Help With Scanner Selection

[bmiller411]

Good morning, I'm doing research into what drum film scanner would be the best for me to buy at a good price.
I have about 20+ years of negatives that I need to convert to digital. One heck of a job to do. I'm looking forward in working with you to find the best for my budget and to assist in making the conversion. Thanks in advance for your assistance. God Bless...

B Miller
TexasSIZE="5"][/SIZE]

[mistermonday]

Re: Help With Scanner Selection

Why do you need a drum scanner? Is a dedicated Negative Film & Slide scanner not adequate?
Cheers, Murray

[lurch]

Re: Help With Scanner Selection

I just finished scanning about 4000 slides. Took two years. Bought a dedicated slide scanner to do it - a good thing since my Lightroom lost a bunch, and I had to do them over. Not that this has anything to do with the job at (your) hand. Just for info, I used a Plustek and Silverfast 8 sw, scanned at 2400 ppi, which allowed a 5x7 print with minimal cropping. The Plustek hardware also does 35 mm negatives. It costs about $400.

Which brings me to my question. Why DO you need a drum scanner?

[insmac]

Re: Help With Scanner Selection

It would help if you could specify how much you're willing to spend and whether you opt for quality over speed or the other way round. There are scanners for certain purposes: preserving negatives (consumer grade), small prints/web (semi-pro) and the specialized ones for commercial use (purpose-built film scanners).

Most of the scanners on the market are crap with negatives. DPI is not important, what really counts is optical density (also called DMax). That leaves you with a few options:

Flatbed scanners with film holder: (order by price tag, ascending)
Epson V700
Epson V750
Film scanners only:
Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED (35mm negative/slide only)
Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED (35, 6x6, 6x7, etc)
Hasselblad Flextight series (35, 6x6, 6x7, etc)

Either way you're looking at something around 700-800 USD for a flatbed and a few to twenty-something thousand (starting from around 3000$ for Coolscan 9000) for a specialized film scanner.