scanner recommendations

Beth Carter

Beth Carter

Well-Known Member
need some help with some scanner recommendations. i know nothing about scanners. for christmas my grandmother gave me all of my grandfather's old 35mm color slides.

i'd like a standalone scanner, something like this wolverine scanner, but don't know if it's crap or not. i don't really have the room for a flat bed scanner.
 
thanks pete. either of those would probably work. i don't want to spend a lot of money (i was hoping for less than $300) on a scanner because i'm not going to use it much. i have maybe 150 slides (though she has an entire attic to clean out and i'm sure i'll get more). but in the end the physical space is going to be more important than my budget.

i hope, someday, i'll get my grandfather's slides from the korean war. i already have a few i scanned from 4x6s years ago.
 
Beth Anthony said:
thanks pete. either of those would probably work. i don't want to spend a lot of money (i was hoping for less than $300) on a scanner because i'm not going to use it much. i have maybe 150 slides (though she has an entire attic to clean out and i'm sure i'll get more). but in the end the physical space is going to be more important than my budget.

i hope, someday, i'll get my grandfather's slides from the korean war. i already have a few i scanned from 4x6s years ago.
Click to expand...
Like what Pete said, I can't say anything about that scanner you're looking at. Nor can I recommend anything else unfortunately, Beth, since my scanner is a flatbed. For what it's worth though, I have an Epson V500 that cost me about $150 off Amazon. I've used it a lot and I'm not unhappy. It does 35mm (slides as well as negs) and medium format. You can also scan prints. (Even though you don't have room for a flatbed scanner you may want to invest in one anyway so you are ready for the day when you ditch digital and go to film. ;))
 
I have the V600, there is a massive price gap between the V600 and V700 or V750, I feel that its worth the investment in a good photo scanner, it won't be as amazing as a drum scanner, but then again a drum scanner doesn't cost £190 lol I know that you said that you don't really want a flatbed but I would still consider it. I won't be using mine that much but when I do want to use it, its there. It also means that if you wanted to get into film you can just get the negatives developed (or develop your own black and white negatives yourself) then you can simply scan them in rather than paying for actual prints.

Here is my thread on the V600 after my first few scans I did on it, it comes with MF, 35mm and slide film holders, very easy to use.

http://www.realphotographersforum.com/general/8983-first-set-scans-new-epson-v600.html
 
Beth - I have a Minolta Dimage Dual III which I had all but abandoned but recently found that VueScan supports it without any need for additional drivers. The result is I can finally use it with OS X 10. I presume the same is true for the latest Windows OS. It might be possible to pick up a Scan Dual cheaply but you may need to factor in $40 (unless you buy the Pro licence) for a 1-year VueScan licence if the supplied drivers are obsolete. A flat-bed is more versatile but the Dual III is only the size of a small shoe-box.

Recommended Photo Scanners
http://www.hamrick.com
 
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thank you for all of the suggestions, i'm making my short list.

the parents are going to let me store a scanner at their house if i don't have room at my place. and mom is bugging me to scan in some old 4x6s too. so..it'll be a little more difficult to get it in a hurry, but storage as big of an issue anymore.

thanks for the link to your images david.
 
No worries, the software to scan is pretty good, I just basically scan it on whatever DPI I want and leave everything else unchecked so I can just change it in lightroom. At the 'normal' resolutions it only takes a few minutes for a scan to be done, with MF film I had to select the images in preview, however with the 35mm scans it automatically recognised each of the images. Considering the image of the shops is a 35mm image its got really good detail :)

Let us know what you do in the end, might be worth trying to 'scan' them with your DSLR and see how that goes first before spending cash.
 
This is what the Minolta Dual Scan III managed with one of my negatives from 1970. I have uploaded the full-size JPEG to Flickr in case anyone is interested. This was self-developed so the negative is not of the highest quality. The upload is unprocessed in any way apart from the TIFF to JPEG conversion in Snapseed.


Do you remember when? by berriff, on Flickr
 
Wow thats an impressive scan!
 
Beth, for what its worth, almost every picture I've ever posted to RPF is a scan. 98% from negs, but a few from prints or slides. All with the V500 Epson. Almost all were scanned at 600 dpi.
 
thanks everyone for the recommendations, reviews and sample photos. still mulling over my options and wants, but i think i'm leaning towards the minolta dimage dual scan III with scan speed with vuescan. i'll make a final decision this weekend while i'm off.
 
Let us know what you go with and perhaps put up some scans, just remember to think about not only what you currently want to scan but what you might want to scan, ie if you wanted to go with medium format or large format at some point in the future. I know that I won't ever need another scanner as i'm not planning on going larger than 4x5 lol
 
If you do decide to get VueScan make sure you get the best licence for your needs. The basic one runs out after a year which is not clear from the website - this makes it sound as if you stop getting upgrades but the licence will still be valid which from forum posts is not the case. The Pro level licence is a perpetual licence.

Edit: I am loathe to criticise VueScan though as the developer has single-handedly developed the software and drivers that the industry failed to maintain. It has been cheaper to pay for the Pro licence than to buy a new, equivalent scanner.

In the meantime I have been given a plustek 7300 scanner. I have yet to get it to work as it needs its own drivers as well as VueScan, and I was not given the scanner CD. I have downloaded what I hope are drivers that will work on my iMac. If I ever get it to function I will compare the results to those from the Minolta.
 
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