Now that we are moving to the digital world...
What is the best negative scanner for the price range of up to $400
Answer
I'm using Nikon Coolscan V ED and I'm very happy with it. Sadly, it has been discontinued and now the only Nikon option is much more expensive Coolscan 9000 ED.
There are two Coolscans V on the eBay at the moment but I don't think I would comfortable buying a film scanner on a online auction site ...
EDIT: The biggest problem with a second hand scanner is that you don't know how much it was used. The light source in the scanner has a limited lifetime (same as the bulb in a video projector) and it's hard to tell how close to this limit it is.
If you can test the scanner you can at least see if it still works fine on dark source. (With dia film that means a dark object and with a negative film this means a bright object.) In that case I'd suggest selecting few negatives of a known quality (i.e. you had made prints from it) and running them through the scanner. That would show you the detail in bright areas. You should also check for picture noise that would indicate transport problems (i.e. a missing line in the scan or a "squashed" picture with one dimension disproportionately small) and for the noise in the scanned photo. Of course, some noise is imminent as you are working with a noise-sensitive equipment (scanner) on a source that already contains a noise from the analog recording process.
P.S. I'm not selling my Nikon ;)
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