Scanner suggestions: After recent flood in my house due to storm in Texas, I think it might be time to get many slides and some black and white negatives scanned. All are 35 mm with...

iamimdoc

After recent flood in my house due to storm in Texas, I think it might be time to get many slides and some black and white negatives scanned. All are 35 mm with only a few rolls of medium format black and white film.

Please make suggestions re scanner and software.

Would like to make it as painless as possible but still with good quality.

Thanks

02Nomad Loc: Catonsville, MD

I recently purchased an Epson V600 scanner and am very pleased with the results. Got it on Amazon.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

02Nomad wrote:

I recently purchased an Epson V600 scanner and am very pleased with the results. Got it on Amazon.

My suggestion too. Works very well, however large scanning projects are boring!

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I’m happy with my Epson V600. I used its native software but I hear that VueScan is much better, more versatile.

rmcgarry331

For high quality I would agree that the Epson V600 or V850 Photo scanners, coupled with ViewScan or Silverfast software are great. The downside is that they are painfully slow. Camera scanning is certainly an option, to give you a very good level of quality, and allow you to capture as raw files rather than tiff or jpeg. A 24megapixil camera with a macro lens capable of 1 to 1, should allow you to (scan) 35mm slides a little over 4000 dpi. To reverse negatives I recommend a plug-in for Lightroom Classic called Negative Lab Pro. I'm attaching a link to a video where the he is able to scan up-to 600 slides/negatives per hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42RXRqZDhe0

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Find an Epson scanner that satisfies your format needs. I also suggest if it doesn't with it, Silverfast scanning software.
--Bob

iamimdoc wrote:

After recent flood in my house due to storm in Texas, I think it might be time to get many slides and some black and white negatives scanned. All are 35 mm with only a few rolls of medium format black and white film.

Please make suggestions re scanner and software.

Would like to make it as painless as possible but still with good quality.

Thanks

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

One feature most good scanners have over using a copy stand is a dust and scratch detect and fix function.
Like on a sensor, dust is a frustrating problem to deal with.
Look for Digital Ice or some similar name when shopping.
It uses an infrared scan in addition to the normal one to detect and fix artifacts in dye-based images like most all transparencies and color negatives.
No “Digital Ice”program that I know of works with black & white negatives, and Kodachrome to some extent, since those are silver-based.

SilverFast as Bob above suggests, has a program, SRDx, that looks like it may come with some scanners.
I’ve tried it with my camera-based set-up and it seems to work really well, once you get the hang of it.
The one I trialed looks like a much improved version of Polaroid’s Dust and Scratch program, which looks like a Microsoft Paint based program. Really wonky interface, but it’s free.

https://www.silverfast.com/highlights/srdx/en.html

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

iamimdoc wrote:

After recent flood in my house due to storm in Texas, I think it might be time to get many slides and some black and white negatives scanned. All are 35 mm with only a few rolls of medium format black and white film.

Please make suggestions re scanner and software.

Would like to make it as painless as possible but still with good quality.

Thanks

Epson V600... If using a Mac, download SilverFast SE free (with the V600 serial number) from Epson.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

I've used both dedicated film scanners and flatbeds with light covers. My film scanner is a Canon CanoScan FS4000US and my current flatbed is an Epson Perfection V550 Photo. I use VueScan with the film scanner and the Epson scan application with the flatbed (although I've used the VueScan with it as well). For mounted slides and 35mm film strips the CanoScan works nice since you can set it up to do four mounted slides or a six-frame film strip automatically, and while they're pretty rare now, using an adapter, the CanoScan can also do APS cartridges. Of course, the Epson can do larger sized negatives/transparencies like 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9.

John

billmck Loc: Central KY

iamimdoc wrote:

After recent flood in my house due to storm in Texas, I think it might be time to get many slides and some black and white negatives scanned. All are 35 mm with only a few rolls of medium format black and white film.

Please make suggestions re scanner and software.

Would like to make it as painless as possible but still with good quality.

Thanks

Most responders will likely point to the Epson V600 or one of the other Epson models, as they seem to be the most popular home-use scanners. My kids bought me a Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II 2-3 years ago for Christmas. I wish they'd consulted me first, but I have to say it does a good job.

crphoto8 Loc: Anaheim, California

iamimdoc wrote:

After recent flood in my house due to storm in Texas, I think it might be time to get many slides and some black and white negatives scanned. All are 35 mm with only a few rolls of medium format black and white film.

Please make suggestions re scanner and software.

Would like to make it as painless as possible but still with good quality.

Thanks

I use an Epson Perfection V750 Pro. It comes with software but I use Vuescan.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

GoofyNewfie wrote:

One feature most good scanners have over using a c... (show quote)

SilverFast SRDx uses the same hardware as Digital ICE. That's great, because Digital ICE (Applied Science Fiction Software) is out of business. They sold to Kodak some years back, and you know what happened to Kodak!

The Mac version of Digital ICE is 32-bit code, so it will not run on MacOS 10.15 Catalina or MacOS 11 Big Sur, which REQUIRE 100% 64-bit code. So Epson has made SilverFast SE a free download from their (Epson's) site. Use it in place of Epson Scan 2* when you want to use the dust removal features of the V-series scanners that have them.

*Epson Scan 2 is the 64-bit Mac replacement for Epson Scan. Since no new development is being done by ASF/Kodak to update Digital ICE, and license issues prevent it anyway, Epson could not include Digital ICE in the Mac version of Epson Scan 2.