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Which scanner would you recommend?


lphong

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Greetings :D

 

my scanner is not designed for scanning negatives nor slides, plus the fact that it is now 13 years old. I would like to upload some of those photos on the Internet but unfortunately my scanner is definitely inadequite for the job... so which is the most suitable scanner out there?

 

Thank you all in advance

 

Pok

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No dubt a Plustek 7600 or 7400

My only concern is that mine works great with Windows, but shows somme troubles with Mac.

You will find a tread stating it is very god for The price.

Mine is simply very good.

 

Ask your dealer to try one.

 

Regards

 

Fgcm

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It depends a bit on the application. If you are planning to scan only 35mm film, the Plusteks do a very decent job, if throughput is not important. I use a Plustek rebranded as Quato. The scan quality of it is sufficient for A4 or even A3 sized prints, in case you don't use an enlarger. Calculate with 10-15 minutes scan and handling time for every frame. Unfortunately, most of the faster scanners have been discontinued.

 

The Plustek 7600 might give a very good deal, since the new 8xxx-series just came out, offering the same hardware with Silverfast 8. However, the Plustek 7600 can be upgraded to Silverfast 8. As Fgcm has pointed out, there is a very long thread about the Plustek 7600:

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/film-forum/153571-plustek-7600i-se-very-good-money.html

 

If you are also planning to scan MF (120) film, there has a new Reflecta just been released and Plustek have announced a new 120 scanner as well, which should be available in summer.

 

Film scanners can create very large files, but HDD space is cheap, even, when buying it twice for backup. Scanning software has a major influence on the image quality, most scanners come with Silverfast, Vuescan is also very popular.

 

There is an online shop in Germany, which offers quite extensive discussions. In my view a very good starting point to get into this matter (looking at your location, you might not even need to switch the website to English)

Scan-Service Scannen Dias Negative Fotos APS-Filme Mittelformate; Dienstleistung Digitalisieren Einscannen, Video-Digitalisierung

 

Grüße nach Niedersachsen

 

Stefan

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After getting to know my lowly epson 4990 over the last years quite well, I still have not seen another scanner deliver better images...yes I have used Coolscan etc.. but for the money the epson is very hard to beat.

 

i use it for web scanning and scanning for prints from negs and prints..no complaints.

andy

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Thanks for the information! I shall scout around and see who has an Epson or Plustek near by.. Unfortunately ScanDig is too far away from me, might cost me more in Petrol to get there than the scanner itself.

 

Thank you all again!! :D

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I use a Epson V500 is a quite good scanner, maybe not the fastest or the best but not so expensive. For color film is good for B&W you need to work a bit more in for example Lightroom.

 

If you want to take a look you can visit my site in Flickr.

 

Collection: Film

 

For the most photos I didn't use Lightroom.

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I have both a Plustek and an Epson V700. I use the V700 to batch scan entire rolls (up to 24 frames at a time) intended computer sharing and prints up to A4. For anything larger or if I need a quality scan or two I'll use the Plustek. Like you I only shoot 35mm so I could get away with just using the Plustek if I was willing to scan one frame at a time to see my photos, but I am not.

 

I had a V500 before the V700 and, at the price, it is really a performer.

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Similar to the above comments above I use a flatbed (V700) for contact sheets, and now a Plustek 7400 for the main scans.

 

If your negatives are good quality and without scratches and where small amounts of dust can be dealt with in Photoshop the Plustek 7400 is a superb scanner. All the Plustek scanners of the recent past 7400 through to 8200i are the same scanner with the difference being software and an IR setting for dust and scratch removal with the higher priced versions. Buy Vuescan for your scanning software (don't bother with Sliverfast) and it is a bargain priced scanner. You can only use dust and scratch removal with colour film, and the clean up functions also degrade the image so you are better off using Photoshop for that anyway.

 

Steve

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Similar to the above comments above I use a flatbed (V700) for contact sheets, and now a Plustek 7400 for the main scans.

 

If your negatives are good quality and without scratches and where small amounts of dust can be dealt with in Photoshop the Plustek 7400 is a superb scanner. All the Plustek scanners of the recent past 7400 through to 8200i are the same scanner with the difference being software and an IR setting for dust and scratch removal with the higher priced versions. Buy Vuescan for your scanning software (don't bother with Sliverfast) and it is a bargain priced scanner. You can only use dust and scratch removal with colour film, and the clean up functions also degrade the image so you are better off using Photoshop for that anyway.

 

Steve

 

Are your slide and/or negative scans that much better with the plustek vs the v700? What resolution are you scanning your negatives at?

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Sounds like it's either a Plustek 7400/7600 or V500 for me. The only worry for the Plustek is that I am a mac user and a fellow user has mentioned that it potentially has a problem.

 

Does anybody have the same problem as the one encountered by fgcm?

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Are your slide and/or negative scans that much better with the plustek vs the v700? What resolution are you scanning your negatives at?

 

Yes they are better than scanning 35mm on my V700. My last dedicated film scanner was a Minolta Multi Pro that I had to give up because support dried up and I would have needed to carry on running it with an old PC. It was an awesome device, but the 7400 is as good for scanning good negs, just not quite so good with difficult negs, but still better than the Epson.

 

The resolution I scan at is 7200 which is the only way for it to interpolate down and get the maximim resolution from the scanner, the 'real' resolution being somewhat less, 3200 I think. The key tweak is to use Vuescan rather than Silverfast bundled with the scanner. The basic versions of Silverfast don't allow for a very high Preview resolution, and it is the Preview resolution, being able to nail the shadows and highlights accurately, that dictates to a large extent how good the final scan appears. Vuescan does allow for a high preview resolution (I use 2400 which is still quick) and I find the scans very good. You do need some RAM scanning at 7200 because you get 125mb files from B&W, but you can then immediately re-save at a lower size and resolution to make them managable.

 

Shopping on Ebay I got my Plustek 7400 new for £150, updated my Vuescan for £40 and it is an ideal working partner with my v700 (which is superb for MF and larger).

 

Steve

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If you go for a used model that is no longer made make sure that you can still get replacement film holders before you buy. Even if you go for a new scanner it may be worth buying some spare holders just in case, especially if you intend to keep it for some years.

 

VueScan supports many models and could provide a driver that would make an 'old' scanner compatible with Windows 7.

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Sounds like it's either a Plustek 7400/7600 or V500 for me. The only worry for the Plustek is that I am a mac user and a fellow user has mentioned that it potentially has a problem.

 

Does anybody have the same problem as the one encountered by fgcm?

 

I am a Mac user with 10.6 and have no problems with the scanner or Silverfast. I also upgraded to Silverfast 8 and it works too, it worked fine even before the "fix" mentioned in another thread. I cannot get Vuescan to work on my Mac though.

 

Wayne

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I can recommend the Nikon V ED. A very fine scanner, but to be honest it is my first

scanner, so there is no chance to compare. But the results from the Nikon are much better

then what I got from the local development shops.

Software seems to be a critical moment too. I started with Silverfast 8 under Mac OS 10.7.

I am not very happy with the SF software. The DVD delivered with the scanner didn't worked.

The attempt for an online Upgrade was a nightmare, so I bought the newest Version SF8 again online as a download.

It crashed a several times. I gave up at the end and bought the much cheaper Vuescan.

To be honest, it is easy to work with and delivers great results under OS 10.7.

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I have an Epson V750 and am using Silverfast 8 with an iMac running Lion.

Perfect results and no problems.

The V700 is probably as good but I paid almost the same money for the V750.

Brian

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I have a Plustek 7600 and I'm very satisfied with it. Not only it does an excellent job, it is also well built. Solid and ergonomic. Its slide holder is really very well designed. Doesn't take too much space, is relatively light and has a nice travel/storage bag.

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Yes they are better than scanning 35mm on my V700. My last dedicated film scanner was a Minolta Multi Pro that I had to give up because support dried up and I would have needed to carry on running it with an old PC. It was an awesome device, but the 7400 is as good for scanning good negs, just not quite so good with difficult negs, but still better than the Epson.

 

The resolution I scan at is 7200 which is the only way for it to interpolate down and get the maximim resolution from the scanner, the 'real' resolution being somewhat less, 3200 I think. The key tweak is to use Vuescan rather than Silverfast bundled with the scanner. The basic versions of Silverfast don't allow for a very high Preview resolution, and it is the Preview resolution, being able to nail the shadows and highlights accurately, that dictates to a large extent how good the final scan appears. Vuescan does allow for a high preview resolution (I use 2400 which is still quick) and I find the scans very good. You do need some RAM scanning at 7200 because you get 125mb files from B&W, but you can then immediately re-save at a lower size and resolution to make them managable.

 

Shopping on Ebay I got my Plustek 7400 new for £150, updated my Vuescan for £40 and it is an ideal working partner with my v700 (which is superb for MF and larger).

 

Steve

 

I have a couple of V700s at the office and I like them, however, it is hell with dust on the negatives...but that might be the office environment...and I am new to scanning.

 

Sounds like I need to download vuescan.

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I have a couple of V700s at the office and I like them, however, it is hell with dust on the negatives...but that might be the office environment...and I am new to scanning.

 

Sounds like I need to download vuescan.

 

Yes! Just do it. Steep learning curve, a bit like learning to use a Leica, but a bit of experience will 'open it up' and give you fantastic control over your scanner..

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I have a couple of V700s at the office and I like them, however, it is hell with dust on the negatives...but that might be the office environment...and I am new to scanning.

 

Sounds like I need to download vuescan.

 

Yes with a flatbed scanner you need to clean the glass before scanning each time with a dedicated cloth for the job. Then you need a dedicated soft brush to remove any dust from your negs, and never use it for anything else. Then you need to keep your negs in good quality negative sheets (the tissue ones are best imo). It isn't actually any more than you would do in a darkroom envirnoment but those little things can make all the difference between frustration with dust and hairs and getting a clean scan first time. Getting dust off a negative strip that you put into a machine, like the Plustek scanner, is even more important because if it drops the dust lands inside the scanner. But with home offices which need to be used for other things combating dust is a way of life.

 

Steve

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