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Author Topic: photo negative scanner  (Read 1783 times)

gappie

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photo negative scanner
« on: December 08, 2009, 05:34:27 am »

my wife wants to buy a photo scanner, for the negatives. they are fairly cheap nowadays. we are not after some pro scanner, just one that does a nice enough job, anyone has some recommendations?

thanks
 :)
gab

to add a bit.. i was actually looking to something like this: http://www.filmscanner.info/en/ReflectaMemoScan.html
but then again, this seems like a nice all in one, since my hp scanner is very old and not so good anymore..http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1055.htm
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glynor

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Re: photo negative scanner
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2009, 09:17:33 am »

I have a Nikon and it is fantastic.  It is one of those "pro-jobs" though, so I don't have too much to add.  Except for this...

VueScan is the best scanning software on the planet.  It is way better than the $500 SilverFast suite, and compatible with just about every scanner under the sun.  And, for $40, you really can't go wrong.  Plus, the guy who develops it reminds me a lot of JRiver with how he releases updates to the application.  New versions come out about once a week (sometimes two, during the holidays especially), and he actually adds valuable features to new versions, rather than just pumping out bloat.  VueScan also has a really unique method of supporting scanners.  To use VueScan, you do not need to (or even want to) install the drivers that come with the scanner at all.  All of that is built-in to the application, and it always does a vastly superior job than any "consumer-grade" scanning software out there.  Most of the drivers that come with scanners are absolutely horrible.  They commonly break (or at least make run terribly) other software on the system via the TWAIN plugin architecture, block you from doing future upgrades, AND they typically have horrible quality issues as well.

Really can't recommend it highly enough, especially if you are going to be doing a lot of "batch" scanning.  There's a free trial too (and it used to be for "30 days" but enforced only by a nag-screen popup and your honor, though he might have changed this with recent versions).  Whatever scanner you end up getting, do yourself a favor and try it out before you even install the craptastic TWAIN drivers that come with the scanner.
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newsposter

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Re: photo negative scanner
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2009, 11:40:50 am »

x2^ on VueScan

www.hamrick.com
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gappie

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Re: photo negative scanner
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2009, 03:55:42 am »

Glynor, thanks a lot for the tip, i will give vuescan a try for sure. looks good and i found some interesting discussions comparing it to for instance the epson software.

newsposter: you mean the Reflecta x2?  ill check it out..

 :)
gab
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newsposter

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Re: photo negative scanner
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2009, 09:33:00 am »

nope.  commonly, 'x2' is web-board-ish for I agree with the immediately above post/recommendation.

Kind of a geeky 'mee-too'.
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gappie

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Re: photo negative scanner
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2009, 09:59:46 am »

nope.  commonly, 'x2' is web-board-ish for I agree with the immediately above post/recommendation.

Kind of a geeky 'mee-too'.
:-[ ah... the reviews for the x2 where not very good so i was already wonderring...  8)
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