On 1 Sep 2004 at 6:47, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > Yeah, it's spendy new, but sometimes a good deal may be had on a used one. It's > all a matter of value and what one can justify, and what kind of luck one has > finding a good deal. Imacon recently dropped prices on some new models, but > they're still quite spendy. Perhaps with the greater acceptance of digital > cameras scanners will, like film cameras, drop in price.
The LS-9000 is far cheaper than the scanner it replaced (I know the painful way) but I don't see film scanners as such becoming more mainstream from this point on, I can see them maintaining sales for a few years then becoming a relative rarity. The Imacon/Hasselblad buy-out is a fair indication of the lack of future in a pure film scanning market. > However, I'd really like to see a well designed consumer level scanner > ($1,000 or so) that has some solid features, keeps the film flat, and the > specs of which are real rather than marketing hype. Nikon's dMax of 4.6 is only > theoretical, and I'll bet id doesn't even come close to that. Have you ever > compared the shadow detail between your scanner and, for example, an Imacon 646 > or 848 (I think those are the numbers)? I'd love to see some of those Imacon > results in a more affordable consumer scanner. Film flatness and sharp scans > are only one part of the equation. I haven't had an opportunity to compare the LS-8000 to any Imacon but there are scattered details across the web, for example: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/scanners/nikon-8000.shtml http://www.kenrockwell.com/minolta/mp.htm The new LS-9000 is retailing at under US$2k whereas the 14bit Imacon Precision III Scanner is retailing at over US$11k and the Imacon Flextight 848 Scanner is retailing at a tad under US$18k, it would want to be good. Cheers, Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
