SAVH Loc: La Jolla, CA

A friend sent me a reference to a Wolverine slide to digital converter on Amazon for $189. I have over 10,000 slides that I am going through to reduce the number I need to digitize but the end number will still be large. The reviews of the current Wolverine converter are very mixed. I am not so concerned about the cost as I want the results to be good but so many of the comments reflect poorly on the results. If anyone has experience with this device or has strong recommendations about another, I would really like to hear about them. I have looked previously and the Epson digital scanners always seem to get a good report but it seems more awkward to use when digitizing one slide at a time.

Thanking you all in advance.

Scotty

newsguygeorge Loc: Victoria, Texas

I have used my Wolverine scanner for years and have been satisfied with the results for slides and negatives. I wish the workflow were easier but I found it no worse than the Plustek that I had and with which I was unhappy. I know others on the Hog like the Plustek, but it just didn’t work for me. I have nothing to say about the Epson scanners because I’ve no experience with them.

You mileage on any of these may vary. Good luck

SAVH Loc: La Jolla, CA

newsguygeorge, Thank you. What about the workflow process did you find awkward or time consuming? I guess I expect to put in a slide, digitize it and move on. What type of "adjustments" were necessary and were you able to see them on the screen or did you make adjustments afterwards in a different program? Are you able to take the digitized file and subsequently process it in say, Lightroom?

Scotty

newsguygeorge Loc: Victoria, Texas

The workflow involved putting the slide or negative in the carrier, pushing it through, taking the photo and pulling it out. It's kind of repetitive no matter what device you're using. I found it most tolerable to undertake these projects with something else to simultaneously entertain me, i.e., watching TV or talking with my wife while we both sit at the table working.

Adjustments were/are driven by the film image itself. Some needed none to little; others needed a lot of work. While the Wolverine has a screen so you can see the output and allows for some basic tweaks. I found those tweaks insufficient and slows the workflow, so I move the files to my computer where I work on them in Photoshop. I don’t use Lightroom.

SAVH Loc: La Jolla, CA

That is really appreciated! Thank you.

Scotty

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

I don't have the Wolverine, I have another model from a UK company, but that isn't really relevant right now.

These stand alone negative/slide scanners are much quicker than using a scanner such as the Epson scanners which come with film and slide holders so that you can scan several at a time. I have and have used one of those...but the process is very slow compared to the stand alone units which usually take only a couple of seconds each.

The reason the stand alone units are so quick is because they don't scan the slide or negative. They are actually self contained cameras that take a picture of the slide or negative. They have built-in software that allows some color and brightness correction and will reverse negatives to positives.

My Epson scanner came with more comprehensive software allowing for more fine tuning of the image after the scan and what was called "digital ice" for automatic removal of dust spots on the scan. Cleaning the slides or negatives is very important to cut down on the time required to clean up the scans later.

Most of the stand alone units are 14mp with the ability to use 22mp interpolated (lesser quality actually).

The best way to achieve high quality copies is to use a slide/negative copier that mounts on your camera. Nikon sells one that mounts on the front of their macro lenses. It is basically a holder for the slide or negative backed with a white plastic diffuser that you can fire a flash behind.

Back in the day I had a Spiratone Vario Dupliscope for my Nikons which was basically a macro lens with the holder and diffuser built in. This worked pretty good and I was even able to make slides from negatives by shooting the negatives with print film which resulted in a positive. I would get those done processed only and cut the film strips into individual "slides" and place them in plastic slide mounts. The resulting slides were relatively low in contrast, but Kodak made a high contrast color negative film at the time which helped with this.

Here is one of many available on eBay. They require a t-mount for your particular brand of camera and can actually be used as a 1:1 (or larger) macro lens with the slide mount removed:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185044047261

In summation...

Stand alone units - quick, but lower quality.

Scanners - higher quality but slow.

Slide copier attachments - probably the best quality depending upon the resolution of your camera. Speed somewhat comparable to the stand alone units with any post processing requiring post processing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom.

bw79st Loc: New York City

I use a Canon Canoscan FS4000US which I bought new many years ago. It still does a far superior job of scanning slides and film strips (35mm) compared to my Epson V700. Yes it takes a long time to make a really good scan but you don't need to stand there and watch it! A few years ago I found another one on eBay for $100 so I bought it as a backup. It was also good to get a second set of carriers for film and slides so I could have the next four slides ready to go. I can get it going, leave the house and when I return, load up the next four. Same thing while watching the news or eating dinner, or going to bed.
I see there are still some available on eBay but be careful to buy one that has the carriers for film strips and slides! These are hard to find!

Actually if you do wait for it to complete a set of four slides you can be busy typing in the metadata for the previous four and touching them up in Photoshop. I scan slides as DNG files and then open them in ACR.

Here's one that I spotted on eBay but it looks like it does not have any carriers or a power cord. I don't know how they can say it has been tested!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/174841810263?hash=item28b5624d57:g:7ssAAOSwGUxg71UR

A note of caution: you will not be able to operate the Canon software as there is no modern operating system that recognizes the drivers. I use my FS4000US with Vuescan software from Hamrick, which is a dream to use IMO. I also run my Epson V700 with Vuescan.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

I have an Epson V600. Scans 4 slides at a time. Once you get a work flow going everything goes relatively quickly and easily. I scan at 300dpi which gives me good results for viewing on a monitor. If I was going to print out the scans I might try a higher dpi, although, the few times I did it didn't seem to make much difference. That was printing at 4x6. For larger prints more dpi would probably be preferable but would slow down your scanning.

BebuLamar

For 35mm slides I have 2 options.
1. I have a Konica Minolta Dual Scan IV, it's does 4 slides at a times and quite slow at 3200dpi which yield 13.5MP images from 35mm slides.
2. Using my 16MP Nikon Df with enlarging lens, bellow, shooting into a modified slide projector. This way it does take some time to set thing up but after that I can scan very quickly.

artvg

I have both an Epson V550 scanner and a Wolverine. The scanner allows me to make a substantially higher quality scan as noted above. I bought the Wolverine because it also allows me to scan 110 negatives and individual photos from 8mm movie film. It has an SD card slot on the back if one chooses to use that, or a cord directly to the computer. If I remember right, the Wolverine records at 5MP. So the real question is what one plans to do with these scans in the future—big prints or ?.

srt101fan

Which if these two options is giving you the better overall picture quality? (I'm interested because I also have the Minolta scanner)

BebuLamar

Sharpness wise the scanner is better as some how I can't get the entire slide in perfect focus but it's not bad at all. Exposure wise and color rendition I like the camera better. Overall I would use the camera approach only when I have a lot of slides to scan and need speed.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

The Epson V600 can scan multiple prints at once and save them as individual files. Requires a slide holding device to do that with slides. Can also do film negatives with the proper holder. And I’ve read good reports about using the VueScan software instead of Epson's provided program. It has more options. Happy scanning.

SAVH Loc: La Jolla, CA

Flip1948, thank you for your comprehensive response. It was very helpful.

Scotty

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Read the PDF attached to this.

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