Russ,
The amount the boys in Germany want for the scanners they are selling is over the top. Their website is informative, the information is good, prices are way bad. 6,000 euros is currently about $7500.00 US dollars. That's why I mentioned eBay. Without looking, I would guess you could buy a new old stock one from somewhere in the US for under $4000 and that's double what they cost new.
I just looked at eBay and several have sold in the recent past for no more than $3000. Or maybe $4000 for a new one.
Vuescan will operate a 9000 just fine. I have used it for mine, although I normally use Nikonscan. Mostly because I'm so used to it. There is a very easy driver hack to get Nikonscan to work with Windows 7 so that option is there. Way into the future, Vuescan may be the only option for many of us.
Silverfast software for a 9000 costs $450.00. Way too much for it to be any real advantage. If you want to spend a small fortune, and you buy the other items needed to color profile your individual scanner, you might wring the last 2% out of the scans, but there is no guarantee. Mostly that option is really for production environments, not for one of us scanning a personal collection. If you price what is needed, you will see what I mean.
6x7 is no harder than 35mm. The only real problem is making sure the film is flat. Nikon made glass carriers for the 9000 and I have one (FH-869G) and use it always. If you get a 9000 and can find one, buy it. It's the best option to scan medium format film. However, I did lots of good scans with the standard carriers before I had it.
The most difficult thing to scan is Kodachrome. The dyes don't seem to match many scanners well. The 5000 and 9000 Nikon scanners have a good Kodachrome setting built in and do a much better job on Kodachrome. The E-6 films are easy to scan and present no color problems
After that, some negatives can be tricky. That's where Vuescan is good. It has profiles for just about any negative film.
If you pull the trigger and buy a 9000, PM me and I can help get you going.
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2014 12:40PM by jgunning.