Digital BW, The Print

Randy Rancier wrote:
> Can any of you offer any other or better recommendations than what I 
> have concluded below?
> I am in the market for a good used scanner that will handle medium 
> format negs.  My current budget will not allow me the $1000, or so, 
> for a used or refurbed Coolscan 8000's on eBay; in fact $500 is 
> currently more than I can spend.  Unless any of you know of some 
> older medium format film scanner models that can be had cut rate I 
> will probably invest in a Epson 2450 or 3200 $150 - $300 or so.  I 
> understand one can get pretty good 11X14's from 2 1/4 negs, I will be 
> doing mostly 8X10's for a while anyway; and I could scan some of my 
> old 4X5's to boot.  While I will eventually upgrade to a medium 
> format film scanner in the future, from what I know, there aren't any 
> older model medium format film scanners out there; is there???
> 
> Was the Coolscan 8000 the first Nikon Scanner that would handle 
> medium format?
> 
> Thanks for everyones input, I respect all of your opinions!
> Randy

At that budget I would suggest the Epson 4870 and slightly below 
it the 3200. Use wet mounting like I have described it at the 
Epson 3200 Yahoo list. Pay attention to masking. With some effort 
you can get scans that come close to the wet mount scans of the 
Nikon 8000.  I was probably the first one who tried to find the 
right methods for wet mounting on the 8000 and 3200, others have 
followed that method and were surprised by the quality increase.

ICE on the Epson 4870 seems a bit in conflict with large files. 
There are threads on that subject in the Epson 4870 Yahoo list.

Get the cheapest deal on the Epsons, skip Silverfast, go for Vuescan.

There was a 4x5 scanner by Nikon but I wouldn't select that one 
above a new or refurbished Epson.

Ernst