Looking for a scanner to scan some old 2.25x2.25 slides, negatives and tranpareincies. For home use can be SCSI using windows 98. I have Adobe photoshop 4.0. Would like a flat bed with an attachment, so I can use it for other projects too. Thanks in advance for your help.

-- Rick Streiff (rstreiff@earthlink.net), July 21, 1998

Answers

The Agfa Arcus II is a flatbed scanner that comes standard with transparancy capability. The Photoshop driver that I use at work is selectable between negatives and positives. Its a little on the expensive side but puts everything else I have used to shame. Have seen them used for about $800.

-- Jim Mac (w8jm@gnt.net), July 29, 1998.

Don't know if this is a little late for you or not, but UMAX just dropped the price of their Powerlook scanner line, and you can now get the low-end model there for ~$1100 list price. For that price, you get a 36-bit 600x1200 dpi scanner with very good specs. I don't know how it would compare to the Arcus, but they're both good. (I've used both, just not side-by-side, and both were quite a while ago.)

We're working on UMAX right now, to see if we can review their PowerLook scanners. If it happens at all, it's likely to take a month or two, given how these things go, but then maybe you're more patient than I...

-- Dave Etchells (detchells@imaging-resource.com), August 05, 1998.