[spe]

After deciding not to buy K20 immediately, I'm just wondering why not to buy scanner to scan some nefatives as well from my Z-1 and more ancient b/w rangefinder era but the variety of scanning gear and unclearness of some specs bothers me a bit. So I'm asking for the help of more expirienced users who definetely present here and want to het answers (if it possible) for some questions.
As I've decided that new dedicated slide-scanners like Nikon Coolscan V a bit expensive for me and not so necessary due to small volume, used film scanner is not the option just because of some complications which appear with ebay shopping at my location only solutions which fit me are low-budget film scanners like Plustek Opticfilm sereis and mid-range of flatbed scanners like CanoScan 8800F, Epson V500 /4490.
The main question is if the Plustek really better than mentioned flatbeds and what DMax 8800F has? If for the epsons (DMax 3.4) and Plustek (DMax 3.3) this parameter clearly mentioned even in specs, for Canon such info cannot be found even in independen reviews if the DMax value at least on par with the Epsons, Canon is more preferrable due to lower price, maybe anyone here knows the figure?

[clawhammer]

I don't know the figures but will highly recommend the epson v700 (or the older 4990 if you can find one). The 4490 wasn't as good from what I'd read several years ago, but the v500 may have fixed that. I have been really pleased with my 4990.

[Lowell Goudge]

for 35mm film, I used a minolta Dimage II scanner.

I was pleased both by the results and the durability, I did over 20,000 scans over a 5 year period.

BTW most from a PZ-1

The nice thing was that the minolta scanners had carriers that held 4 slides or 6 negs.

The bad thing is minolta is out of business in this area, AND there are no scanner accessories for other formats.

[benjikan]

I have the Minolta Dimage Scan Speed F2800. Very nice scans using Vuescan Software. It is a 2820 dpi scanner. You can do multiple pass scanning for up to 16 passes. Quite long when doing so. I usually use 8x. Really increases the dynamic range.

Ben