[APML] Film Scanners

["Patrick M. Florer" <pflorer@pmflorer.com>]

Greetings !

I have been following the discussions on this list for a few months now, and
have finally summoned up the gumption to ask a few questions.

I am interested in purchasing a film scanner, for both general photographic
use, as well as astrophotographic use.

On the general photography side, I have inherited an archive of family
pictures and slides, going back to the 1940's, which I would like to
digitize and save on CD-ROM or DVD.  I am also spending a lot of money on
film printing and picture and photo cd's.  Once in a while I get a picture
that is worth keeping, but, by and large, I am wasting a lot of paper on
prints that I have no place to store and no wish to keep.

On the astrophotographic side, I am pretty much a beginner - I have a TAK
FS-102 on an EM-10 mount, all kinds of adapters, etc, and Nikon F-3 and
F-100 camera bodies, but no guiding mechanism like an off-axis guider, ST-4
or STV, so I am limited at present to fairly short exposures.

I have had some luck photographing the sun from my front yard through a
Thousand Oaks Type II+ filter, but not much success yet with night-time
objects.  I have a feeling that some of my attempts would look better if I
subjected them to the kinds of scanning and processing which I read about so
often on this list.

I have looked through the APML archives a little bit, but haven't found
anything too useful yet.

There are three scanners which look interesting to me right now:

1)	Kodak RFS 3600 - about $900-1,000 to purchase - 3,600 dpi, USB or
SCSI II - 100 rolls of Kodak film (which I could use!) included if purchased
by 12/31/01

2)	Polaroid SS4000 - about $750 to purchase - 4,000 dpi - $200 rebate -
but, since Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 protection a few weeks ago, I have
substantial questions about warranty, support, and whether the Bankruptcy
court will allow them to honor the rebate offer.

3)	Nikon Coolscan 4000 - about $1600 to purchase, which is more that I
really want to spend - and, I have heard some mention that the LED light
source in the Nikon poses a problem for scanning certain kinds of astrophoto
negatives.

Any feedback, comments, or alternative suggestions will be appreciated.

Regards,

Patrick Florer







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