Railfan Technology > Slide Scanner questions

I've been using my Coolscan 5000 ED scanning a friends collection of slides. I will be scanning lots of slides with his massive collection. I'm guessing around 8000 to 10,000 slides. I was looking at a back up scanner to my 5000 in case I wore it out and need another. Is Nikon still making them? Do they repair them if they break?

They don't sell them on there Nikon store online. And B&H Photo doesn't list any Nikon Coolscan models on there website. The 5000 I bought from B&H Photo in April of 2009 and paid $1100 then, is now priced at $2500 new from some Amazon.com searches. Wow! How did they get that expensive? I think Nikon Coolscans are the best for slide scanning. That's all I ever used. Since film and slide film is a dying thing. Guess film scanners are next to go. Or is it because the demand is not there for mass quantities of film scanners? Limited production makes the price higher perhaps.

Since I am a Canon EOS user and only Nikon product I own is a Coolscan 5000. The CanoScan 9000F has a list price of $200 that shows to be the top Canon model of film scanners. The price has me concerned that it is not as good as my Nikon. Just looking for some input on what is a good film scanner on the market at a reasonable cost under $500 and new.

David
Plano TX

I recently purchased an Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner from Staples, overall, its pretty decent for the price (got it on sale for $149), though I have no experience with a Nikon CoolScan scanner. From what I heard, Nikon no longer makes that scanner. I have over 100 rolls of slides I would like to have scanned with this scanner so I have everything scanned with the same scanner once and for all (I stopped shooting slides in 2007 as I went digital in 2008).

I'm using an Epson V700 which will scan 12 slides at a time and it does a great job. I use their software. Usually do a preview scan at 600 dpi, then frame and scan them individually at 3200. Works fine for me, plus I have about 2000 old B&W negs in various sizes up to 5x7. It will scan a neg or transparency up to 8x10. A friend has the V500 and likes it but it won't handle the big negs we end up trading or buying on ebay.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm using an Epson V700 which will scan 12 slides
> at a time and it does a great job. I use their
> software. Usually do a preview scan at 600 dpi,
> then frame and scan them individually at 3200.
> Works fine for me, plus I have about 2000 old B&W
> negs in various sizes up to 5x7. It will scan a
> neg or transparency up to 8x10. A friend has the
> V500 and likes it but it won't handle the big negs
> we end up trading or buying on ebay.

I use the V700 also. There is the dollar difference from a 500 but if you are doing lots of slides or intend to use it over a long time, I thought it was worth the cost. When you think of the original costs of acquiring the slide collection, the time you can spend scanning and compare it to the cost of the scanner, the additional cost is very small. I believe the Minolta and the Nikon were preferred but you have to deal with what is.

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/12 08:05 by robj.

If I had to buy a new slide scanner today, I'd avoid any flatbed and look at a Plustek 7600i. They run between $300 and $400.

http://plustek.com/usa/products/opticfilm-series/introduction.html

The only real downside I see to one of these is that they require manual feeding/positioning of each frame unlike the Nikon and Minolta models that feed each frame into position once the holder is mounted. But it seems that most people here who use one of these have become accustom to manual feeding and have developed efficient workflows. Do a search here on Plustek 7600i to gain some insight into these.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/scanners/plustek.shtml

Here is a review, it compares to a V700/750 and Nikon as a standard to compare to, so...... There are other reviews. One advantage of the Plustek is a small footprint. To me the advantage of the epson was a familiarity due to my use at school, the ability to scan other formats for people I know and knowledge that they had been in this specific biz for a long time with these and prior models and my experience is they have quality products in this field.

Plustek is probably a fine company but not one I had experience with.

bob

I've had my Plustek 7600i for about a month now and I love it. I know some people like the idea of scanning 4 or 12 slides at a time, but doing one at a time doesn't bother me. I read a ton of reviews before I made the leap, and in terms of quality scans, the 7600i seems to be the best. It comes with Silverfast software which is pretty powerful. You can also get Vuescan for $40 if you want to. The Plustek only does 35mm film, both negatives and slides, no other size films. In terms of quality, it is supposed to be the closest thing to the Nikon or Minolta, which are both out of production and bringing huge money on Ebay. I'm still learning how to use the software. As a matter of fact, my instructor at the Apple Store says to just do the basic scan and do all the editing with IPhoto, Aperture, or Photoshop. That makes the scanning even easier.

I'll add another thumbs up for Plustek. One of these days I need to use my V700 more and compare. I'm also playing with the idea of just using your DSLR and a macro lens (in my case, Canon 7D and 100mm f2.8 IS macro) to make a copy of the slide. Not too shabby so far.

Chris,

You might want to look through this thread, and some of the ones linked from it.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,2080577

Granted, cameras have changed a bit since, but I'd be curious to see a comparison between a good, modern D-SLR using a duplicating process versus a high-end scanner on the same image.

Mike