large format scanner suggestions?

[danieldanger]

so i bought one of these http://www.amazon.com/Mustek-Express.../ref=de_a_smtd
and it was a gigantic piece of garbage. super shallow depth of field so anything not harshly pressed against the glass is wildly out of focus. since im trying to scan paintings and clayboard drawings, im usually piecing together a few scans of the board sort of dipped into the scan bed (ie, one side is in flush, the other side is resting on the edge 1/8" up or whatever). i used to have a little HP scanner but it was too small in both directions to really do what i needed and i was always kind of winging it.

11x17" or bigger. apparently what im looking for is a scanner with a "CCD (Charged Coupled Device)" instead of a "CIS (Contact Image Sensor)"

suggestions?

[Thornysarus]

Use a super high resolution camera with decent lighting. I haven't used my scanner in years.

[eyepeace]

I was looking for one myself until I saw the price tags. Epson's large formats run $2500, and they don't seem to scan bigger than the Mustek. Then there's ones that you run through a feeder and they look like an 80's keyboard. I imagine they're not cheap considering I've never seen a pricetag - just contact info to get a quote. SmartLF Gx+ 42 E-size+ (A0+) Wide Format Scanners Range

I've never seen anything close to that Mustek price. In fact, I might consider buying one - even with your review of it.
Anything's better than scanning large stuff on an 8x10 all-in-one printer.

[Thornysarus]

WTF? I swear I didn't link to that ebay page in my previous post.

Clay, please don't tell me you're putting those land mines in our posts.

[squeegeethree]

Since digital photography has grown by leaps and bounds good large format scanners are slowly becoming obsolete since there is less and less need for them. I have the last generation of Creo Eversmart (Jazz+) scanner and love it. You can find them on Ebay for fairly cheap every now and again. Kodak bought out the company and then folded the line though so if you find one in working order you will need to find an old computer to run it as they are no longer updating the drivers.

It runs a Tri linear 3 x 8000 pixels color CCD with XY stitch technology.

Creo Scitex EverSmart Jazz Desktop Scanner | eBay

[hartman]

Skim links... eww.

[squeegeethree]

Daniel feel free to come down to NYC and try it out if you want.

[danieldanger]

i might take you up on that.

i have a nice camera, but despite everything the final result is never as sharp as i want. feeder scanners dont work for me because im working on a hard surface, since a majority of the stuff im doing is either cradled clayboard or its gessoboard.

[ZOMIC]

Since digital photography has grown by leaps and bounds good large format scanners are slowly becoming obsolete since there is less and less need for them. I have the last generation of Creo Eversmart (Jazz+) scanner and love it. You can find them on Ebay for fairly cheap every now and again. Kodak bought out the company and then folded the line though so if you find one in working order you will need to find an old computer to run it as they are no longer updating the drivers.

It runs a Tri linear 3 x 8000 pixels color CCD with XY stitch technology.

Creo Scitex EverSmart Jazz Desktop Scanner | eBay

What is the scannable area on a device like that?

[squeegeethree]

What is the scannable area on a device like that?

12x17