Selling Nikon 9000 ED in favor of Epson 700/750?

[brian steinberger]

I have a Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED and I love it, but for the prices these things are going for now, I'm actually thinking of selling mine to afford an Epson printer and get an Epson 700/750. The Nikons are discontinued, whereas the Epson scanners are new. My question is, would the 750 be good enough for medium format black and white film scanning? I shoot 6x4.5 and 6x6, and I would probably print no larger than 16x20.

 

[Jeremy]

What's your definition of "good enough"? Do you know anyone with an Epson flatbed you can scan your negatives on to test?

Based on your film size and the "probably" not printing larger than 16x20 I would suggest keeping the Coolscan and just saving up to buy the printer. The Epsons are very good, but in terms of speed, capture resolution, and ease of use the Coolscan is closer to the Imacon level of scanners than the Epson flatbeds. The Epsons are limited by their lenses to ~1600-2400 ppi (tested sample variability of 16 Epson v700/750s)of actual resolution while the Nikons I have tested (2x 8000 and 1x 9000) resolved ~3200-3600ppi.

 

[R Shaffer]

I'd agree with Jeremy. Test a 750 before you make the plunge.

I have a 4990 and as I have stated before it is adequate for my 645 negatives. I frequently struggle with grain aliasing and density in the highlights.

 

[Kirk Gittings]

Don't do it. I've had both (and still have the 750) and the Nikon gives far better results with MF.

 

[pellicle]

all good advice here ... test it before you jump, hire one if you have to ... heck they're not really dear. But if you have a Nikon that is working and has no issues you may regret later.

 

[brian steinberger]

Thanks guys.. I think I will keep the Nikon.

 

[pellicle]

Brian

if you'd have said "shoot 6x9 on a folder or 6x12 on LF as well as 4x5 and 5x7" I'd have said definately go the V700 ... then again you wouldn't be able to scan the majority of those formats on the Nikon anyway ;-)