There are many good scanners on the market but don't ignore the software. Good scanning software can make or break your production flow and dramatically affect the quality of your final image. Especially if you've got some volume of images to take on. If your time is valuable it's worth your while to spend a little of it exploring the various scanning software options. Can save you a lot of time in the long run. Also, don't forget to think about how you're going to manage all these pics once you get them on your drive.
Wife is a fine art photographer and we just recently bought her the Epson Pefection V700. It is a flatbed scanner that has film holders for 35mm, slides, 120 film, 4x5 and 8x10 negatives. Bought it from B&H for around $250. She really likes it.
If you go directly to Epson's website you can often get refurbished printers and scanners for really smoking deals. They come with the same warranty as their new ones and from the looks of them you'd never now that they are refurbs. Here's a link for the scanners:http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/BuyEpson/ccProductCategory.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-13268 and one for the printers:http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/BuyEpson/ccProductCategory.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-13267
This thread got me thinking that I needed to scan/restore/save my negatives from Desert Storm (I flew tankers and took lots of air-to-air photos with my Nikon), as well as many old family photos and negatives. I did a little research and decided to try the Epson V500 and see how it goes. I bought from newegg.com and the price was the lowest (by a buck or two) and UPS shipping was 98 cents. Thanks for this thread!
The Jalopy Journal
