Film scanner advice :)

[hoodmeister]

I'm in the market for a film scanner - these are my shortlised scanners :

Minolta Scan Dual III
Minolta Scan Dual IV
Nikon Coolscan IV

That may seem like an odd selection, but here's my reasoning. My budget is about ~£200 second hand. The Minolta & Nikon IV's fall a ways over that, but I can probably just about stretch to both.

I'm actually not too hot on the Scan Dual IV - from what I can ascertain it isn't that much better than the III, but will set me back a fair chunk more. For sheer quality, the Coolscan IV seems the way to go - not to mention ace features like digital ICE. But what's really putting me off is USB 1.1 - that really racks up the scanning // transfer times.

Sooo... I'm basically asking for anyones opinions on these scanners, or other suggestions. If you've used a film scanner, tell me what you know!

 

[MacX]

Hello Mr Hoodmeister!

If you remember my Kenya Safari thread from some months back, all of that was done on a Nikon Coolscan V.

The Coolscan IV does have an earlier generation of Digital ICE, and I believe it has a scanning resolution of 'only' 2900dpi. I did hear good reports about it while I was researching a scanner for myself.

The real decider is that all the Coolscans (AFAIK), use a film strip feeder rather than a holder you clip the 35mm into. This was a real help when scanning 600 odd animal pics. You just take the strip, shove it (gently) in the front and the scanner slurps it straight in. It does mean you can only do strips of 2 - 6 negatives though, so any 'onesies' will need an adapter to clip them in before scanning. I don't have any 'onesies' thankfully. Any lab that gives me one of those will most likely get a visit from Mr Molotov.

Also wouldn't worry too much about USB 1.1 unless every second counts. By the time I've set the V up to do a 14bit scan at 4000dpi for one strip with dICE it's time for a cup of tea anyway. The 2900dpi should produce slightly smaller files anyway. The film strip feeder most probably saves more time over a clipping mechanism than USB2 over USB 1.1.

Have a review.

http://www.ephotozine.com/equipment/tests/testdetail.cfm?test_id=101