>i wish to scan 35mm negatives so i can print photos to A3 and A2 size >16 x 20 inch and 32 x 40 inch > >i am looking at these 3 scanners >any experineces or advice
Just bought the F-2900 few weeks ago. I have not used other film scanners so I cannot compare. As far as I can tell, it seems to bring out the detail pretty well, but not on par with Kodak PhotoCD (4000dpi). It is prone to show any flaws on films even the films look perfectly clean with my eyes. ICE works well, but it's not 100%, and it reduces the sharpness a bit, only a bit. Some deep scratches will remain but much less severe, still much better than without ICE. Touch up after applying ICE is much easier and much less time consuming than without it. However, ICE doesn't work with monochrome. I managed to scan them by choosing "colour negative" and then turned the scans into monochrome again n Photoshop. This way, I can still use ICE. Seems to work so far, but I have not done enough monochrome to know if this method works all the time. Consider the amount of time required to touch up the scans without ICE, I scan all my films with it on. Colour correction could be problematic with some negatives, but never a problem with slides. However, some dense slides might appear a bit dark on the scans. The details on shaded areas are there, but you might need to boost the contrast or brightness of the monitor to notice them (I am no expert on calibration). I have not tested the Vuescan much so I do not know if it is much better than the original Minolta software which I am quite happy with so far. But do expect some fine tuning in Photoshop no matter how good the scans are (usually brightness and contrast). 8bit/channel scan with ICE is fast, but 16bit/channel with ICE and multipass (2/4/8/16) could take forever. My scanner comes with Adaptec 2903B SCSI card which I don't know much. The only con is that the front of the scanner should have a dust cover. But then again, it was selling CAD600 only so I am not complaining. >From what I have gathered so far, Canon 27xx film scanners "seem" to be the worst compared to Nikon and Minolta. don't know about their 4000. If you do 300dpi prints, this scanner can do roughly 8.6x13" after chopping. regards, Alan Chan _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
