35mm Slide Scanners

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planet54
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35mm Slide Scanners

Post by planet54 »

I am interested in buying a 35mm slide scanner. Most of my better climbing and hiking trips took place when we shot Ektachrome,Kodachrome and Velvia. I am not looking to publish any of those images but rather get them into digital so I can work with them. I would like to buy one of decent quality but not top end. Do you have any experience,thoughts or suggestions? I guess plan B would be to take them to a lab. Any comments welcome. Thanks
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by rking007 »

I'm no expert but I did come across this great article on the differences between low (Under $100), middle ($100-$999), and high grade scanners ($1,000 - $25,000).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/pho ... er-roundup" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obviously it depends on how many photos you need to transfer that will weigh in on purchasing or just having a service do it. Have you called around to see what scanner certain companies are using? Curious to find out what you go with.
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planet54
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by planet54 »

rking007 wrote:I'm no expert but I did come across this great article on the differences between low (Under $100), middle ($100-$999), and high grade scanners ($1,000 - $25,000).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/pho ... er-roundup" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obviously it depends on how many photos you need to transfer that will weigh in on purchasing or just having a service do it. Have you called around to see what scanner certain companies are using? Curious to find out what you go with.

I read that article too but when you click on most of them they are unavailable ,at least from B+H. I have about 4,000 slides but would only scan the better or unique ones.I am still looking at them with the old Carousel projector. Not sure how much longer I can do that :lol: I am not in a big hurry though, just getting started :)
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by Dancesatmoonrise »

I'm curious as to what you go with as well. I have some old film photos I'd like to digitize.

The camera was not great, so needs are on the low end, but would think there's something better than the usual copy/fax/print/scan units at Office Depot, probably for not a lot more money.
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by rking007 »

Is The Slide Printer still around or in business? On Alameda and 1st-ish? I think they may have changed their name but I used to use them quite a bit when I was shooting slides. They probably have a good service for archiving.

Edit - They are now Denver Digital Imaging Center and it looks like they have some different levels of scanning services but good lawd it gets pricey!

http://www.theslideprinter.com/services/scanning/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by Iguru »

I recently purchased the Epson perfection V330 Photo. It is a flatbed scanner, I got for 80 dollars. I have been scanning my photos from 35 mm to digital. It has great resolution, 9600x4800. Most images scan at somewhat less than that; I roughly calculated files to be equivalent to a 34MP digital camera. I am very happy with this, but one drawback is it is slow, and getting the negatives perfectly free of dust can be a challenge. But it does the job, and eventually, I will have them all done.
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Derby Ale
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by Derby Ale »

I have a CanoScan FS2720U which hasn't been used in years. I can say that I liked that a LOT and a dedicated film scanner was far better than any attachment for a flatbed scanner I ever used. You have me thinking about this thing again and it's just in the corner, so I may try to get it to work with Windows 7 next week (I'll be out of town until then) and see if I can't show you an example.

I'm sure anything 10 years newer will be leaps and bounds better.
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by GBH64 »

If you search on Amazon for "35mm slide scanners" you will find many such products, including some or those listed in the B+H Photo article.

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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by HuskyRunner »

We bought a Nikon Coolscan, don't remember the model number, for my mother-in-law many years ago and inherited it when she passed away. It takes a few minutes to scan a slide, about 5 minutes for a 5 image strip of negatives but the images are fantastic and high res, .tiff and around 60-70MB file size.

Not sure what the scanner goes for on the resale market but it does a mighty nice job.

Mt. Baker's crater taken on slide film. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecrankymonkey/256819077/
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Re: 35mm Slide Scanners

Post by Above+Beyond »

Minolta, Nikon, and Canon all made dedicated scanners. The earliest ones were only 8-bits per channel and used a SCSI card/cable. You should look for one of the 3rd or 4th gen scanners that had USB and 12-bit A/D. A used one in excellent shape and complete with all the holders and other accessories at a well know auction site might be had for ~$200 if you're patient.

Resolution (pixels per inch) is probably less important than whether or not you like the software interface, or are competent to install other scanning software. (The original drivers are typically no longer supported, but code which ran under Windows XP usually runs fine under later OS's.) Even the 1st gen scanners at ~100pixels/mm could hit the grain and resolve about as much as the best film/lens combinations available. Dmax and exposure control can be important if you have dense and contrasty Kodachromes.
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