I need to get ahold of a scanner that will handle negatives that are 48mm x 35mm approx. I have looked at a lot of scanners on the web (duoscans, dimages, saphirs) but i would rather go with a dedicated negative scanner, and i have found plenty of those two but all way too expensive. i am looking for something under 3 or 4 thousand. does anyone know of such a beast?? i have read that the minolta multi is pretty good, but quality is a big issue here and i am feeling a bit iffy on these flatbeds' capabilities... as an alternative, if anyone knows of an aperture card scanner in the same price range feel free to post that too. thanx in advance.
JR Smith

-- JR Smith (jrsmith@earl-ind.com), June 08, 2000

Answers

The Minolta Multi isn't a flatbed, it's a kosher dedicated film-scanner.

Do your negatives cover the full 35mm height? Or are they on standard 35mm film. If they're on 35mm film I don't see why you can't scan them in any old film-scanner a "bite" at a time, and stitch the images together afterwards.

I'm not sure on this one, but I think I read somewhere that the HP Photosmart scanner will scan 35mm frames longer than the standard 24 x 36mm. It's unique in that it's a carrierless stripfed system, so there's no physical reason why it shouldn't do it.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 09, 2000.

my mistake, i knew the multi wasn't a flatbed :) i meant the agfa scanners when i was talking about the "iffy-ness" of flatbeds when doing negatives.

the negative is not on standard 35mm film, it seems to be printed on a piece of transparency and is a little more than 35mm (like 35.5 or .6, but isn't 35mm standard film slightly bigger too? i think i recall reading that somewhere) but if what you say is true about the HP photosmart then my problem may be solved. thank you very much! :)

-- JR Smith (jrsmith@earl-ind.com), June 09, 2000.