I’m looking to get a halfway decent general purpose scanner, and the market is all over the place. I don’t need anything with industrial engineering precision, but I would like to be able to scan broken parts around the house to print replacements with at least decent precision.
I expect most of my use cases would be in the 1cm³-1dm³ range, but it would also be fun to be able to scan bigger subjects. Mostly people, so I can make personalized tabletop minis, but I also like the prospect of miniaturizing other things.
Blue laser looks super cool, but also very pricey.
What are the best options in the $500-1000 range? I’m kinda outta my depth here.
PolyCam is free. You can also use photogrammetry and free software to model it yourself. It’s not complicated but takes a beefy computer.
I’ve dabbled, but based on my results I feel like dedicated hardware would provide enough benefit to justify. My computer is reasonably beefy, but I’d rather pair that with a beefy front end.