I've been using the Acer ScanWit 2740S for a couple of months now, with a great deal of enjoyment. To put things in perspective-- I'm definitely a non-expert amateur, with zilch previous experience in scanning or photo printing. I was persuaded to get the Acer after the flurry of positive reviews on this list, indicating it was preferable to the low-end Minolta, which seemed to be having quality control problems. I tried them both out, side-by-side, and found the Acer yielded, for me, consistently superior results, with less effort-- but that may have all been learning curve.
I've found that Viewscan and Photoshop 5.0 LE is an extremely poweful combination, letting me get usable prints out of seriously underexposed negatives. For sheer simplicity, the bundled Miraphoto/Photoshop combination can't be beat on properly exposed negatives. Grain aliasing is a topic that comes up on scanners in this price range. I have no words of wisdom (I'm too green), but except on the abovementioned *seriously* underexposed negatives, on 400 ASA film, I haven't noticed any. The Acer comes with an OEM SCSI card. Since this is the only SCSI component on my rig, I can's speak to compatability issues. It went in and functioned properly with absolutely no fuss. I hope this is of help. On Wed, 3 Oct 2001 17:59:07 +0100, you wrote: >On Tue, 2 Oct 2001 09:25:32 -0500, Maris V. Lidaka, Sr. wrote: >> I would look at scanners with "Digital ICE" or other dust and scratch >> removal features - e.g. the Nikons, some of the Minoltas, the Acer 2740, and > >I have been considering the Acer - have you used one? -- http://www.geocities.com/smprastein