Scanners again !

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Tricky69

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So

Santa needs a list....

top of mine is going to be a scanner.

I want to do 35 and MF. Large as possible, to keep my future options open.

The standard answer to these threads seems to be the epson 500

so, is this the only answer these days ?

Budget, as usual, -- cheap as :-)

what happened before the epson 500 ??? what did you all use ?

BYT uses a canon 8800 I think ? what other manufacturers/models are to be considered ? or avoided ?

Anything else I should be asking ?

Money is tight, but I dont want to find myself wanting the next model up soon, because of this feature or that.

Do any do Large format ?
 
Before the V500 and flatbeds that slightly leant their design towards scanning MF film, we used flat beds with an after market light lid attachment or dedicated scanners that connect via SCSI.
Thus arrives USB and SCSI devices are no longer manufactured, Minolta went bust and there isn't much support for their scanners now, digital cameras became popular and guess what ???......you don't need scanners to shoot digital files.
There is no denying the gaping chasm in scanner choice and availability that has opened up, there just is nothing vaguely affordable for the hobbiest in the dedicated market, so flatbeds fill the gap and that's where you'll find the most economic large format scans.
 
I use a Canoscan 8800F, it's pretty much comparable with the epson v500 tbh, but my tame hardware supplier cut me a deal that was hard to refuse, so i went with the canon, and have no real regrets about it. I think it's been superseded by the 9000F now though.
 
I use the V500, its a great scanner, but for medium format I dont like using the supplied film holders, I find I can never get the whole image.
 
Not long bought a V600 as my first scanner and its great.

Mart
 
so .... I am getting from this , that the V550 and up is it ? the canon 8800f is ok too, but not mentioned at all by anyone anywhere :thinking:

So ... with this in mind.... the V500 is around £150 give or take

anything around this price I should be looking at ? anything slightly more money that is worth considering for it's extra features ?


As a side issue, as the V500 etc can scan negs ... I believe, this just means turning the scanner light off, and using a separate neg light source from above ? ...is the scanner software locked in to scanning it's native film holder sizes ? or can it scan a complete A4 scan in 'neg' mode if the appropriate neg holder(s) are available / home made ?


Sorry for all the questions, but I have never seen/used a flat bed neg scanner, and I only want to spend my money once !
 
Tricky69 said:
As a side issue, as the V500 etc can scan negs ... I believe, this just means turning the scanner light off, and using a separate neg light source from above ? ...is the scanner software locked in to scanning it's native film holder sizes ? or can it scan a complete A4 scan in 'neg' mode if the appropriate neg holder(s) are available / home made ?
Click to expand...

The V500 wil scan "transmissive" items - i.e. Slides, Colour and Black aand White Negatives. To do this, there is a special holder for the various sizes of film stock / Slide mounts. You load this holder with the items you want to scan, place it on the glass of the scanner. The scanner has a second light source built into the lid of the scanner. This is revealed if you remove the white cover in the lid. I understand that the V500 has a strip up the centre of the lid where the light source is installed. Only items under this light source will be scanned (which precludes scanning anything larger than 120 roll film in one go - it would be possible to scan larger format stock, but only by scanning the large frame in 2 or more parts, then manually stitching the partial images together in photoshop.

If you want anything larger than 120 film, then I think that the V700/V750 is the one to go for. This will scan up to a 10x8" frame, and will also allow 12 slides at once, 24x35mm in negative strips, 6 frames of 6x6cm 120 or 2 frames of 4x5" film. Afaik, the V750 is pretty much the same as the V700 with a better software bundle, and the provision for wet-scanning of negs.
 
If you wanna scan larger, the Epson 4490 also does 5x4 negs/slides in one pass.
 
Thanks Mark. Useful info :thumbs:

so you dont think I could make my own 'light' lid for a V500 and scan 10x8 ?

How does your canon work in this respect ?
 
you could make your own 'light lid' for any scanner...
 
I own the 700 and it is great, but I want to get the Better Scanning film holders. I find I can never get the negs truly flat, which obviously impacts oon scan quality. The large format holder is great though, no issues at all.

The only problem is that it is far from cheap
 
Sam_G said:
you could make your own 'light lid' for any scanner...
Click to expand...

I dont think so.

the scanner software needs to be able to 'switch' to using the external light and turn off the light on the scan head.

?

or am I wrong on that

?
 
you have to remove the lamp from the bottom part of the scanner if you are to heath robinson a light lid..


Microtek F1 & i900 both scan 8x10
 
Last edited:
joxby said:
you have to remove the lamp from the bottom part of the scanner if you are to heath robinson a light lid..


Microtek F1 & i900 both scan 8x10
Click to expand...

Thanks

Do they do it well ?

I have an old scanner ... I might hold off buying a new one untill more investigation is done :)
 
Best of luck Tricky

personally, I'd rather stick boiling rhubarb up my bum..:lol:

cos I know what it takes to get a nice scan.

I'd even say that slide copying with a digital camera gives better odds than sticky back plastic and blue tack..:D
 
Just asking ! as I said .. I haven't tried trannies / negs ... ever ! :thinking:
 
I have the canon 9000F and that does 35mm and 120 film just fine. It comes with decent software too.
 
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