[LargeFormat] cheaper scanner for negs - some options?

[Frantisek]

Hi all!
	Shortly, I will be advising my father (in the graphic arts) which scanner
to buy, and best of all, I will be able to use it when I visit him. He is a
photographer too, although with MF and not wanting to move upwards to LF :)
So we have same needs for the flatbed, which are 1200 dpi and high enough
Dmax to permit scanning MF negs (so around 3.0 at least), maybe even slides
(while loosing some shadow details of course). Main reason for him buying
it is of course scanning his drawings, so a dedicated slide scanner is out
(and those doing MF are so expensive...). After some search, I came upon
two scanners (well, 3), and would like very much some comments if anybody
on the list used them. They also set the price range (with the Microtek
being the upper margin) we are looking in.
	1) Microtek X12usl pro - with SilverFast software, 3.0 Dmax, and 5x6"
trannie adapter. 1200 dpi. Is it sharp enough for the 1200 dpi being
usable? (I found out that most cheap 1200 dpi scanners have too soft optics
and cranky mechanics to produce sharp pictures at 1200 dpi, so 600 dpi is
the common maximum of cheap 1200 dpi scanners. Although the microtek X12 is
by no means cheap - it's the most expensive of them) The SilverFast
software permits multi-pass scanning (up to 16x) to lessen noise and
improve the response near the Dmax, so it could be usable for slides maybe,
if they were multipass scanned (although I am not sure if it permits
multipass scanning even with this flatbed).

	2) Epson Perfection photo models 1200, 1240 and 1640. The 1200 is the
older one, being discontinued, with SCSI - which would be best connection.
But what's its Dmax? I found out that the Epsons have 3.0 Dmax too
(hopefuly. I am not yet sure), but they use two 600 (800) dpi sensors for
each colour, the second one moved half-pixel from the first, interpolating
that into 1200 (1600) dpi - I got mixed reviews from people using them.
Propably the 1600 is usable at 1200 and the 1200 at 800, maximum, without
loosing sharpness. Anybody could confirm this?
	The epsons are cheaper than the Microtek, but come without the SilverFast.
Also, their only half-density CCDs make me nervous, if the results are
really up to 1600 dpi.

	3) Microtek X6 Advance Silver - with 6x8" trannie adapter, SilverFast
(although earlier version - 4.x), and 600 dpi only. Dmax is unknown. If
this scanner performs really well at 600 dpi, and has at least 3.0 Dmax, it
could be better than the Epsons - with their interpolation via doubling
less-density CCDs. than again - it might not.

As you can see, I am interested in a scanner that is really useful at its
DPI limit - most cheaper scanners aren't useful at their highest optical
DPI, becuase of clumsy construction and bad optics - for example HP 5370. 

	Thanks for any opinions and experience from actuall usage!
This will be the only scannner I will be able to use for a long time, it
will serve me to scan 9x12cm/4x5" LF, (when I hopefuly get some 9x12cm
field bargain), all my MF 6x6 and 6x9 stuff, and all my 35mm (35mm for web
or computer screen only. 1200 dpi is too low for 35mm). So I need to choose
well :)

	Frantisek