Anyone bought a new scanner recently?

Minolta scanners, scanner support and replacement choices
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Dusty
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Anyone bought a new scanner recently?

Unread post by Dusty »

Has anyone bought a new scanner recently that they're happy with? Or even tried one out?

I only have an old Epson 4490, and scans are very slow and not that great. Recently, I was contacted by someone who wants to do a documentary on a social movement that happened 30 years ago, and I have thousands of photos that they want. Well, they want some of them, it's just that I have to scan them all so they can pick the ones they want out.

They are willing to buy me a scanner, as I don't want to spend 2 years scanning old negatives using the Epson, and even if I updated to a newer Epson, it will take forever.

I plan on pre-selecting what they kinda want, scanning at med resolution and sending the pics to them so they can select which ones they want and then doing a high res scan.

I'm thinking the new Pacific Image one that's just coming out, as the old one had good reviews and the new one is supposed to be much faster.

Any thoughts?

Dusty
An a700, an a550 and couple of a580s, plus even more lenses (Zeiss included!).
Javelin
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Re: Anyone bought a new scanner recently?

Unread post by Javelin »

I think that scanner is for slides. is that what you have? My Epson is a few years old but i can put 8 or 10 slides on the platter and the scanner will make separate files from them all and ICE works well to clean them up in an automated way. I'm not sure what the newer driver would be like. it's been a while since I've used it and I'm sure it's improved.
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bakubo
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Re: Anyone bought a new scanner recently?

Unread post by bakubo »

I use a 35mm film scanner for my slides and negatives that I bought in 2000. It is a Minolta Dimage Scan Elite F-2900 film scanner and instead of the Minolta software I use the superior Vuescan. I have been using Vuescan since it was beta version 0.7 in 1998 (command line utility way back then). This is the scanner I use:

https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DSE/DSEA.HTM

I have been scanning since 1997 using various film scanners. I wrote about the experience of scanning (this applies to "scanning" using a camera and macro lens too):

Scanning Torture (or Learning to Love Your Digital Camera) -- Part 1

http://bakubo.blogspot.com/2013/12/scan ... -love.html

Over 10,000 35mm slides and negatives scanned! -- Part 2

http://bakubo.blogspot.com/2014/01/over ... tives.html

Update on scanning color negatives -- Part 3

http://bakubo.blogspot.com/2019/12/upda ... tives.html

I have not looked at more recent scanners. Good luck!

This scanner is packed away back in the U.S. We came back to Japan in November 2019 and have not been outside Japan since then. Lots of trips inside Japan though during the last 3 years. I hope to go somewhere next year though.
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the_hefay
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Re: Anyone bought a new scanner recently?

Unread post by the_hefay »

I have a Nikon coolscan V that I use for 35mm slides and negatives. I, too, use the vuescan software which seems to work much better than the Nikon software ever worked. It's old but does the trick. Not sure if there are any used ones out there on ebay or not.
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bakubo
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Re: Anyone bought a new scanner recently?

Unread post by bakubo »

In the last few months I have found that the Topaz programs I have (Photo AI, Denoise AI, Sharpen AI, Gigapixel AI) can often do great work with old film scans (print scans too). I start off with letting them automatically choose the settings and then usually adjust from there. Photo AI which basically includes most of the functionality of the other 3 programs into one keeps getting better and I have mostly started using it when I want to get a scan prepared.
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