35mm Slide Scanners

[Bob P]

There must be lots of you out there who will be able to advise me on Slide Scanners. I have a life time of slides taken in my carreer as a ships officer and it's time I started showing them off! There must be lots of good 2nd hand ones about. People like me; once the collection is duly scanned the the scanner becomes surplus.

[yelvertoft]

Hello Bob,

Firstly, a very warm welcome to WPF, glad to have you aboard!

I use a slide scanning attachment on an ordinary flatbed scanner, but I wouldn't recommend it for quality or speed. If you have lots of slides to scan, it is probably worth investing in a dedicated slide scanner. I have no expertise in such things, but I'm sure someone will be able to recommend one soon enough. Member Nirofo springs to mind.

Hang on, I recall this has been asked before. A quick search has found this thread:
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...ead.php?t=1010

Regards,

Duncan

[Bruce Carson]

Hi Bob:
Last year I was looking for a scanner to upload my slides and I found this review in PC Magazine.
In the past I've found their reviews fair and without bias. The price was right, I took a chance and bought the Canon.
It has been everything I had hoped for, a reasonably priced machine giving a quality scan.
It might be worth your consideration.

Canoscan 8400F
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1712301,00.asp

Bruce C

[chris02]

I have an Minolta that works really well, only trouble being that doing 4 slided at a time can get really boring!
Chris

[Bob P]

Have any of you any experience of the Plustek range of scanners?

[Phil1962]

If you are on a budget, I would also recommend the Canoscan 8400F flatbed with slide attachment. I've been using one for 2 years and the results are very good. I understand that dedicated slide scanners are better in terms of quality and speed, but they are also pricey. Plus, if you have other things to scan, you need two scanners, making it even more expensive.

Cheers
Phil

[Bob P]

I already have a good flat bed scanner, but it does not do justace to my slides, all taken with prime Nikkor or Canon lenses. My only budget consideration is once I have scanned my slides it will not be used again. So it seems daft to spend a fortune. But one thing to remember is shrouds don't come with pockets!

Thanks Bob

[chris02]

You could always buy one, scan everything then put it on ebay, sure cheaper than getting the pros to do it.

Chris

[Leif]

What's the film? That can make a difference. Kodachrome is a real pain to scan.

I'm sure you can find reviews of the PlusTek scanners via Google:

http://www.ephotozine.com/equipment/...fm?test_id=403

The Minolta 5400 and Nikon Coolscans are some of the best. There is a MInolta on ebay currently at £200 with ages to go, so it looks like they fetch a decent amount.

[Craftysnapper]

I can reccomend the Nikon Coolscan V, and the Nikonscan4 software that comes with it is especially good for restoring fading Kodachromes.