Looking for a general purpose (as well as film) home scanner

[steve_robb1]

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been trolling through past posts about scanner recommendations and found

lots of good info on film scanners (mostly flatbed). The Epson 4490 sounded

pretty good for my needs, until I read somewhere online that it's no good for

general document scanning... dang...

 

My situation is: My wife has returned to study, and is finding that a scanner

would be very handy to have around, so I need something that is a good general

purpose document & print scanner, as well as having the facility to scan slides

and negatives in both 35mm and 120 formats (whether that's built into the hood,

or a seperate attachment I don't know). I don't plan to send scanned films off

for print, I'd probably still get 'real' prints made from the original

negatives, but having said that, I know that once I get a few images in and

tweaked in PS, I'll want to get them printed. So while initially I thought I'd

just need something with good enough quality for monitor viewing, I guess

really I'll end up wanting for something of better quality.

 

So, does anyone have experience with a good 'general' all-round scanner? I'm

only looking to spend a few hundred $ at this stage, further down the track

when my Mrs has finished her study and we're back on two wages, then I might

look at a dedicated film scanner just for myself, but until then... compromise

is the key... as I'm sure you all know!

 

Thanks for your input, I'll look forward to researching any recommendations.

And I do sincerely appologise for yet another "Please Recommend" post, I just

couldn't find what I was after!

 

Cheers,

Steve

[Ed_Ingold]

I use an Epson 2450 for general document scanning, and it works well despite being touted as a transparency (i.e., film) scanner. I see no reason why other Epson photo scanners could not be used for documents. The 2450 is supplied with a white cover for the light source in the lide, as are my other two older Epson scanners.

[custom film holders for fl]

You received some not so good information. In general, the 4490 is pretty much as good as any other consumer flatbed when it comes to basic reflective scanning, and for the money it is also a decent film scanner (keeping in mind it is a flatbed).

 

Doug Fisher

[wgpinc]

The Epson V750 is the best bang for the buck scanner out there. My brother worked in a pro lab where they had one and used it for almost everything unless they moved up to the Imacon.

 

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=63056500

 

Good luck!

[steve_robb1]

Thanks for the response, it's good to know that I was misinformed! Thanks Gil, I'll look up that V750 too and read up on it.

 

Thanks again!