dbrugger25 wrote:
I know this has been discussed before but a long time ago. I have thousands of old 35mm color slides, strips of negatives and some 2-1/4 square negatives that I need to go through. I will want to scan many of them and create digital files. Can some of you suggest good quality scanners that produce acceptable image files. I don't want to spend a whole lot of money for a commercial grade device. I am retired and have time on my hands.
A flat bed scanner (like the Epson V600 or their more upscale models) can work well for 2-1/4 and larger slides and negs, or for prints.
However for the 35mm slides and film strips, a dedicated film scanner will do a much better job. Today there are essentially two companies making these: Plustek and Pacific Image. If you shop used you will also find Nikon, Minolta and Konica-Minolta that are darned good.
Here are four of the currently available DEDICATED FILM SCANNERS:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compare/Pacific_Image_Prime_Film_XAs_vs_Plustek_8200i_Ai_vs_Plustek_8200i_SE_vs_Plustek_8100/BHitems/1434257-REG_883631-REG_980019-REG_894381-REGScanning SOFTWARE is very important. One of the very best is Silverfast. All four of the above come with one version or another of Silverfast. The Pacific image and the two lower priced Plustek all use Silverfast SE, which is a "lite" version of the software. The most expensive of the four, the Plustek 8200 AI, comes with Silverfast AI Studio, a more advanced "gold standard" of scanning software. (Just to put this in perspective, Silverfast AI can be purchased separately for use with a variety of scanners... that software alone typically sells for $249 to $399.)
There are currently only three FLAT BED SCANNERS optimized for use with film, by providing film holders, back lighting in the lid, etc. All three are from Epson.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/products/document-flatbed-scanners/ci/1152?sort=PRICE_LOW_TO_HIGH&filters=fct_film-negative-holder_5501%3A35mm-negative%7C35mm-slide%7C4-x-5in-film%7Cmedium-format-film%2Cfct_form-factor_2581%3AflatbedOf the above, the most expensive 12000XL comes with Silverfast AI Studio software, the Epson V850 comes with Silverfast SE s'ware, while the more affordable V600 comes with Epson's own proprietary software. Silverfast software can be bought for many scanners that don't come with it, like the V600. For example, depending upon the version of Silverfast for that particular scanner, for the V600 it can cost between $49 and $399.
There also have been an Epson V700-series of models, which you might find if you shop used.
Speaking of which, there is a fairly strong market for used dedicated film scanners, as well as reasonably good market for flat beds. Many people buy the dedicated film scanners, use them and then when the job is completed sell the scanner to recoup much of their cost. That's something you might consider doing yourself. People tend to keep flat beds for various future use, since they can be useful for stuff other than film and prints.
The dedicated film scanners listed above only handle one mounted 35mm slide at a time. There have been film scanners with slide feed mechanisms offered where you can put in a batch and let it run overnight. In most cases those are quite expensive and dedicated to 35mm slides only (cannot scan film strips)
If I recall correctly, the Epson V600 can handle 4 slides, the Epson V850 can handle 12 and the Epson 12000XL can handle 30 at a time. In all cases, I believe the number of negs in strips they can scan is slightly greater (assuming you actually want to scan every neg on every strip).
High quality scans take up a TON of storage space. For example, I use a twenty year old Nikon 4000 scanner with 35mm slides. It's 4000 ppi is relatively low by today's standards (the above dedicated film scanners do 7200 to 10,000 dpi!). When I make a 16 bit tiff file at maximum resolution, the result is 130MP! Files will be considerably larger than that, with those higher resolutions! Might want to be prepared with some extra hard drives!
One of the reasons I got the Nikon scanner was because it can optionally be fitted with a bulk slide feeder... up to 40 slides can be set up to run overnight.
Finally, one of the things to look for in scanners besides their resolution (and price, of course), is called "D-Max" this is their dynamic range. The best can do a D-Max of 4.0 or higher.
The shot of the jay below was scanned from slide film... I prints nicely to 11x14". That was with a 4000 ppi scanner. With a modern one that's 7200 or even 10,000 ppi might be able to print even larger.