outweigh the differences, especially due to my personal choice to shoot mostly black and white. Shooting slides on occasion is a fun diversion but I haven't made any serious work on slides for years, and when I did, my Cezanne was good enough to pull plenty off the film (DR) for my uses. More important to me is being able to scan 2 rolls of roll film and a couple sheets of film in one batch.

If you think a great deal of your photography will be on Velvia, and you are going to make prints and want to have "the best" tool for that, then by all means get a drum scanner. If you aren't shooting slides except occasionally, I don't see the value in it. Just "making your money back" in 50 scans isn't really addressing the ancillary issues of learning how to use it (well). And how many scans would you really be sending out per year?

You're ping-ponging all over the place, perhaps consider sitting tight until you know what you want to do in detail (film types, print sizes, for what use, etc.).

Good advice. I scan with a V600 and it's good enough for the web and home slide shows. If I want to do some printing (once my wife let's me use some more wall space , then I'll send only those out for drum scanning and printing.