What Film Scanner Should I Buy?Q: I recently bought a cut-price Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D) and have got back into photography in a big way. I want to make use of the slides I took years back and I'd like to be able to print large photos on my A3 photo printer. I know I need a film scanner but which one should I buy? A: I bought a Minolta Scan Elite II film scanner a couple of years back which I was very happy with. The current Konica/Minolta DiMAGE 5400 II scanner has great resolution (5400 dpi) and a fast scan speed but is marginally more expensive ($570) than the Nikon CoolScan V ED (4000 dpi, $550) which comes with more software and a better user interface (it's the scanner I now own). While the Konica/Minolta scanner offers higher resolution, it doesn't seem to resolve any more detail than the Nikon scanner. They're actually limited by the physical grain size on film itself, even for fine grain films like Fuji Velvia or Provia. Both scanners have ICE4 which cleans up images but the Nikon user interface gives you better control over all the various settings and image enhancement options. If speed is important (it might be if you need to scan a huge number of slides) then the Konica/Minolta scanner is the one to go for. The Nikon is fast (but not as fast as the Konica/Minolta) and there's really only about $20 in the price difference.
Subscribe NOW to "The LensMan" newsletter. It's informative, fun and, above all, free! |
