Scanner for slides and photos

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rich315

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Hi everyone,

Looking at getting the old man a scanner for Xmas, it has to be able to do slides and photographs (will be black and white and colour) the budget is £125 is there any recommendations?

Also currently using cs4 but is there any software better for this? Unfortunatey its not something I've done before. Any tips and advice would be good too.

Rich
 
Hi - I've moved this into Film and Conventional as you'll be much more likely to get some feedback on scanners for working with slides etc. in here...
 
I was going to recommend the Epson V500 because that had fallen to around £140 (I know its stretching the budget but it would probably be the perfect solution) but now it has gone back up to £165 unfortunately. You could maybe look for some NOS (new old stock) Epson 4490s still lying around, which would do the job just fine.
 
I got an Epson V500 for about that price last year. It will scan 6 35mm negs at once or 5 slides plus it will also do medium format negs and whats more it is a very good quality too.
 
Looking on Ebay now they are unto £175 but still worth it if you can stretch to the other £50. Nothing close I found in quality/flexibility.

The little brother of the V500, the V330, would be about £100-110 and be a cheaper alternative.

SEE POST 11
 
TheBigYin said:
Hi - I've moved this into Film and Conventional as you'll be much more likely to get some feedback on scanners for working with slides etc. in here...
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You're not wrong there, two in 5 minutes and both recommending the same scanner. Spooky :D
 
rich315 said:
Will it do photos that are already printed too? Anything a bit cheaper?
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The V330 will be cheaper as above and yes they both work as normal scanners upto just over A4 in size.
 
pretty much any flatbed scanner will cope happily with scanning photo's - it's the slides/negative scanning where the film optimised scanners come in...
 
Have to say that seems to be just the thing I was after as well, can you get a 120 carrier for them?

Andy
 
Andysnap said:
Have to say that seems to be just the thing I was after as well, can you get a 120 carrier for them?
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Nope, that's where the V500 and above comes in I'm afraid. 35mm only. I reckon the Epson 4490 is probably a good bet for medium format scanning on a budget, but they are appearing to hold their value very well even years after discontinuation :thumbsdown:
 
Thought not, never mind I'll save a bit longer for the V500 then.

Andy
 
Andysnap said:
Thought not, never mind I'll save a bit longer for the V500 then.

Andy
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I would get the V500 for medium format! It is really good. If you want a neg scanning to see what it looks like let me know
 
Thanks Darren. It will be next year before I consider getting one as all my cash is being spent on Bessamatic lenses at the moment, but I'd definitely like to see the results.

Cheers

Andy
 
thanks for the info guys, great response!! could somebody please explain the benefit of medium format on the v500 over the v330, i apologise for coming across as a total newbie, but ive always been brought up on digital and never done slides / negs before. that v330 is a steal at £85

it will mainly be slides, a few negs and mostly photos
 
rich315 said:
thanks for the info guys, great response!! could somebody please explain the benefit of medium format on the v500 over the v330, i apologise for coming across as a total newbie, but ive always been brought up on digital and never done slides / negs before. that v330 is a steal at £85

it will mainly be slides, a few negs and mostly photos
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Apologies for the jargon, it's difficult knowing exactly how much or how little information someone has before posting.

Medium format refers to bigger negatives shot on medium format cameras, whereas small format refers to 35mm - the predominant image size shot by almost every mainstream consumer camera over the last 50 years or so. The slides will definitely be 35mm format and the chances are the negatives are almost certainly 35mm. The most obvious indicator is the size - if they measure about 36mm by 24mm, then they are small format. If they are any bigger, they will be medium format.

For completeness-sake, there is large (and ultra large) format on the other end of the scale, but these don't concern the vast majority of people (y)

The V330 will scan 35mm ("small format") but not 120 film ("medium format"). The V500 will do both. There is also another Epson model, the V33, which will scan neither - it is essentially just a normal scanner. You could scan printed photos just fine with it, since they are essentially documents, but only the V330 and beyond have negative holders.
 
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thanks for the info, learn something new everyday! I have checked and its all 35mm so i have opted for the v330, at that price i cant justify going up to nearly double for the v500. will let you all know how the ol' man gets on with it, just curious does anyone have any examples for v330 or tips i could pass on?
 
freecom2 said:
Nope, that's where the V500 and above comes in I'm afraid. 35mm only. I reckon the Epson 4490 is probably a good bet for medium format scanning on a budget, but they are appearing to hold their value very well even years after discontinuation :thumbsdown:
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I think the reason the 4990 holds its value is because it can scan 4x5.
 
Another option is the HP 8180 printer. These are brilliant with these features......

Uses 6 different ink cartridges which are LARGE ones and you can buy refillable versions.
It is wired & wireless networked
Bluetooth
Touch screen colour display
It has a full set of memory card readers
It has a DVD WRITER built in.
It has a scanner built in.
It can scan negs unto 6x4 inches :D

You can print from any computer on the network
You can scan to any computer on the network
You can scan to DISC or MEMORY CARD


Basically it is a brilliant general purpose printer and scanner combination. You can often pick them up for about £100 on ebay.

I have bought one a while ago and it is great :D
 
Does it have negative trays and a transparency unit? (on mobile app, can't check easily)
 
freecom2 said:
Does it have negative trays and a transparency unit? (on mobile app, can't check easily)
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Yes, there is a light in the lid and a cover over it. The cover unclips for the transparency cover to replace it.

I bought a set of empty refillable cartridges with ink for about £20 and this will refill the cartridges about 4/5 times. They are large cartridges and just empty holders so clean and easy to fill. Makes it a really cheap method of doing draft prints, address labels, instructions etc

There was a company in Dorset selling loads of them.

I already had 2 of it's little brother the HP6280 so I knew what I was getting. I'm a big fan. It will not had the ultimate quality of the V500 but it is still a cracker.....

Find the specs on HP's site. Having already got the V500 I have only used the scanner on the printers for photocopying (thats another useful feature, computer free colour or b&w photocopying).
 
rich315 said:
thanks for the info, learn something new everyday! I have checked and its all 35mm so i have opted for the v330, at that price i cant justify going up to nearly double for the v500. will let you all know how the ol' man gets on with it, just curious does anyone have any examples for v330 or tips i could pass on?
Click to expand...

Here are a couple of images done on the V330 recently:

7991.jpg


800.jpg


Not exactly the best examples, but I'm pretty new to scanning myself.
 
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RaglanSurf said:
How about this?

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=373417
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I think that's an incredibly bad deal. I may be out of line (and please feel free to let me know if I am), but if it is posted that's £145, whereas a brand new boxed with a 1 year warranty would be only £15 more from Amazon UK, only 10% more.

Additionally, the V500 price yo-yo's like crazy - at the end of November it was only £132! And post-Xmas it is likely to move again I think.

http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Epson-Perfection-Scanner-6400dpi-Density/product/B000VYYSEE

EDIT: I know V500s hold their value well, and I know Scott is a regular on F&C so apologies, but I'm just stating the cold hard facts. The price is very fluid, and someone who watches for a little bit could likely get it for a very good price from Amazon. However, the classified ad might make sense if you live within driving distance...
 
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freecom2 said:
I think that's an incredibly bad deal. I may be out of line (and please feel free to let me know if I am), but if it is posted that's £145, whereas a brand new boxed with a 1 year warranty would be only £15 more from Amazon UK, only 10% more.

Additionally, the V500 price yo-yo's like crazy - at the end of November it was only £132! And post-Xmas it is likely to move again I think.

http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Epson-Perfection-Scanner-6400dpi-Density/product/B000VYYSEE

EDIT: I know V500s hold their value well, and I know Scott is a regular on F&C so apologies, but I'm just stating the cold hard facts. The price is very fluid, and someone who watches for a little bit could likely get it for a very good price from Amazon. However, the classified ad might make sense if you live within driving distance...
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You're not out of line at all, and are right to point this out, I just happened to notice it in the classifieds and it seemed to fit the budget, I hadn't gone as far as checking whether it was a good deal or not.

I agree with you it does seem a tad overpriced, especially when you factor in postage.
 
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