Cheap slide scanner for my neighbour

[thequietman]

As the above suggests looking for a cheap way for my neighbour to scan all his slides, so he can view them on his computer/laptop, he's not looking to make prints just view them.
Anyone any suggestions on one he could maybe get. Not sure of his budget so let's assume £0-100 quid.

I did have a scanner a while back with a transparency hood, but it got loaned out to another tog and parts got lost, so wrote it off. Not up to speed with what's on the market for trannys. Thought I would ask here first for a cheap solution, to his problem.

 

[Stegosaurus]

The cheapest way is to hold the slide up to a white, cloudy sky and use a digital camera.

You can actually still buy slide duping attachments for SLRs hanging around since film days.

 

[thequietman]

The cheapest way is to hold the slide up to a white, cloudy sky and use a digital camera.

Ha Ha ..not even sure he owns a mobile phone or digital camera..seems that type of guy..

 

[Nod]

TBH, I'd suggest that he looked at Amazon (or similar) for what he wants and read the reviews with a critical eye, filtering out the 1* ones from people who ordered the wrong thing and 5* from people who bought it as a present and it arrived on time but hasn't been used yet!
High quality scans are relatively slow and are a PITA to do a lot of - the more automated the process can be made, the better. He might even be better off buying a bulk loading one from e-bay (or similar!) and selling it on afterwards.

 

[ChrisR]

I'm not going to recommend them, but this might be a possible case for the type of cheap "scanner" that scans to a SD card, rather than a computer. I'm assuming they are better than they used to be; my experience was woeful, and Kodachromes scanned really badly, but scanning was very quick. Load up 4 slides, push, click, push, click, etc. I'm only suggesting this because of the hints this is a non-techy person. Most "proper" scanning requires a little bit of nerdiness! Of course, you'd still have to get from the SD card into the computer...

 

[dmb]

I'm not going to recommend them, but this might be a possible case for the type of cheap "scanner" that scans to a SD card, rather than a computer. I'm assuming they are better than they used to be; my experience was woeful, and Kodachromes scanned really badly, but scanning was very quick. Load up 4 slides, push, click, push, click, etc. I'm only suggesting this because of the hints this is a non-techy person. Most "proper" scanning requires a little bit of nerdiness! Of course, you'd still have to get from the SD card into the computer...

My cheepo (£30) webcam in a box (as above) from Aldi is fine for producing quick scans for viewing on a computer and indexing slides and negs. The fact it uses software means you can choose resolution and adjust image a little which the scan to card models don't.

 

[Karl.t1965]

There are plenty of used Epson scanners, 4490 or one of the V500 - 650, out there, possibly even the odd Plustek.
Could always get a lightbox, old Jessops ones sell for a few pounds and a small point and shoot digital camera with a good macro range

 

[excalibur2]

There are plenty of used Epson scanners, 4490 or one of the V500 - 650, out there, possibly even the odd Plustek.
Could always get a lightbox, old Jessops ones sell for a few pounds and a small point and shoot digital camera with a good macro range

Any old Epson flatbed scanner works quite well with slides (providing it has the film holder) and IIRC the very old one (2480 photo) I originally had could only scan two slides at a time...very boring if you have many, so if you see a scanner going for £10 check how many slides it can do...erm well assuming that most people think scanning is boring

 

[Thmaga]

Some of the cheap scanners are very bad, I'm not convinced I've seen a good one, only upshot is they're quite fast and easy to use and it will allow you to see what's on the slides easier than viewing with the naked eye.

I'd suggest an Epson flatbed if he wants to really make the most of them at reasonable cost, shouldn't be too much of a learning curve if he can use a laptop.

As an idea, here's a slide scanned on one of the 'webcam in a box' type off Amazon and on a Plustek film scanner, but you'd get similar results with an Epson to the Plustek for viewing, just slightly less sharp.