Photo/film flatbed scanner advice?

[tonytol]

I know the usual advice is that flatbed scanners are rubbish with negatives, but newer models seem to get quite good reviews (due to increased resolution, colour depth and auto dust reduction), plus I need to replace my scanner anyway. Pricing works something along the lines of

Basic - £100-150 - one strip at a time eg Epson 3490 / 3590 / canon 5200
Midrange £200 - + more strips + Digital ICE/FARE eg Epson 4490 / Canon 8400
High End £300 - +even more strips, ICE/FARE and higher res. eg Epson 4990 / Canon 9950

So, does anyone have practical experience of any models, particularly with 35mm neg scanning?

[Wishy]

I have a 3490, 35mm negative scanning, resolution and scan quality will probably go further than most films can (Unless we're talking about < iso 100). I paid £70 from dixons as i were rarely in for the courier at the time. Main problem i have is it takes a long time to do a roll and keeping the surface dust free is quite troublesome. I would probably have gone for a model with ICE if i were to buy again.
Of course, oversampling and what not would be nice, but i guess if you have a belter of a picture you can get it professionally rescanned for not a huge amount of money?

[Boink!]

Have a look at the photo-i (http://www.photo-i.co.uk) website and talk forums. They have extensive reviews and discussions on scanners, which may help you decide. There's also info on new scanners (http://www.photo-i.co.uk/BB/viewtopic.php?t=2205&sid=73bd8f5b6129e9fd7f370f424f577c69) from Epson which could be of intrest.

Bottom line, what do you want to do with your 35mm negs and how much are you willing to pay. Personally, I will be going for the new Epson V700 as I shoot mainly 120 roll film negs and slides.

[Sam]

I have the Canon8400 and IMO its decidely average for the price - images a bit soft and the ICE software occasionally causes colour bleed when scanning slides (I've done more slides than negs). Only way I can describe it is it looks like someone smeared one bit of the pic into another (eg a red coat against a blue sky, the red is smeared into the blue).

[tonytol]

I'd like to scan all my 35mm negatives for use on websites, and printing some out approx A4 size. For the one or 2 real gems I might pay for a a proper scan. I still want reasonable scan quality though, but without spending a fortune on a scanner (I'm guessing £150ish) as I only want to do this job once with my 'legacy' negs - I seem to have scanned in some photos 10 times as scan, display and storage technology has improved!.

The new Espson scanners (thanks Boink) might fit the bill though..

[ajuniper]

I have the 8400F and am pretty happy with it. FWIW it cost around £130 (now £110) from Pixmania: Canon 8400F (http://www.thedvdforums.com/jump2.php?url=http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/click?p=15797&a=60823&g=120943&url=http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/54553/art/canon/scanner-canoscan-8400f.html)

I posted some info and a sample 35mm scan here: http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=410891

I found that spending some time fiddling with the settings was very worthwhile.

Andy