retfyrman

Anyone have any suggestions on a good slide scanner? I have a couple of hundred to scan.

louparker Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

Look for past discussions -- this topic has been discussed many times during the past few months.

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

I have a Plustek 8200i SE that I purchased from B&H several years ago. It's not cheap but, works well.

xposure

Epson makes some Flat bed scanners that converts to film and slide scanners, and comes with holders. My Epson Perfection 4180 is about 10 years old and still works great. I used it for 35mm slides and 2 1/4 transparencies. The Epson V600 is about $200 now.

talborough Loc: Bellingham, MA, USA

I have the Kodak Scanza and "it works" for me. You push the slides with your finger through the unit inside a tray. The are multiple sized trays. It connects to a computer and has an HDMI out port and cable so you can give a slide show. I've suggested to Pam who has the slides a slide show for the family to explain the slides would be a nice adjunct to just moving them swiftly to a thumb drive. I ordered it through Staples and it got here in about 3 days (about 3 weeks ago).

Whatever you select - enjoy! It is fun!

Tom

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some choices -

https://www.diyphotography.net/old-slides-want-scan-cheap-easy-way-home/
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/slide-copy-adapters/es-1-slide-copying-adapter-for-52mm-thread.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-448681-1.html#7548235
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-457230-1.html#7687881
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos.scanner&hl=en
http://opteka.com/slidecopier.aspx
https://smile.amazon.com/Wolverine-Super-20MP-Digital-Converter/dp/B00GIDADP0/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g2609328962?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&ie=UTF8
http://www.scancafe.com/services/slide-scanning

Cleaning slides -
https://kodakdigitizing.com/blogs/news/cleaning-tips-before-digitizing-slides-and-photos
https://www.smoothphotoscanning.com/blog/cleaning-35mm-slides/
https://howtoscan.ca/slide-scanning/cleaning-slides.php
https://www.scanmyphotos.com/blog/2018/08/best-way-to-clean-35mm-slides-and-negatives.html

foggypreacher Loc: Dickinson, Texas

I just checked on the V600. Epson showed out of stock and Amazon showed unavailable. But Best Buy, B&H, Adorama and others have them. Also there are at least two versions: one does up to 17X22; another 81/2X11.7. Interesting.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

For a few like that look at commercial scanner firms like Legacy Box might be cheaper.

dalbers

Yes, I have one I have been wanting to sell. It will easily hold a hundred slides. More specific information available. Fair off and shipping has it.

Dale Albers

Lexington, KY

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I use an ES-2 with a 60 macro lens on my D850. Best of luck.

John Maher Loc: Northern Virginia

I use Epson Perfection 550 Photo for slides and for digitizing color negatives. It also digitizes/restores old photos. I got it refurbished direct from Epson.

I am sure Epson and others make more capable machines, but this works great for me using the software that came with it.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Most Epson scanners with film/slide capability work great.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I'm in the middle of "scanning" a few thousand slides from the 1970's - 80's. I have plenty of suggestions. First it's really easy to build your own contraption. You need a decent camera with either macro capabilities or an extension tube. You need to be able to focus at least 3-4 inches. You then need a good light source, and if you have an old cell phone with a flashlight app that works great, but you need a a "diffuser" between the slide and light source. I used a piece of white translucent plastic from a cheap slide pre-viewer.

Bulid a simple tray to hold your camera and the slide holder. Below is a picture of what I did. Also you will want to tether your camera to your PC. I use a freeware app called digacamcontrol. It works pretty good and the price is right. I understand lightroom has tethering abilities, but I don't use light room. This makes it a snap to get lighting and focus right for your slides. Focus doesn't change but lighting is all over the place, particularly with old slide camera's in the hands of really bad photographers (me)

This reminds me, while I rarely to never shoot RAW, it is a good idea to digitize your slides in raw if your photography skills were as bad as mine in the days of 100% manual and quality highly dependent on getting the right film for your particular shooting session. I'm using a Nikon D5200 with a 18-55mm zoom kit lens with an extension tube. The results I get are fine for me. Biggest problem is most of my slides are not in sharp focus.

This is WAY faster than using a scanner, but editing each slide requires time. Cropping, exposure and all that plus removing dirt spots from the lens (I didn't seem to care about that in the 70's) Here is a sample of what I get. This is not the best nor the worst but I liked the pic of my niece 40 years ago.

Homemade "Scanner"

(Download)

Sample digitized Slide (resized for UHH)

(Download)

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I had forty years worth of slides that I scanned myself.

I found that a Nikon LS-2000 worked the best. Even I had to purchase it used and use an old WinXP computer of my father's, but it was worth it.

I also have a Plustek one. It didn't work quite as well, but I got it new and it would work with a modern computer.

My Epson scanner had several problems
* it handled sharp light-to-dark transitions poorly
* it perfectly reproduced problems on the media itself {scratches, fungus spots, etc}

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

I really like my Edson V600. It does a great job scanning slides, various sized negatives, prints, documents, etc. I have used mine for color, b&w, documents to text using ocr and so on.

I scan my slides and negatives at 3200...that is supposed to be the optimum for slides and negatives. You can go higher if you want but it will just take a lot longer...and you can go lower but you get to the point they are only good to view online, not printing.

If you had a lot of slides then it would make sense to buy a slide scanner. It would be a little faster, but not better.

Chuck