Need Info on Scanners/Printers

[Devilsthumb]

I'm a relatively new UW photographer who uses film. I am in the market for a new computer and am looking for opinions on the best scanners and printers for digitizing/editing photos.

Any informatin would be helpful.

Devilsthumb

 

[onbelaydave]

All are going to cost "a bit". If all you're going to be scanning are 35mm's, these are your best bet.
Nikon SuperCoolscan 4000
Minolta Scan Elite 5400
Poloroid Sprintscan 4000

Personally I use the Sprintscan 120 which gives me the capability to scan my MF I'm stupid's from my landscape work.

Printers come and go every 6 months. I'm partial to Epson and use an Epson 1280 to get nice 13" x 19" prints from my MF work.
Both Epson and Canon make excellent photo printers for 8X10 work also.

 

[Devilsthumb]

Thanks.

These are a bit pricey but not necessarily out of my range.

What do you know about flatbed scanners w/tranparancy adapters? Anything in that hardware that may be comparable in quality?

 

[Scubatooth]

for a flat bed scanner i have two reccomendation depending on what you want to scan.

epson 3200 (will do all negs up to 4x5 with the included adaptor) and if you get the pro package it includes some of the best imaging OCR software todate (silverfast) 300/500 for pro package

next would be epson 3170 is is sort of a modified version of the 3200 but still can do alot, its claim to fame is built in color correction around $200 (also id your looking for silverfast software for this model there isnt any because of modified USB controls and commands)

i have the 3170 and have access to the 3200 and i can tell you both are very good, if i was to do it over again i would get the 3200 pro as i could use the silverfast software for controlling the 3200. but since as it stand right now im shooting a high quanitity of film i may be looking a nikon coolscan 4000 or 8000, depending if i start to shoot, 120 or 220 films for school, but then i may just use the 3200 for the larger films, and getthe coolscan 4k to do my negative scans.


now if your going to be doing a high quanitity of negatives i would reccomend the nikon coolscan scanners, albet more pricey but the quality is there and highly controllable.

FWIW

Scubatooth

 

[TedJ]

I think you should also consider the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III. I've scanned over 1000 slides on it and the results are quite good. I paid about $350 for it but I've seen it down to $299 recently. Check steve's digicams site for specs but it's a very nice unit and affordable. It's not quite as "good" as the Nikon 4000 but only just and about $100 cheaper and if what you're doing is going on the web it's more than you need in terms of resolution.
TedJ

 

[onbelaydave]

The Minolta III is good, as well as the Nikon Ls 2000. Both can be found at bargain $ on e-Bay. But I find the 4000+ dpi res works really well with the newer Fuji slide films to pull out details that would be impossible w/a 2000 dpi scanner.

 

[armin de hooge]

I just bought the new Minolta 5400 elite scan. A little bit noisy, but superb quality and comes with a fire-wire cable, so very fast. Software supports Mac.

 

[Bob3]

Here's an outfit I've done a fair amount of business with, they're fast shippers & the prices are usually reasonable.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=297