i am getting more and more into liking my new m6. i decided to get rid of my digital olympus e-10 and get a film scanner. i thought i would take the nikon coolscan IV ED. now i read a couple of times that this one is not so suited for black&white due to the ICE-system. is that a problem? is there any better scanner in this price range?

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001

Answers

The ICE isn't such a difficult thing, just turn it off when scanning B&W films. However, I've gotten very good results with a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II which is about half the price (2820ppi, dmax 3.2, 12bit/channel, about $430 from B&H).

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), December 03, 2001.

I'm with Godfrey on this one - I have a Minolta Scan Dual II and it works very well, and is half the price of the Nikon. All of the work at my website - Available Dark - was done on the Minolta.

However I would suggest taking a look at Ed Hamrick's Vuescan, which can do multiple passes with the Minolta. This is a great help in improving scans, especially reducing posterization and the "spiky fingers of death" that very contrasty photos can generate in their histograms. I recommend it highly. It costs only $40.

-- Colin (Colin@hatespam.HELL.COM), December 03, 2001.

I scan Ilford XP-2 Plus with the Nikon 4000 ED, but find that 3000 ppi is plenty sufficient. I choose XP-2 because I CAN use ICE which saves time retouching.

The scanner is wonderful for slides however...

-- Michael Rivers (mrivers@mac.com), December 03, 2001.

I had little luck with Minolta Scan Dual II (though I liked it predecessor -- original Scan Dual). Dust seems to be a big problem, causing streaking on the scans.

IMHO the best scanner on the market for B&W is Polaroid Sprintscan 4000. 4000 dpi, 3.6 dynamic range, 12 bits/channel. No Digital ICE, but it is useless with B&W anyway. Can be had for ~$550 new after rebate (B&H prices).

As for me I just bought Coolscan IV as I do alot of C-41 and E-6.

Alexander

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), December 04, 2001.

To Alexander....

Alexander;

I am ready to buy the Polaoid SS 4000 but want to know if it will scan a full frame negative? My Nikon LS2000 cuts off at least 2 sides of my negatives and I want my next scanner to scan full frame. Your comments?

Best and Thanks.

Michael Hintlian

-- Michael Hintlian (102144.2651@compuserve.com), December 04, 2001.

Michael,

For an opinion on full frame scans check out this thread here, too: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a- fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=007GDN. Cheers.

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), December 04, 2001.