I've got a stack of like 500 35mm photos from my trip to Idaho back in 1994. I'd always been a bit disappointed with most of them because I'd brought the undeveloped rolls back with me on the plane -- which means that they went through the X-Ray machine at the airports (switched flights in St. Paul), and had blamed that for the cruddy prints I got back from the photo mill.

Anyway, if you have looked in my photo gallery recently,
you'll see a few of those prints. Since I don't have a
scanner, I had to take a picture of the prints with my
digital camera to get them into the computer.

While the resolution is poor, even at full size right out
of the camera, I was very happy to discover that I could
clean these photos up quite a bit, digitally.

So now I want a scanner. A really good one. Preferably one
that will do 35mm negatives, and later, 4" X 5" large
format negatives for when (not if) I get a field camera,
etc.

This has got to be one of the best forums on the net to
ask for opinions/reviews of good quality scanners. And so
I'll do just that.

What would be your choice for a scanner, then, in the $500
or less price range?

TIA

Artemia

Scanner recommendations? yeah, rent it - s'good film, even if it is a little out-dated. Great concept, directings not bad and acting is as acting was back then.... 7/10. (",) (or is there another terminology for scanners us digi-minded people should know about? ;-))

Hey, I think it's usefull to know that they use two kinds of x-ray machines. Checked-in luggage is checked with pretty heavy radiation levels, so all your film that you leave in your checked in luggage will be completely gone. BUT if you take your undeveloped film onto a plane yourself, it's as good as impossible that it'll be influenced by the x-ray machines that you'll pass yourself. The machines they use nowadays are very low on radiation (mostly to protect the people who work with those machines all the time).....you can take a chance on that at every normal airport. However, in a lot of poor countries they still use older machines that might damage film - but even with those, it's still a small risc. Another exception is film like high speed IR, which can't handle any radiation. So next time, if you want to be sure, buy a photobag from LowePro, which has a protective bag for film. At the airport ask them if they can handcheck that small bag (you can take it out of the main bag easily), and throw the main bag into the x-ray machine.

DO NOT BUY A FLATBED WITH A TRANSPARENCY UNIT. I thought this would be the way to go (since I personally use 3 different film formats...35, Medium, and 4x5). so I bought an epson expression 636 with TPU.(worst purchase decision I have made in a long time) You will be SO disappointed with the results, and the resulting "noise" and lack of sharpness from these types of scans makes your images almost unuseable. To my knowledge, there are no desktop scanners that will do 4x5 film... Almost all desktop film scanners do APS(BOOOOO) and 35mm. There are a few that will now go up to medium format (120 film) Minolta, and Nikon both make models that I know of, but they cost around 3000$US.(new) There are some new desktop "drum" scanners ($$$$$) but even these will only handle up to medium format. So I guess what I'm saying is...If you don't shoot medium format, then you have LOTS of choices for affordable 35mm film scanners. And If you do get a large format camera, you are better off taking your images to get scanned by pros. (I don't reccommend EVER sending your original negs/slides anywhere...photoCDs,etc. Try to get involved in the process.) Just remember..If you want to scan film and slides, get a FILM scanner.

Agree with nplus... don't buy a fladbed scanner with transparency film adaptor ujnless you find a second hand Heidelberg Saphir Ultra 2. This one and the later models like the 1200 FireWire from Heidelberg-hell are the only onmes i've seen that lead to decent results. BTW a good film scanner is the Nikon's CoolScan 2000 and the 4000 one. My advice is for the 4000 but costs nearly 1500 and does ONLY the 35mmm. The only scanner that could be interesting to do 4x5, and 6x6 is the Kodak but costs more than 8000... =P No budget 4x5 scanners... and no budget 35mm ones... if you are looking for something that workz anyway Microtech scanners are good enough and has nice ColorSync profiles (if ya have a mac o'corz), thay are costly anyway... but a bit less than Nikon ones. The cheeper solution is the last EPSON scanner with transparency film cover... 1660(?), don't remember exactly... it's not bad... but absolutely not a professional one... =I