Affordable 35mm film scanners

[Guest]

hello everyone..
I have just spent alot of money on a new computer and am looking for a 35mm negative scanner that comes within the $800-$1000 mark as funds are running low. U.S.B. connections would be good. Opinions on models and prices would be appreciated. I am asking because I live in Korea at the moment and am having a hard time finding good prices and large selections.. Thank you for your time. Chris.

 

[Guest]

Hi.
Your price range encompasses really good choices.
I would check three opitons: Nikon IV ED (LS-40), Minolta Elite II and Canon FS4000.
First two featured by 2900 dpi and 2820 dpi respectively, the last one offers 4000 dpi.
2800-2900 dpi range is excellent for pro-grade sub A3 enlargements (A4 with about 360 dpi or kind of A3- for sub 300 dpi), 4000 dpi (given approrpiate level of noice reduction) produces
A3 size at 300 dpi (300 dpi is widely adopted professional publishing requirement).
Nikon and Minolta devices feature by famous ICE3 system (IR scatch and dust removal, grain equalization for virtually grainless scans as well
faded color restoration - valuable for those who scan old, faded-out originals).
Nikon has the latest version of ICE3 system and this one si the most effective, followed by Minolta model (according to the reviews, Nikon's implementation is somewhat better in some cases).
Canon has their own FARE (software only while ICE3 combines special hardware also) that is aimed to fight with scratches and dust, but reportedly is less effective then ICE.
There were numerous user reports about certain scanning issue they encountered with Minolta Elite II that is apparently hardware-related producing very noticeable noise-related effect on the scans, however some users got problem-free devices.

Bottom line, if 4000 dpi isn't absolutely required, I woudl vote for Nikon IV ED.

Alex

 

[Guest]

Using ICE3 does a beautiful job, but it prolongs the scan so you may not want ot use it on all your originals. The software components of Applied Science Fiction's ICE3 are available as plug-ins that work with Photoshop, Corel Photo-Paint, and probably others.

Ivan

 

[Guest]

Well, this is true, but only for GEM and ROC processing. From my own experience, ICE itself (scratches/dust removal) adds no more then 10-12 sec or even less per full resolution scan. I thisnk this is more then worthwhile considering the enormous time one have to waste otherwise spotting out this annoying things in Photoshop.
GEM and ROC takes indeed additional time than is really noticeable (may take several minutes per frame (depending on scanned resolution and computer processing power).

The software ICE3 components (GEM and ROC) as apparently indeed availble as add-ons from Sience Fiction, however, no original ICE to remove scratches and dust since this involve special hardware.

Regards, Alex