Looking for a good slide scanner - recommendations

jamesl

Hi All,

I've undertaken the job of scanning in several thousand of my grand father's old 35 mm slides. I really know very little about slide scanning, and was hoping I could get a recommendation from you all. I'm not looking for top of the line, but am looking for something that will create digital images that could be printed reasonably up to 11x14 or so.

Thanks in advance!

James

rustic

Hi James,

I'm guessing that this is higher than you're looking for, but I've scanned a couple thousand slides using a Nikon Super Coolscan and had good luck. Fortunately for me, the ones that I used were in one of the media labs at the school where I worked, as I certainly could never have afforded them (around $1k, pluse another $450 for the auto feeder).

Definitely expensive (to me at least), but you could feed up to 50 slides and let it do its thing and come back in an hour. It jammed up sometimes, depending on the condition of the slides, but all in all it was nice.

Since that was available, it was all I ever used, so I unfortunately don't have anything else to really compare it to, but it worked well for me.

Best of luck...

claudermilk

The Nikons are considered the best options, but are pricey. Another possibility is the Epson V700/V750. About half the price & nearly the same quality from this review. I've been looking a lot over the past few months and plan on a V700 + Vuescan software to process my 645 negatives and a couple of generations' worth of 35mm & MF negatives and prints.

SloYerRoll

If you are just going to scan these images then the scanner will just sit there. You would have better luck sending these slides to a lab and have them scan them for you for a few reasons:

• The scanner at any reputable lab will also be MUCH nicer than a scanner than an average consumer would buy.
• You don't have to learn a new piece of equipment you won't use that much after the fact.
• No time or stress of ensuring all the images are scanned correctly.
• You'll save money by sending the images in bulk to a lab vs. buying a scanner.

I'd only recommend a scanner like the preciously mentioned if you will get continued use out of it.


Just my .02

-Jon

Rhuarc

SloYerRoll wrote:

If you are just going to scan these images then the scanner will just sit there. You would have better luck sending these slides to a lab and have them scan them for you for a few reasons:

• The scanner at any reputable lab will also be MUCH nicer than a scanner than an average consumer would buy.
• You don't have to learn a new piece of equipment you won't use that much after the fact.
• No time or stress of ensuring all the images are scanned correctly.
• You'll save money by sending the images in bulk to a lab vs. buying a scanner.

I'd only recommend a scanner like the preciously mentioned if you will get continued use out of it.


Just my .02

-Jon

I had a different view on getting a scanner. I had about 10,000 slides to scan for my Grandfather, and I priced different labs to get them scanned and it would have cost several thousand dollars. For 500 or 600 I could get a scanner and do it myself. Yes, there was a time investment on my part, but I can part with more time, I can't part with that much money! Plus I learned a new skill!

jamesl

rustic wrote:

Hi James,

I'm guessing that this is higher than you're looking for, but I've scanned a couple thousand slides using a Nikon Super Coolscan and had good luck. Fortunately for me, the ones that I used were in one of the media labs at the school where I worked, as I certainly could never have afforded them (around $1k, pluse another $450 for the auto feeder).

Definitely expensive (to me at least), but you could feed up to 50 slides and let it do its thing and come back in an hour. It jammed up sometimes, depending on the condition of the slides, but all in all it was nice.

Since that was available, it was all I ever used, so I unfortunately don't have anything else to really compare it to, but it worked well for me.

Best of luck...

Thanks for the info! That is probably a bit out of my price range, but it looks like a nice piece of equipment. I especially like the fact that you can feed slides into it to save time.

James

jamesl

claudermilk wrote:

The Nikons are considered the best options, but are pricey. Another possibility is the Epson V700/V750. About half the price & nearly the same quality from this review. I've been looking a lot over the past few months and plan on a V700 + Vuescan software to process my 645 negatives and a couple of generations' worth of 35mm & MF negatives and prints.

Thanks for the info. Looks like a good setup. Let me know how your scanning comes out.

James

jamesl

SloYerRoll wrote:

If you are just going to scan these images then the scanner will just sit there. You would have better luck sending these slides to a lab and have them scan them for you for a few reasons:

• The scanner at any reputable lab will also be MUCH nicer than a scanner than an average consumer would buy.
• You don't have to learn a new piece of equipment you won't use that much after the fact.
• No time or stress of ensuring all the images are scanned correctly.
• You'll save money by sending the images in bulk to a lab vs. buying a scanner.

I'd only recommend a scanner like the preciously mentioned if you will get continued use out of it.


Just my .02

-Jon

Good points. I'd found a few folks recommend either http://www.calypsoinc.com or http://www.scansafe.com to get it done. I'm going to look into them some more.

James

jamesl

Rhuarc wrote:

I had a different view on getting a scanner. I had about 10,000 slides to scan for my Grandfather, and I priced different labs to get them scanned and it would have cost several thousand dollars. For 500 or 600 I could get a scanner and do it myself. Yes, there was a time investment on my part, but I can part with more time, I can't part with that much money! Plus I learned a new skill!

I'm kind of on the fence now. I don't have near that many slides, and I'm not sure if I'll ever use the scanner again. I'll let you know what I decide.

james