filmscanners: Ls-4000ED vs. FS-4000 - can you help?

["Tomasz Zakrzewski" <tomzakrz@ka.onet.pl>]

I'd like to raise the problem of choosing the right 4000dpi filmscanner (for
my needs, of course).

My "ultimate" choice is Nikon LS-8000ED because of the MF scanning
capability (I do more and more MF). But because of the price (in Poland it
costs $ 4500) and since this would be my first film scanner and I'm not
skilled enough yet, I'm trying to find some "substitute" for the next 12-24
months. Of course my time, as anybody's, is precious, so in that time I
don't want to make scans that I'll have to do once again with my next
machine. I can concentrate on 135 type negs. I've narrowed my choice to
Nikon LS-4000ED ($ 2100) and Canon FS-4000 ($ 950). If in 1-2 years time I
decide to sell the machine, I will be able to do it quickly and without
spectacular losses - Nikon because of it's already established renown and
Canon because many people can afford it.

To help me decide which of the scanners would be my present choice I'd like
to ask those experienced from you to help me solve some unclear matters:

LS-4000ED
- According to test in German "Color Foto" magazine when scanning b&w
negatives, the LS-4000ED suffers from the so called Callier-Quiotent. The
scanner has Dmax 3,6 with color slides and negatives but only Dmax 2,9 with
b&w due to the nature of light form LEDs (undiffuesd) the light beams run in
one direction and on their way they meet obstacles in form of silver halide
particles. It's more or less the same as using an enlarger with a diffuser
or with a condensor. The latter should give more pronounced grain and less
light.
Do you think this effect is relevant to scanning quality? What Dmax is
enough for b&w negatives (even a bit too dense ones)? Have you, users of
LS-4000ED, LS-8000ED, observed any problems with Dmax of b&w negs?
- How is it with unsharp edges of film material scanned with LS-4000ED,
LS-8000ED? Does all film material suffer form the shallow DOF or is it
restricted to slides in mounts, for example? How is it with film stripes
which were archived flat in acetate sleeves in a binder?

FS-4000
- I'm trying to find out for myself what weaknesses this scanner has. I
already know about its slowliness but I was also infomed that it can't
control the exposure time. Is this a problem? And if yes, then with what
film material? 90% of my films are colour and b&w negatives.
- Has anybody compared the optical quality of FS-4000 and LS-4000ED? Can you
tell how does the Canon scanner perform without the FilmGet software which
apparently performs unswitchable sharpening with all the scans?
- Is the Dmax of FS-4000 (2,9 according to "Color Foto") sufficient for
negatives? In the next 12 months I'd be almost exclusively scanning
negatives, both color and b&w but of different quality, sometimes quite
dense (my difficult pushed negs with stage photography)

Many thanks in advance

Tomasz Zakrzewski
P.S. 1
Don't propose SS4000 from Polaroid. It's price in Poland is almost that of
LS-4000ED and customer support and service virtually non-existent.
P.S. 2
Somebody from this list was so kind that he sent me a CD with samples of
scans from his 8000ED. Many of the scans exhibited various degree of edge
unsharpness.