Yet Another Photog Seeking Advice on a Pending Scanner Purchase

[LeftCoastKid]

At the moment, I'm at work on building my website, with the objective of selling - for the most part - silver gelatin prints. I shoot both analogue (about 90 per cent of my work) and digital. In the case of the former, I'm looking to scan both 35mm images (Kodachrome, E6, and black and white negatives) as well as 120 format (E6 and black and white) for posting on my site. Obviously, for internet display, for both color and black and white, in both formats, I'm thinking low resolution. However, for the color work, with both 35mm and medium format, I'll be needing higher resolution scans, with the objective of printing inkjet prints. Suggestions on what to look for in a scanner, and price points? NB I'm a total neophyte with hybrid work.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I am silver based. I do not have a website. I mainly use 120 film, rarely 35mm, some 4"x5" and can barely spell digital. I had an Epson 4490 Photo Scanner in the past but it died several years ago. I may start using GIMP or Fauxto$hop to make digital masks so I recently bought an Epson V850 so that it will be useful for a long time. Does that help.

 

[MattKing]

You may want to visit Beau Photo and ask them about the scanning and digital printing services they are now providing in house. I believe they are using a higher end Epson for scanning. They can most likely give you an idea about the capabilities of what they have and use, and how much learning you are looking to do.

 

[StepheKoontz]

I picked up an Epson V600 and a copy of silverfast, and use it for lower rez scans of my B&W film. I found it super easy/fast to batch scan rolls of film and it gives me a great preview both for web display and to just see if there is something there worth trying to print. I honestly haven't tried doing any high rez scans to possibly print with it. I also have a Nikon 8000ED which I have used for that purpose, but they are $$$$$ and are very slow IMHO. I use the old nikon software when I do fire it up, maybe with silverfast it works faster/easier? I have found the nikon is VERY sensitive to film flatness and focus adjustment, the flatbed doesn't seem as critical. The nikon was such a pain to use and get good scans with, I rarely scanned film before I got the V600, it's now a part of every roll of film I shoot, in fact I am scanning some film right now with it

 

[Les Sarile]

I'm looking to scan both 35mm images (Kodachrome, E6, and black and white negatives) as well as 120 format (E6 and black and white) for posting on my site.

FYI, except for Coolscan+Nikonscan ICE (scratch and dust removal), all other scanners seems to have problems applying it on Kodachrome..

I would suggest that if you know someone - or have local access, to desktop scanners that you have them scan a few samples of your own shots so that you can have a good idea of the workflow and results.

I also have a Nikon 8000ED which I have used for that purpose, but they are $$$$$ and are very slow IMHO. I use the old nikon software when I do fire it up, maybe with silverfast it works faster/easier?

Nikon scanning speed was greatly increased with the V, 5000 and 9000 release cutting times by more than half. I didn't see any changes in speed using Vuescan with my 5000 & 9000 so I kept using Nikonscan.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

At the moment, I'm at work on building my website, with the objective of selling - for the most part - silver gelatin prints. I shoot both analogue (about 90 per cent of my work) and digital. In the case of the former, I'm looking to scan both 35mm images (Kodachrome, E6, and black and white negatives) as well as 120 format (E6 and black and white) for posting on my site. Obviously, for internet display, for both color and black and white, in both formats, I'm thinking low resolution. However, for the color work, with both 35mm and medium format, I'll be needing higher resolution scans, with the objective of printing inkjet prints. Suggestions on what to look for in a scanner, and price points? NB I'm a total neophyte with hybrid work.

I use a 24MP dslr for 35mm and 120 and an Epson v850 for 4x5 and 8x10. If you have a fair amount of work you need to digitize, the DSLR wins the speed race hands down, but takes a little bit of work to initially set up. For 4x5 and larger, the v800 or v850 is is slower, but delivers more useable pixels.