I have been looking at scanners for about a month now and have found it very hard to make a decision. I have many prints that I would like to scan along with many slides and negatives. I would like to find a scanner that would support glass negatives, but thats not a requirement. But I do have some negatives that are aprox. 2.5 in. by 4.5 in. which are flat and smaller than the glass negatives, I would like to scan these because I have a lot of them. I like the Nikon LS-30 with Digital ICE because these negatives aren't clean at all, but it doesn't support larger negatives. UMAX's Powerlook III is a scanner that I have been looking at, but am unsure. If someone knows of a scanner that supports these negatives I would appreciate it. I don't have to have a scanner that can do both prints and negatives, I don't mind purchasing a seperate scanner for the prints. I don't really want to spend more than $1000-1200.

Thanks

-- Thomas (TVick959@aol.com), April 20, 1999

Answers

I use both medium format and 35mm cameras. I have an internal Nikon Coolscan II for 35mm which is great for Trannies and Colour negs, and Fairly good for Black and white. When it comes to Flat bed scanners for negatives, I can only share my own experience. Basically, the best is of course a drum scanner but is out of the question due to cost. I tried using Jessops bureau at Leicester (UK)who provide medium format scans (after a two week wait) using a "high end Kodak flat bed scanner, at a cost of #2.99 ($1.6/#) and was pleased with the results for transparencies, and fairly pleased with those for Colour negatives, but no good at all for Black and white, as any overexposed areas quite simply have no pixels in them at all. Now to Colab Coventr They charge #10.08 for a single sca on a Drum scanner, 30Mb for transparencies and colour negs and 11Mb for B & W. The results have been fabulous. I print everything up to A3 (15" x 11") and have no problems. So now I scrutinise my negs and trannies very carefully, and send any that have dense areas - especially B # W to colab. The cans have every bit of information that can be seen on the negative, and it is possible - using Photoshop 5.0 curves, to get the detail out of virtually un;printable dense negs. So, my advice is - wait until the market provides a Medium format negative scanner - equal at least to the Nikon range of 35 mm scanners, and don't waste your money . If you lay out $1000 on a scanner which will disappoint you, why not spend that $1000 getting only your competition quality negs scanned. I doubt that you or I would need more than 30 exhibition quality negs scanned in a year, that is #300 ($480). A $1000 scanner would anyway be only worth about $300 at the end of a year.

Hope this helps. If you need to discuss this further then e-mail me. Gaston.

-- Gaston Alziary (gaston.alziary@lineone.net), April 26, 1999.