[cats_five]

How many pixels depends what quality print and what printer, but 300dpi is bandied around.

At that dpi, you need 2,400 x 3,000 pixels, and your negative is (rather approximately) 1" x 1 1/2", so the 3,200dpi should be fine. The aspect ratio of a 35mm slide is different to a negative so there will be some croping whatever you do.

But a new 35mm scanner that scans 'instantly'? Seems unlikely to me. The 35mm scanner market is dying (unlike the document scanner market), and it seems unlikely to me a new 35mm scanner will come along let alone an 'instant' one. Also, one of the big issues isn't the actual scanning, but feeding the originals. The slide feeder for the Coolscan V is far from perfect, but being able to load a box of up to 40 slides and let it buzz away while you do something else is a huge boon. And AFAIK all scanners work by sensing red, green and blue images, and (for D-ICE) IR as well. They also have devices feeding the original materials for uncut 35mm and for APS format. Sadly most people's 35mm negatives come back cut into strips of 4, or if you are very lucky 6, and having to feed each strip of 4 takes time. Not only does it take time, it's hard to do much else as well unlike the slide feeder where you are only usually involved to load a box of slides and unload them 40 minutes or so later. If you leave it alone if jams, if you sit with it (and do other stuff in the same room) it seems to be OK.

I found the following at Popular Science:
Lexmark's Scanner Borrows the Brains of a Camera for Instant Imagery | Popular Science

This looks like a document scanner to me rather than a negative / slide scanner and I suspect the technology is like a camera. It is $400 and I wonder if it's what you were thinking of?

[stevebrot]

The 35mm scanner market is dying (unlike the document scanner market), and it seems unlikely to me a new 35mm scanner will come along let alone an 'instant' one.

So it appears (at least in regards to consumer products) with Nikon leaving the game. Although it is reasonable to note that both Plustek and Pacific Imaging (Reflecta) have introduced new models within the last year or so. Developing a CCD-based "instant" scan is an interesting idea that is not too far from using a slide copier on a dSLR. The minilab scanners use that technology to quickly scan entire rolls of film.



Steve

[reeftool]

The Lexmark is using a lens to take pictures of the document so the quality of the lens will come into question. Document scanning is already pretty quick compared to hi res scans of film or slides although this method would speed up film and slide scanning also. I'm using a Canon 5600F which is no speed demon but it uses LED's and does far better scans than the Epson I used previously. I don't shoot film that often anymore but this scanner will hold 4 slides or a strip of 4 shots and it's far faster than an enlarger. I quick scan everything and view them and then do hi res scans on the keepers. I think it's mostly us older folk who own film cameras and still want to use them from time to time are what's keeping what's left of the film business alive. I would agree that the film and slide scanner market is not likely to grow much none of the companies still in the business is going to sink much R&D money into developing new scan technology. This is now a niche market. Even document scanning is going to shrink. Colleges pride themselves now on becoming "paperless".