Best slide/negative flatbed scanner?

[Arne Hendrickson]

Any recommendations for the best slide/negative flatbed scanner? My roommate
bought an hp scanjet 3970 and this has to be the worst scanner I have ever
used. The software is a nightmare.

Thanks in advance.

Arne Hendrickson
(e-mail address removed)

 

[stewy]

Any recommendations for the best slide/negative flatbed scanner? My roommate
bought an hp scanjet 3970 and this has to be the worst scanner I have ever
used. The software is a nightmare.

I'd advise buying two separate scanners, one for slides and negs and a
flatbed. Flatbeds will never equal the quality of a dedicated scanner and
it's false economy to buy one that does both.

 

[Douglas MacDonald]

I'd advise buying two separate scanners, one for slides and negs and a
flatbed. Flatbeds will never equal the quality of a dedicated scanner and
it's false economy to buy one that does both.

That's not entirely correct advise, stewy.
Epson's new Prefection 4870 PHOTO is capable of exceeding the results from a
Canon dedicated film scanner by a considerable amount. I have some eight
foot long prints from 6x9 cm negatives from this scanner to prove it. Now
that Epson have released a new driver for it, the former "out of memory"
messages when using Digital ICE are a thing of the past and the only gripe I
had with it. Have a look for yourself: www.technoaussie.com/review_4870.htm
I couldn't unroll one of the really large prints out of the wind so I got
some help to hold one of the smaller ones open!

As for 35mm... I just scanned a 180 MB file from a 35mm negative I have
never had much joy scanning before. The shadows still have some noise but
not anywhere near as bad as the dedicated scanner I have which cost over
twice as much!

Douglas

 

[Lucas Tam]

Any recommendations for the best slide/negative flatbed scanner?

Flatbeds don't scan negatives well.

 

[Anon-E-Moose]

That's not entirely correct advise, stewy.
Epson's new Prefection 4870 PHOTO is capable of exceeding the results
from a Canon dedicated film scanner by a considerable amount.

Might be a good scanner, but it sure is buggy.

 

[Night_Seer]

Any recommendations for the best slide/negative flatbed scanner? My
roommate bought an hp scanjet 3970 and this has to be the worst
scanner I have ever used. The software is a nightmare.

Thanks in advance.

Arne Hendrickson
(e-mail address removed)

I have a Epson Perfection 1670 that has really nice software. It plays
very nicely with my Epson Stylus Photo R300. I have read that the
higher end Perfection scanners perform better than this one.

 

[RSD99]

Sounds good ... but a quick question ...

My father was a very successful commercial photographer, and I've inherited his library.
This includes *many* interesting 5" x 7" and 8" x 10" negatives and color transparencies,
and even more 4" x 5" and 120's.

How big a negative or transparency can the Epson 4870 scan? Can it scan

4" x 5" negatives or transparencies
5" x 7" negatives or transparencies
8" x 10" negatives or transparencies
6 cm x 17 cm panorama negatives or transparencies

Thank you for any information you can provide.

 

[Douglas MacDonald]

4x5 are no problem and neither are 120 roll film panos. You might get 5x7s
if you make a holder for them but 8x10? Nah... too much light fall off at
the edge.

Douglas
---------------

 

[RSD99]

Thanks for the info ... those "issues" can (quite possibly) be handled.

 

[Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX]

I have an HP 7400c, a year or two old. No complaints about the
software - it can even scan to word processor formats using OCR.