Scanner purchase advice

[Gordo]

I am just starting my quest for a new scanner. Before I go to far I was wondering if anyone had any advice.

What I am looking for is high quality scans for little money:

1) Must scan negatives:
- 35mm
- 120
2) Must scan pictures
3) Likely will be able to scan slides

Thanks for the advice

[Littleshmee]

Define "little money"...

In the world of scanners, the Canoscan 8400F is a relatively cheap, high quality (according to PC Mag's Review (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1712301,00.asp)) For $250 Canadian, that's what I've got my eye on.

I've heard most of the Epson perfections are good too.

[Gary Sheynkman]

You should look into the Canon line. They have just about any scanner you might need!

[Suhit Gupta]

I've actually always gone HP. Their Photosmart scanners are all under US$100. For double that amount, you can get into their Scanjet series... good stuff.

Suhit

[Gordo]

In answer to the money question, I don't want to spend $1,000 on a scanner. I started my quest based on the 8400F and discovered the CanoScan 9950F which is listed at $400 US.

I am just not sure what kind of quality you get when you scan a negative on a flat bed scanner.

Does anyone know the the typical file size I can expect when scanning a 35mm film using this type of scanner?

Thanks

[Littleshmee]

From your original post, it sounds like you want a more versatile scanner than a dedicated film scanner. I think the major issues with flatbeds are speed and dust. Theorically, the 8400F should give an image size of around 13 Megapixels (from a 35mm frame scanned at 3200dpi).

My friend has the 5000F, and his 8x12's scanned from slides (printed on a fuji frontier) are hard to tell from prints directly from the slides, with the major problem being dust. He says it also takes forever to scan each frame, but it sounds like the 8400F fixes that problem.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

There's a darn good Epson, 4800 I think? Check it out. Seen samples from it, combined with the printout from a 2100, and was very impressed.