I'm a photographer just getting into the digital side, now looking for a high quality scanner that also does film. Any recommendations on makes (brands), bearing in mind that things are very expensive here in south africa, so what I'm talking about is great performance at not such a huge price if such a thing exists.

-- rod prynne (rodprynne@xsinet.co.za), July 05, 2000

Answers

When you say a scanner that also does film, do you mean a flatbed scanner that's suitable for scanning the odd slide or negative. What format? 35mm only?

Apart from the HP photosmart S20, which is really a 35mm film scanner that will aslo scan small prints (up to 6"x4" I believe), there really isn't anything low cost that will scan flat artwork and 35mm film satisfactorily. The Epson Perfection1200 photo will do both, but the sharpness from 35mm isn't great by all accounts.

The lowest cost 35mm film scanners are Acers ScanWit 2720s, the HP S20 that I already mentioned, and the old Minolta Dimage scan dual. The Scan Dual is being replaced with a MKII version at a higher price, so there may be some bargains to be had on the old model.

User reviews and opinions about these scanners can be had from these links:

Scan Dual

Acer Scanwit

HP S20

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), July 06, 2000.

For Acer ScanWit 2720S, we, Acer Peripherals, America, run out of stocks in the second straight month. I need to apologize to all those customers, who are looking for Acer ScanWit, only find that they could not get it anyway online.

The next shippment for ScanWit will arrive in U.S.A. around 20s, August. If you want to get one of ScanWit, I could tell you where to get one, now, but we do not have any stocks in our warehouse, again.

Sorry for all the problems, we have been caused you.

-- Edward Yang (edwardyang@apa.acer.com), August 03, 2000.