This is for those of you who still develop and scan your photos. I'm still using the scanner I got a few years back bundled with this old 'trash' computer that's hooked to the internet. I've got my new reved up machine with my photoshop and photoimpact loaded. I chose different options on it so that I could choose my scanner because I am SO dissapointed in the old one. I don't get what I see even with the in-machine adjustments. I need one especially for photography, also drawings and watercolor on paper works. What are you using?

I bought an Epson Perfection 1260 about a year ago, and it's holding up well. It's not top of the line, especially not anymore, but I think it does a good job, and has a good TWAIN interface to Photoshop.

Thanks, that's the kind of info I'm looking for. I'll look into that model.

no scanners are specifically made for that purpose they all more or less do the same thing - forget about huge interpolated resolutions - go for a good optical resolution and more importantly get one with the highest density value (d-max) your budget will stretch to. you could also try downloading ICC profiles from paper manufacturers (Epson have many different sorts including fine art and textured paper profiles available to download) and try scanning using these profiles to see if that improves matters.

Optical res. density value. I'm making my list. I'll also check for the paper profiles. Oh, and I've been meaning to tell you, Love the Emo Phillips tag line.

thanks :-)

Scanners, an interesting subject. I guess one needs to ask, what they wish to use the images for. Do I want to post to the web, make small prints or do professional work (large prints - anything above 8 x 10 inches)? And finally what film format and how much do you want to spend.
I am a professional photographer and have the need to be able to scan straight from film. There are 5 or 6 very good scanners for 35 mm film. I have chosen the Nikon LS5000 Super Cool-Scan. Minolta and Sony also make good film scanners. I can scan at 4000 Pixel/Inch at 16-bit depth. Send a file on either CD or a Super Zip Disk (750MB) to Slide Printer in Colorado and have them printed 20 x 30, and not be able to tell it is a digital image. It can also handle scans for the web with excellent resolution.
For scanning prints I like the later Epson models, I use the Photo RX500. For a flatbed scanner it does marvelous work.
As for the Nikon LS5000 it runs around $950 to $1200, depending on where you purchase it. I was lucky and paid $950 for mine through "New Egg.com”. My flatbed was $250 from Comp USA. The flatbed also comes with a lite version of ABBYY optical character recognition software. Boy sure does work well.
Hope this helps someone trying to decide what to purchase.

the new kid on the block as far as A4 scanners is the new Epson Perfection 4870. with a very good resolution, repro grade DMAX colour density, v.trick scanning software and built in trannie adapter it cant be beaten. At $440 dollars it's not exactly cheap but for what you are getting it's a serious piece of kit for the money.

I have aan HP 5370C Scanjet with a negative scanner light box. It does rather well, and has held up well and I beat the heck out of it.
I've even considerd taking my old HP and standing it up right and adding a flat plain lens and turning it into a still image high rez camers. So to see what I can get out of it.

Update - out of curiosity i bought one of the aforementioned epson 4870's and it rocks. not totally suitable for what i do as it's only A4 but for the money it's a great little machine that comes complete with lots of different dry mount transparency holders and some excellent software. One point though - forget the bundled Silverfast SE software - it's far too clever for it's own good and Epson's own included digital ICE scan software beats it hands down for quality and ease of use.