EDDP From Germany, joined Jun 2001, 18 posts, RR: 0 Posted (10 years 9 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 646 times:
Hello,
i am a more "conservative" person, but i ´d like to know some more things about scanning slides. As i visited "Saturn" there was a big variety of devices to scan slides. One was called Nikon Coolscan IV ED (max 2900ppi) , and was quite expensive. Is it worth the money ?? Or should a beginner better buy a scanner in price class around 300$ (max 1800ppi). The Nikon is able to scan also negative slides and APS systems.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Bodobodo From Canada, joined May 2000, 553 posts, RR: 15 Reply 1, posted (10 years 9 months 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 607 times:
The slide scanner that I started with and still use is the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II and I'm satisfied with it. I don't doubt that some of the higher range Nikons and some of the 4000 dpi scanners will do a better job but they will cost you quite a bit more. I believe the Scan Dual II is probably in the $300 to $400 US range but I live in Canada so I'm not 100% sure. It can do both 35mm slides and negatives but needs an extra adapter if you want to scan APS films.
A lot will depend on what you want to do with the scans. I post a lot to Airliners.net and keep digital versions of my slides but I don't tend to make printouts or enlargements of them so the Scan Dual II is just fine for me. The quality that I am getting from the scans seems more than good enough for getting my shots accepted here.
You can see some examples of Scan Dual II scans by clicking the link below. Most are done from Fuji Sensia II slides although some are from Provia 100F or various negative films (anything before mid-October 2000). The scan results from both slides and negatives are good.
Sonic99 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (10 years 9 months 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 603 times:
You'll probably get quite a few good comments in this thread. Although I have no first-hand knowledge of slide scanners there are many reviews on the Internet that will help you in your decision. These reviews are plentiful at photographyreview.com
Jwenting From Netherlands, joined Apr 2001, 10213 posts, RR: 25 Reply 3, posted (10 years 9 months 6 days ago) and read 586 times:
I second the quality of the Minolta Scan Dual II, especially in combination with Vuescan (though others have gotten identical results with just the supplied software).
Only minus I have found is a bad tendency to of the firmware to sometimes crash, usually taking Windows (2000Pro) with it. I am now reapplying SP2 to see if that fixes things.
I have seen excellent results from the Nikon CS IV as well. The main reason I dropped it from my list was the SCSI interface (I have no room in my PC for a SCSI card). The only USB Nikon (CS 4000) is too expensive for me).
Ckw From UK - England, joined Aug 2010, 324 posts, RR: 19 Reply 5, posted (10 years 9 months 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 573 times:
The Nikon 4000 uses Firewire - very fast, and will (probably) become the default standard for imaging devices.
Back to the original question ... how serious are you about this? How much and for what do you intend to use the scanner? I started with the original HP Photosmart ... which I thought was fine at the time, though looking back at scans made from this, I wouldn't consider any of them of acceptable standard now, and doubt any would get on A.net these days.
I upgraded to a Nikon Coolscan 3, and now a Nikon 4000. In my opinion, the Coolscan 3 (now replaced by the IV) is a fine scanner - and I think this is the area you should consider for a first purchase. Other candidates in this bracket are the Minolta Dualscan II and Canon FS2700, All are capable of producing very professional results. Anything less ... frankly, if you are taking this anyway seriously, you will soon become frustrated and want to upgrade. Anything more ... well I bought the 4000 since I have a requirement to produce high res A3 prints, and still want enough resolution to crop the output from the scanner. But unless you have a need to produce very large high res output, I doubt any 4000dpi scanner could be justified.
Wlwjr From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 72 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (10 years 9 months 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 554 times:
I just got a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II two weeks ago after my HP S20 had some problems. (I'm glad it did). For the money the Minolta seems top notch. For the fun of it, I looked at the more expensive Nikon scanners. For scanning slides for posting on the net and on such sites as airliners.net, I personally didn't see any reason to go to the extra expence, and the Dimage Scan Dual II does the job very very well.
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