I will soon be in the market for a scanner. What, in your opinions, is a good scanner nowadays, or a model that you've been happy with? I won't be using it to generate any murals, but need one that is fairly good for high res. magazine work.
Thanks!
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
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I'm impressed with the SCITEX iQ Smart series of scanners, but consider getting the full FLAAR report on scanners so you can shop around for yourself.
FLAAR produces reports for scanners & printers that can be downloaded for a reasonable price, considering the quality of the research. Kinda like Consumer Reports but specific for graphics professionals shopping around for new equipment.
http://www.flatbed-scanner-review.org/Scitex_flatbed_scanners_reviews/Scitex_Jazz_flatbedscanner.html
Without my sense of direction, I don't know where I'd be.
Thank you. I'll check out FLAAR's reviews.
ttfn!
3dogmama
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Well, intersting links, but the scanner reports don't seem to be really up-to-date (latest report circa 2005 ????)
maybe if you wouldn't read and bump 16 month old posts, that wouldn't happen.
so true :)
Well, I better looked at the site since my previous comment (as anonymous), and I think I'm not really concerned about it, as I can afford a $3000+ scanner.
Any other good place to find information about $500 -> $700 A4+35mm scanner ?
This range of prices is poorly documented on the web. All I can find are reviews for professional companies scanners and budget scanners.
I'm looking for something able to scan my 35mm negatives for an A4 publication and drawings/paintings I do.
Any advices for website with such info ?
Scanners in that range are poorly documented on the Web because they sell themselves in chain office supply stores. As "mass market" quality, they tend not to see long service, and/or are quickly replaced by the next shiny thing on display.
If you want to do a good job of scanning your negs, you will need to invest in a good scanner. I use the Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, which came with plastic frames that hold 35 mm slides film and several other film formats on the scanning plate. The accompanying software allows for appropriate adjustments. Granted, this isn't by any means the latest, or best, scanner on the market for professionals, but it's representative of what you'll need to spend for entry-level choices. I think I spent about $1,500.00 on my scanner a few years ago. Surely there are better prices out there now for comparable, or better, equipment.
You might be better off having a limited number of slides scanned for you at a photo lab on an as-needed basis.
Mara
Cannon produce excellent scanners,
they have a good pedigree with years of experience producing photocopiers.
Graphic Design Manchester
Their camera pedigree notwithstanding, my experience with Canon has been abysmal. I couldn't wait to unload the last two of their products that I owned. Perhaps it depends upon what model you acquire, and how it blends with the rest of your system.
Welcome to CreativeBits, by the way :-)
Mara
if you can afford to put it on your desktop. By that I mean, high-end drum scanners and flatbed Scitext scanners are the only ones that can handle 35mm slides and transparencies with spectacular results. The $100-$900 scanners you find on a store shelf or in a catalog like MacMall just aren't that great for truly high-end work.
Now that being said, if you don't need transparency support, and you aren't looking to enlarge a 3x5 photo to a 30x60 poster - there are a lot of great options.
My motto has been Epson for imaging. Epson just makes really great scanners and printers for color work. The only downside to Epson is that they aren't exactly quick with driver updates. So a scanner you buy today may not work as well, or at all, after the next OSX or Adobe Photoshop update.
Virtually everything is already digital these days, so scanners aren't the necessary piece of equipment for most designers like they used to be. I use a relatively cheap HP all-in-one printer/scanner combo and it produces pretty decent results for the few times a year I actually need to scan something - provided the original is on glossy stock to begin with. Anything on an uncoated or matte finish stock and the scan actually is good enough that it shows all the pits in the paper.
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Agreed. I'll add that I only use my Epson scanner now and then, usually just to feed a sketch into Photoshop to make paths for Illustrator. Normally, clients give me digital photos, but if I get large transparencies or prints for a very high-end job, I take 'em to a photo lab for drum scans.
Mara
Thanks for these comments. I had already pointed the scitex-creo scanners. They seem to have been rebranded under Kodak name. So it is difficult to find them, except for the IQSmart series, which is far too expensive for me.
An Epson seems to be I need. I've seen an Epson Perfection 4870 Photo in 2nd hand for 350€ ($500). I wonder if I should buy it.
Epson Scanner Perfection V700 Photo and Epson Scanner Perfection V750 Pro seem to be great value scanners too.
$500 seems a lot for a used 4870. The replacement model is the V500, which you can buy new for less than half that. If I were you, I'd probably get that -- and again, I would use a photo lab for really high-end stuff.
Mara
Indeed, that was my second option: a not too expensive scanner for my graphical works that don't need an high-end scanner, and the use of a photo lab for the high-end stuff.
I'm going to find some of the epson scanner in order to test them in see by myself how they behave.
Thanks.
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