Film Scanners: Illuminance Types

CCFL: Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp

HCFL: Hot Cathode Fluorescent Lamp

LED: Light-Emitting Diode

There are some practically important differences between using LED and cold cathode illuminants in scanners. The most important one for film scanners will be heat. LEDs produce much less if any, which is better for the film and might even prevent problems with batch scanning (compare Mediax Workscan 3600 Pro). On the other hand cathodes produce softer lighting making the scan less prone to dust and scratches on the film material (well, there are diffusers around to handle that, but then they need to get build in ...).