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251 points QiuChuck | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.628s | source
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fuziontech ◴[] No.45892978[source]
I'm glad this exists but at ~1k EUR I would be interested if it could scan 120 medium format negatives...but the fact that it does not is an absolute deal breaker for me. It seems like they are considering it. I hope they do figure that out sooner than later.
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MBCook ◴[] No.45893055[source]
Medium is the problem. There’s nothing.

Epson stopped making their flatbeds that do film, reportedly because they can’t get the CCDs anymore. That may be a rumor.

The result is they go for 2x MSRP on eBay for models that are many years old. Because that’s all that exists.

Without that, you can buy the kind of scanner meant for a photo lab ($$$$$), DIY it with a DSLR ($$$ if you don’t have one), or pay your a lab a lot per roll and hope they do a good job.

I’m not saying it’s a giant market but it certainly seems to me like there’s enough of one that it could support a small product.

You can get brand new Plustek OpticFilm scanners for 35mm and smaller starting around $300, and there are plenty of other options above that. Plus the DIY.

I’m sure 35mm is easier to make and certainly a bigger market but it’s also a lot more crowded.

I expect their specs are far better than the $300 one I’ve mentioned, I don’t know enough to know. But medium format people are desperate for anything.

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1. pathartl ◴[] No.45893409[source]
Not that they're cheap, but you can get Imacon scanners for much less than they retailed for. I inherited a Flextight Precision II and it still does a great job.
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2. atomicthumbs ◴[] No.45895493[source]
Do you use it with an old computer, or do you have a good way to interface a SCSI scanner with a modern machine? I tried to get my Precision II up and running but the SCSI card driver would crash Windows at random intervals.
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3. pathartl ◴[] No.45897648[source]
https://web.archive.org/web/20250118205639/http://pathar.tl/...

This is way out of date. I have since been able to get it working on a Windows 11 4th gen Intel machine with 64-bit drivers cobbled together from a couple of versions of FlexColor and some .inf modification. It's not flawless, there's some major corruption that can occur when trying to use certain operations, but overall it works for my needs.