P3D Re: Slide scanner recommendations wanted

[michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Kersenbrock)]

> Most people on the list want to believe that there is no difference between
> a $1000 slide scanner and a $100 flatbed scanner.  So the conversation
> usually dies when the answer is, "buy an expensive slide scanner."  There
> are *no* cheap, good, easy solutions.

Although that is true, at least according to PC Magazine's testing
(which is about as extensive that I've been able to find so long as
 they test the one you're interested in), there's a $60 flatbed scanner
that operates about as well as the middle-of-the-pack ones (say, $350'ish).
So although testing shows a general price/quality relationship, statistics
applied to individual units or models may not hold up.  Good idea to
check testing if possible.

The recent PopPhotog tests for film scanners seemed to show Minolta's
scanner(s) to be particularly high performance for the cost.  But their
published testing criteria seemed much weaker than PC Magazine's for flatbeds,
so one has to take that into account as well.

Mike K.

P.S. - I have that $60 flatbed scanner, and with gamma adjustment it's fairly
       decent, and with a set of photoshop correction curves I
       made, a tiny bit better.  I like it as much as my older spendy model. :-)


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