Best 35mm film scanner available today?

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Paul-H

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Not sure if this is in the correct section so would a mod please move if not, Thanks

Many years ago I used to have a couple of good quality film scanner, both Minolta Offerings one that could do 120 film at an optical resolution of 4000dpi and one that could do 35mm film at an optical resolution of 5400dpi.

Sadly I no longer own either scanner as they where sold for peanuts when I stepped away from Photography a few years ago. But now I am getting back into it I was looking for a modern 35mm film scanner of a similar quality to the Minolta 5400 but sadly I have been unable to find any, are there any high quality scanners still made, I do have an Epson scanner that can do both formats at 4800dpi but the quality is not a match for the old dedicated film scanners. I have looked on the Bay of Evil but the few that are there go for a small fortune compared to what they cost new.

So anyone know of a modern film scanner that can scan a true 4000dpi or above.

Thanks for any help with this

Paul
 
i use a digital camera and macro lens, just need to sort out how to get the pics denser
 
Buy another minolta. The one that does 120 are still fetching £1200 though and the original scan dual elite 5400 is still fetching £500. I have the 5400ii and hell will freeze over before I part with it :) If you have a fixed amount to scan in then buy one, use it then sell it and you shouldn't lose that much.

There are few scanners that match the ability and resolution of those minoltas even now. I think the nikon 9000 and 8000 eds are the only ones. Again expensive. I'd check out local car boots and general auction sales in case a numpty is getting rid of one.

Other alternative is a second hand drum scanner but they're much more of a fiddle to get and keep working but they produce better results than even the minoltas do.

This is the best site for finding out real resolutions and scanning ability:
http://www.filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html
 
You're probably better asking the mods directly (via the Report button) to move this thread to the Film & Conventional forum, where you'll get more attention. Suz is a regular there. There are quite a few threads on scanners, but the consensus is that most consumer scanners have MUCH less actual resolution than quoted. I can never remember which way round it works, but you have to have both the optical resolution and the mechanical resolution working together to get the real resolution, and usually one of them is much weaker. The higher resolutions tend to be just more file space but no more signal. (Vuescan, the most commonly used scanning program these days, possibly, has a setting where you can scan at, say, 4800 and then save at 2400, which is useful for some scanners which don't have enough mechanical stability to do multipass.)

For 35mm, there's consensus that the dedicated 35mm scanners outperform the flatbeds, and very good things have been said about some of the higher spec Reflecta scanners. I have a Plustek 7500i, and it certainly does the job for me. Supposedly it can scan to 7200 dpi, but IIRC if you set it at 3600 you're getting around 2000 dpi of real resolution. I scan my ordinary stuff at maybe 1200, better at 1800, and anything I'm interested in at 2400 dpi, often with 4 passes, a 5th multi-exposure pass, and a light infra-red cleaning pass. Resulting files are around 8 mpixel, and print pretty well up to around A3 size.
 
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