Tim Parkin - Landscape Photographer

I got a little bit of a shock this week when I investigated how much it was going to cost to get scans done of my transparencies. I had already sort of accepted that the processing of transparencies was expensive but not too bad at £2 per shot (or £3 if you want to push process) but when I looked at getting a decent scan done that I could blow up to 16×20+ I was horrified to find it would cost between £8 and £12 per shot (and that done on an Imacon). If I wanted a drum scan, the costs jump to £10-£20 which is a hell of a lot of money. I can understand the pricing reflects the time involved up to a point and there is little demand for a professional service but if I end up taking 50 pictures over a year that would be £500-£1,000.

So, I looked around at the possibility of buying a scanner and seeing if the ‘semi-pro’ scanners were suitable. The Epson 750 looked like a good prospect but looking closeley, they aren’t even close to the imacon, which seemed to be the only afforable alternative (and one that both Joe Cornish and Baxter Bradford are familiar with and recommend). However… I was browsing on the http://lf-photo.org.uk and saw this
thread
and started looking into second hand drum scanners.. The screenshot you can see at the top of the article convinced me there was something in the Howtek’s and I contacted Pete Slynn at
PS Electronics
and he said that they have Howtek 4500’s for less than a thousand pounds. Well this sounds very attractive so once I get the available cash it could be worth and investment.