[Leica] Scanner recommendation?

[Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de (Hans-Peter.Lammerich)]

Hello, 

I am also interested to buy a film scanner. Again, I am not into "digital 
darkroom", "Photoshop" and the like, but simply want quick and easy results. I 
have seen websites which praise HP's Photosmart S20, but more recent tests in 
German computer magazines were less enthusiastic about it. 

Mainly I intend to use it to preview and archive colour negs, XP2 or T-Max 400 
CN, using it as a sort of digital contact sheet and loupe, from which I then 
could evaluate and select the best negatives for conventional, chemical printing 
or for illustrating a website. I may also put them on a CD to circulate it among 
my friends rather than to invite them to a slide show. But my concern is that it 
may take hours to feed a few rolls of film into the scanner. Yes you can order a 
conventional contact sheet from any photo dealer, but you then wait one week for 
the results.

Making my own prints through the computer is currently no option for me. I live 
in town and within 48 hours you get reasonably priced quality prints on Kodak 
Royal paper (or the Fuji requivalent). Although not "pro", but still "consumer" 
quality, they seem to outperform any demonstration print I have yet seen from a 
(consumer) photo printer (Epson Stylus Photo or HP 970 Cxi with "Photo Ret 
III"). By the way, the cost for one "chemical" print is less than the cost of 
glossy photo paper for a computer printer, not accounting for ink cartridges, 
miss prints, hard/software cost and, most important, the time spend at the 
computer.

Prior to that I mainly used consumer slide film (Fuji Sensia, Kodak Elite). You 
buy it cheap, say DM 60 to DM 80 for a pack of 10 Elite 100 (including voucher 
for processing), get it developed overnight, view it with a loupe and select the 
best frames for printing. I liked the projected slides, but even the digital 
prints were not up to the quality of consumer prints from negatives, take one 
week rather than 48 hours for Kodak's "Royal plus Service" and are limited to a 
maximum size of 20 by 30 cm. Moreover, there seems to be no good slide film in 
the ASA 400 plus range, but plenty of excellent print film.

Kodak's Picture CD would work perfect for me and for the above described 
purposes, but here in Germany they offer it only in connection with prints 
which I do not want at that stage. 

Hans-Peter