Scanners for slides

Thanks gang! I shall print this off and leave it lying around the house so the wife can find it!!!!

Rgds Cking

Try here. http://www.epson.co.uk/products/product_hub/Product_Listing_Scanners.htm.

These scanners give excellent results and are versatile as well. I would go as far as to say that only the expensive pro film scanners of £2000 plus give better results. The 4990 is about £300 and is voted best buy in most of the computer mags. I have the previous model and it’s as good as the professional scans I have had done by Fuji Labs. Dedicated film scanners are OK, and give good results but are not value for money as they can not do photos or documents. And in my opinion are no better that this flatbed.

They come with all the attachments so you can do negatives, slides and medium format film.

I work on a Nikon Coolscan LS-2000 – it’s even older than Gareth’s model but gives great results on both colour transparencies and 35 mm negative- & film-strips. The colour imbalances (tendency to blue), mainly on Kodachrome material, is easily adjusted in most photo-tools; the scsi technology is fine.

Martin

I ended up buying a Nikon Coolscan III off ebay to digitise my old films last year. Much better than any of the fladbed+transparency adapters options and quite cheap these days (they currently go for around 100 to 130 quid I think).

Its a scsi interface, if you can live with that you get decent quality optics and fast(ish) scan speed. Produces a scan from 35mm equivalent to aprox 8 million pixels, all my old stuff on airliners.net has been scanned with it. So far I’ve worked through 1985 to 1993, hopefully now the airshow season is over I should get time to do the next 10 years!

I would recommend also the Minolta Dimage IV which a freind of mine has and is very pleased with the results. Excellent value for money. I have the older Minolta Dimage Scan Dual which I have used for about the last 7 years and still gives excellent results.

I have seen some flatbed scanners with slide/negative adapters but the results are not that good. I would definetly go for a dedicated film scanner rather than regret it later.

Bought a Canon FS4000US, and it gives great results. However, scanning takes much more time than I thought, and no mather how much you clean the negs/slides, there is always dust somewhere. To be honest, i don’t believe a flatbad scanner with the ability to also scan negs/slides is a very advisable obtion. Filmscanners give a result that is so much better. And like Jur said, the Konica/Minolta filmscanners give very good value for their money. Apart from that, now with many going or already “digital”
filmscanners can be found second hand in great numbers. Most of them almost like new while demand is low. Bought mine new from a shop for 2/5th of the price after it was there for 2 years without anyone interested to buy it. BW Roger

I don’t if it is what you want but I recently got a CanoScan 3200F from the Canon Outlet on eBay for £35 inc delivery, this comes with a negative & slide holder.

Limited (ie fairly useless) advice from the other siode of the Atlantic – I have an HP Scanjet (3500 something – I forget) which makes a very acceptable job of scanning 35mm slides (individually or a couple at a time) and 35mm negatives in strips. Cost about 150 bucks from a well known american office equipment shop. Heaven knows what it costs back in Blighty.

It’s very useful for scanning the negatives that wal-mart forgot (good film title!)

Rob / Kansan

I use a Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV, which does a very good job. At about £200 (new) it is probably the best bang for the buck.