Scanning Slides

Gregeff · 3 Apr 2006 at 08:48

Hi all,

My dad wants to archive all of his and the rest of the famillies slides which we have to digital. There are several hundered of these, so will likely take a while.

We would like to get the best quality possible, but also for it to not take tooo long!

What method of scanning would you reccomend? I'm thinking, either a flatbed scanner with a transparency adaptor, a dedicated film scanner or get it done professionally.

Does anyone have any advise on what would be best?

Thanks,

Greg

skorp- · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:28

It depends. If you plan on scanning anything else other than slides in the future, I'd go for the flatbed with the adaptor. I've got one myself, and while I didn't use it to scan slides I did use it to scan 35mm negatives. I was pleased with the results. On the other hand a dedicated scanner should do it a bit quicker and to a higher standard.

Alex53 · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:36

If you are not likely to ever need to scan slides again after you do your dad's I'd say the flatbed option is best as the quality is decent and you'll be left with something useful for other stuff at the end of it.

Gregeff · 3 Apr 2006 at 11:44

Thanks guys, i'm thinking the Epson 3590 looks good, is there anything better for around £100?

McNutter · 3 Apr 2006 at 11:46

The Epson 3490 comes with an adapter for slides. It's probably the best non-professional scanner around and costs about £60 delivered. It's certainly one of my better purchases.

Mr109 · 3 Apr 2006 at 11:53

I have scanned slides on a non dedicated systems and it takes ages to do large numbers. With hundreds, you're great grand kids will see them.

A dedicated slide scanner will be quicker, but more expensive.

Getting someone else to do them will be more expensive but will take you no time.

It's a pain, there's no easy solution.

Regards

Al

MacX · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:27

The quality of scanning on these flatbeds is fine for prints and large format negatives. In fact you can get very good results. Having tried 35mm negs and slides on some recent flatbeds I found the results muddy and indistinct so I ended up getting a Nikon Coolscan V 35mm scanner. Thread p1mp alert!

Check out the Kenya photo thread for the results from a dedicated scanner.

If you want anything approaching good quality I have to agree with Mr109. You have to go the dedicated route or get someone else to do it for you.

Tomsk · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:52

If your dad wants to archive the slides, then using a dedicated scanner is the way to go.

If there are any negatives to scan, then a dedicated scanner will do a better job than a flatbed. Unlike slides, the colour in film is 'compressed'. A dedicated scanner will have more sensitive sensors and firmware to cope with this.

To reduce the cost, buy a scanner, scan slides, sell scanner.

Gregeff · 3 Apr 2006 at 19:06

Tomsk said:
To reduce the cost, buy a scanner, scan slides, sell scanner.

hehe, yeh i sugested this to him

Not sure how much one would go for tho second hand, i can't imagain there is much demand for them

I've given him the options now, i think he'll probably buy the Epson 3490 mentioned above. Then if it's not good enough it's only £55 and it can be used for normal scanning duties.

Thanks for all the input guys

rickyt · 3 Apr 2006 at 20:35

I bought one of the cheaper priced models from No Competitors! FF. many years ago and for the money it does a good job , epecially with colour slides.It also scans colour & B&W negs. Their is a problem with that however, it was made for 95/98 , couldn't gt it to work with XP even with updated drivers , it re-boots the Pc.All new models ,naturally with be suited for XP .Check out there prices .At the time of buying there were some very high priced models , Nikon Coolscan for instance ,not really worth paying the high price unless for the Pro market.

Jamauk · 3 Apr 2006 at 23:33

I'm currently doing the same, to achieve this I purchased a Canon 9950f, it scans slides and negatives, the great thing with this is that it will scan up to 30 negatives at a time, and 12 slides at a time, therefore it is possible to load a film of negatives into it and leave it for about 20 minutes to scan the lot.

The included software (ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5.5) is truly excellent, with settings which automatically removes grain, scratches, and improves the lighting. It may have a price tag of around £280, but in my opinion it's well worth it.