Stuart Redler wrote; > > I'm thinking of buying a scanner for 120 film but don't really want > to fork out for an Imacon, which although seem excellent are also > pretty expensive. Does anyone have experience of the Nikon and > Minolta scanners that cost +-�2000? The scans will be for libraries - > Getty etc.
Hi Stuart, I have had a Nikon Coolscan 8000 for almost two years now and have mostly been very happy with the quality of output from it. The Digital Ice software to clean up scratches etc is excellent, with very little image softening, and I leave that option permanently switched on. I use it for both 120 and 35mm. There are times when it is just not good enough, for example Fuji Velvia, it does not cope with the high contrast range in that film well. I often have to resort to two scans at different gain setting to capture detail in both highlights and shadows, followed by merging the two scans within Photoshop. This is time consuming, and at the moment I am getting a couple of images drum scanned to compare with my Coolscan 8000. If anyone out there knows of a way to consistently get good scans from Velvia on the Coolscan 8000 I love to know how! It has in the main coped well with colour negative films I have used, but not Fuji Reala, which I stopped using because it resulted in very noisy scans. Overall I would say buy it if your budget simply cannot stretch to say an Imacon, or even better, a drum scanner. Before buying get the retailer to scan a film for you on both an Imacon and Nikon or Minolta scanner, the results will help you decide what to do, and retailers will be happy to do this for you. Best wishes Gordon C Harrison Landscapes For Every Mood Ltd web http://www.gordon-c-harrison.co.uk Tel 01445 731557 =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
