Man it's hard sitting back and watching others post and not having anything to send up right now. For the last few weeks, I've been working mostly in slide film. Haven't had prints I could scan in and upload. That's about to change though, ordered my film scanner and it should be here next week. Woohooo...can finally finish the Trolloween series when it comes in. :) -=>Donald

So what scanner did you decide on? Curious minds want to know :-)

Me too ;)

• Mike feigns disinterest * lol - only kidding!!! Me too. (",)

Come on Donald spill the beans, Just whet scanner did you get. :0)

I sent a reply earlier today, but I had to answer the phone and the webpage timed out. So, when I hit the post button it just didn't save. Anyway, here goes again:

Decided to go with an older model so I could have enough money left to get a decent flash and possibly a 75-300mm lens this month. After searching around, I settled on the Minolta Dimage Scan Speed. From the reviews and everything I've seen, really does good quality scans. Good specs too:

2820 dpi (makes a 4032x2688 image from 35mm)
12bits/pixel (means you can input into PS at 16bits/channel for some sweet detail and tonal gradation)
3.6 DMax (slide film has a theoretical DMax of 3.6-3.8 I think)
All together resolution is equivalent to ~10.84 megapixels.

Picked it up factory refurbished off of E-bay. I don't want to "recommend" the guy I bought it from since I haven't gotten mine yet, but if the ad is to be believed, it is "new" refurbed from Minolta in the box with a 6 month warranty. These guys also have over 15000 feedback with under 200 negative (like a 75:1 ratio). So, not a recommendation but since they are going for a starting bid of $109 (buy it now at $119) with $22 shipping it might be worth the risk. When I get mine, I'll post to condition and whatnot (have tracking number on it now - scheduled to get here Tuesday).

That reminds me of a question that's been bugging me since I started researching film scanners. Take the hot new Canon EOS 1DS, the 11.1megapixel pro DSLR. It has an image array of 11.4megapixels and produces a max image that's 4064x2704 (just slightly larger than the image from the Scan Speed); which really comes out to 10.99megapixels. Anyway, what I keep wondering is how does a camera with an image array of 11.4mp create an image that's 11mp when it takes 3 of the array elements (1 each for R, G and B) to create 1 pixel? Is the reported array size of 11.4mp already taking this into account and the actual array has 34.2million elements?

Most film scanners don't have this problem (they don't split 1 pixel across 3 elements).

-=>Donald

If i had a better scanner not 3 duds that give me back dark off color scans, blurry , low dpi..... , I might shoot more film again. The price is deffinity right on this one and cheaper than the HP i was currently looking at . I would like to know how well you like it.