The best desktop units are the Imacon line, starting at $5grand. You have to figure how many scans a year you do vs. how much you would pay to Westcoast for those scans including shipping, and see if the cost of having the Imacon is justified along with the convience of having it right there. There is something to be said about outsourcing, you can be free to go out and shoot, and have the scans "done for you" without the learning curve and feeling "chained" to your desktop doing scans. It all depends what types of tasks give you satisfaction. The Tango is the best, but at what level will you notice the Imacon start to look not as good? For inkjet printing at anysize, the Imacons will be more than adequate ( Assuming it is being operated properly. Scanning is a whole 'nother artform, and that's where Westcoast is comming from). For a 16x20 coffetable book on Glen Canyon printed in Japan on Consolidated Centura Gloss with a 375 line screen, you may see the benefits of a tango scan. If you are scanning 35mm, and will be making huge prints on the Epson 10000, then you really have one choice- a Tango scan mounted with Kami fluid on the drum. That film is just too small to get a really good scan on anything less.
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Re: The State of Personal Scanner Technology
2002-10-10 by John Luke