I have an interest in scanning 8x10 black and white film, and recently I had the opportunity to testdrive the Microtek i900 scanner. I only had a few hours with it, and although I found the scan quality to be quite good with the stock options, I found it frustrating that the scan head just about covered 8x10. And when you place the film on the glass tray, you're forced to use the peel-of vinyl tabs to keep the film flat. In the end, you wind up with a practical maximum film scan size of somewhere closer to 7.75 x 10. This is worse if your film has any signficiant curl, because in those cases you'll have to place vinyl tabs at multiple corners, further encroaching on the live image.

Before making a purchase decision, I'm hoping someone on this forum knows of a scanner with comparable specs to the Microtek that allows for a "full frame" 8x10 scan.The ideal scanner would have a scan head that reached 8x11 or more, which would give you ample space to lay the negative flat and crop the preview scan to the final 8x10 film dimension (i.e. all the way to the border). Any help s greatly appreciated. Happy holidays!