Slide & Film Scanners

gillybean103

gillybean103

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I'm looking for a slide & film scanner, nothing too complicated and nothing too expensive, obviously once i have scanned them all in, i will have no use for it hence why i don't want to spend too much on one

Any suggestions of which ones are worth looking at, i don't want to get a general scanner as i have one built into my printer so this is specifically to do the slides & film negatives only.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks
Gill
 
Why bother. You should have bought a printer that scans films.
 
classcams said:
Why bother. You should have bought a printer that scans films.
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Not a very helpful comment to a perfectly normal request for help.

Gill, are the slides and film just 35mm or larger? What do you intend to do with the scan, are they for posting on the web or printing large?

A flatbed scanner, the type you want to avoid, but capable of scanning film, is the cheapest option, although there are more expensive better variants. The better quality scans are obtained from dedicated film scanners. Modern scanners of this type have either a USB or Firewire interface. Older ones to avoid are SCSI. I've only experience of Nikon or Konica Minolta film scanners, both manufactures produce good scanners. I use a Minolta Dimage 5400 Elite, no longer supported but working with Ed Hamricks VueScan software, an excellent replacement option. Film scanners are more expensive, but if bought used can usually be sold on after you've finished with it. If you've got a large amount of slides / film to scan, it can be very tedious. The other option, having them scanned commercially, will be more expensive. Look on eBay and the for sale forum here. It's a shame you don't know anyone from a local camera club that still has a scanner tucked away you could borrow. Many do, they now shoot digital, but won't sell the scanner incase they ever need to digitise old work.
 
The 'one to get' at the moment seems to be the Epson V750. People seem to get results with a wide variety of film and it can handle medium format - not always easy, even for a flatbed. The older V700 also seems popular and plenty still get good results with the V500.

Cheaper, though not a flatbed, at least the higher end Plustek 35mm scanners seem ok though people say they don't have the dynamic range of the Epson.

Personally, my next one will likely be the V750.
 
Thanks for your replies, although classcams i found your reply rather rude and uncalled for.

As far as i know they are just 35mm slides. My Grandad was a keen photographer and when he died over 10 years ago we found thousands of slides and negatives and to be honest no-one has been able to look at them. I just think it seems a waste to have these al in a bag collecting dust and not seeing the light of day. I don't want to post them on websites and unless there is anything fantastic i won't be getting anything blown up, but there are so many of me growing up as well as my family etc so i'd like to at least get them into digital form so i can have a 'play' with them. As you can tell i'm in no hurry to get them all done so it doesn't matter if it takes a while.

I don't know anyone from a local camera club, which is a shame. I was going to try and put a request in the wanted section on here bu i don't think i have enough posts to do it.

You have been very helpful and i thank you for your advice
 
gillybean103 said:
we found thousands of slides and negatives
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If there are thousands of them, then I think you will spend a huge amount of time scanning them.

It would be better to just scan the images you want when you want them as you will be more inclined to spend a bit of time on each image getting a good scan.

If you try to do the whole lot, you will get bored with it very quickly.

Also realise that the scans are not an archive, the originals are and will probably still be around after the scanned files have been deleted/lost/corrupted so make sure they are looked after.


Steve.
 
Yes, Steve is right even with a dedicated film scanner you will be surprised at how long it would take. Probably better to check through a few at a time and scan them when you have decided on a scanner. the decent film scanners tend to be £600 upwards, obviously it depends on the quality you require.
Previous suggestions on the Epson would probably be favourite though because you could do several at a time.
C
 
I've got a Canon flatbed scanner that cost me £130 and despite the derogatory comments it's actually OK (It's the 8800F)

This is a scan straight out of it, no PP sharpening or anything done.
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I agree that it's probably best to have a sift through them and scan the ones you want rather than attempt to do them all. I just scanned 120 MF ones for a friend and it took me 4 hours. :)

Set the scanner up somewhere you can leave it and do small batches at a time, saves on the tedium :)
 
Another point to consider is if any of the slides are kodachrome 25, as most of my fathers were, you'll need a scanner with a good dmax to get all the detail out of them. Most scanners will make a good job of B&W film or colour negative, slides need better quality to resolve. I've also got an older Epson 4990, the model before the Epson V700 series, it's great for 4x5, reasonable for MF but not really up to 35mm, although quality expectations are very subjective. My use was to print anything from A4 to A3 for club competitions.
 
I was not being rude. It`s just a question of economics. It would be cheaper to have them digitised outside than buy a scanner. You talk about something cheap, then CJ talks about 600 notes. I have threemodern scanners 1 flabed and 2 printer combi`s. Set up correctly they equal a dedicated scanner.
 
Quite reasonable scanners are available used for reasonable prices. I see a Nikon 4000 ED, same as I used to borrow before buying my Minolta going for a reasonably high price on eBay, but also a much more reasonable Minolta Dimage Scan Dual 3 AF-2840 too. These scan at 2700 ppi and would be better than most flatbeds. The only downside is the software supplied with it would now be old, you may have to buy VueScan to support it. Although very reasonably priced, its still an additional expense.
 
My advice would be to get them done professionally.

Scanning more than a few slides is a very tedius task indeed and they always require post processing work too. It will drive you mad. And a good film scanner, which is what you need, will not be cheap.

Which is why there are lots of commcerial services available to do exactly this for you. Prices are surprisingly reasonable. I know of an American service that gets them done in India at very low rates and very high quality - a colleague got a couple of thousand done for pence per shot and they were really very good and reliable. Haven't got a link though sorry.
 
classcams said:
I was not being rude. It`s just a question of economics. It would be cheaper to have them digitised outside than buy a scanner. You talk about something cheap, then CJ talks about 600 notes. I have threemodern scanners 1 flabed and 2 printer combi`s. Set up correctly they equal a dedicated scanner.
Click to expand...


You probably havn't seen a decent scan then. My main scanner is a Hasselblad one which when purchased was just shy of £14,000, bought mainly to scan 5 x4 Velvia trannies.
I was advised to buy this by Joe Cornish at his studio in North Allerton where he demonstrated its various capabilities. As he told me probably the best scanner for home use.
Having tried various other types have found the best scanner is always one dedicated on for various film sizes. A 35mm scanner such as a Nikon or Minolta 5400 will always be better than a flatbed. It all depends on what you want to spend, and your picture requirements.
C
 
There are a range of film scaners that you can chose from as has been pointed out, and has also been pointed out will take a bit of time to scan them if there are a lot.

from the cheap, which I saw advertised in Maplins
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=228759&source=1

not sure of the quality to midd priced

http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/prod.asp?i=19064&1=Plustek+OpticFilm+7500SE

Think should be reasonable, to the more expensive ones like nikon, I have a nikon coolscan V ed which I got about 2 and a half year back, can't remember the price but is a good quality scanner. My intension was to scan my slides and negs save them on to a seperate hard drive at the maxium quality which does give me rather lage files. That did not happen, so just can the ones that I want when I want. (as long as I can find them.) filling system not as good as it should be! :LOL:

Anyway hope the links give some some idea of what is avaiable and hope you find what you wanting!
 
Tbh,

if all you are duplicating is a few slides, then you may better off buying a slide copier attachment for your dSLR. Just go through and pick out the ones you want to copy. The results will be far better than any you will get from a cheap scanner and you can shoot in RAW too ;)

The other alternative, is to buy something like the epson v300 and sell it when you are done. They hold their price pretty well, especially if there is still some waranty left on it.

If you do indeed have 1000's of scans to complete it is going to take a while though, whichever method you choose.
 
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