Railfan Technology > Photo Scanners

Looking for recomendations for a flatbed photo scanner, something reasonably priced. Do not like self feed, too many problems of getting stuff lined up in feeder.

Charlie

I have used many years a Canon "Canoscan 5600F" flatbed. It comes with film and slide holder and does a reasonable job at a reasonable price.
Doug

I have had an Epson V700 for years now and think it is great.   I bought it because it will scan negatives up to 8x10.  If you're dealing with slides and all smaller sized negs, maybe the V600 would work for you.  Epson is one of the better scanners on the market.

Ditto on the Epson.  Great quality results for a reasonable priced unit.

Depending on your needs, go with a V550 or higher numbered model.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/20 12:29 by NKP715.

Bought a V600 a last month.

Very satisfied with it.

Lots of reviews here on TO, just do a little searching and you'll find them. They are very much worth reading.

I mention that not to be snarky, but because I have read many of them, and they were all tremendously helpful to me as I considered my own choice for a new scanner, soon to be purchased. I'm down to deciding between the Epson V600 and V800, and I'm just ironing through a few narrow, specific and unusual needs that I have, and considering those needs relative to the big price difference between the two. At some point in almost any technical product purchase (camera, computer, smartphone etc.), such capability / price factors come into play, so nothing new there. But the discussion threads here on TO were useful, often more so than reviews on photographic sites. They can be a lot to wade through, but many good points emerge from reading them, and it's worth your while to do so.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan

Try here https://filmscanner.info/en/FilmscannerTestberichte.html
 

WM1977 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looking for recomendations for a flatbed photo
> scanner, something reasonably priced. Do not like
> self feed, too many problems of getting stuff
> lined up in feeder.
>
> Charlie

I have had a Epson V850 for about a year now.  I got it because I had a number of 8x10 glass plates I wanted to scan.  It did that like a champ.  Sharp as a tack.  I used it to scan over 2000 color slides with great success.  Having said that it took a little time to get a feeling for all of the power this scanner has to offer.  I am now scanning 4x5, 2x3, 2x2 and 35mm negatives and love it.  Although they could of made the 120 film carries a tad wider.  But it dose not come under your requiment of "reasonably priced".
Wes

Wes Chiles
Topeka, KS

What are you going to scan?   Small negatives or larger.   Look at Epson's product line and see what will handle your biggest negs.  They all will scan 8x10 prints.  The V700 and 800 will do 12 35mm slides in one holder.    Depend on what your needs are.

For what it's worth, my two cents:

If you're just scanning prints, and you have a lot of them, you may want to consider the Epson FF-640.  I have scanned thousands of my prints as well as those of family members and it just keeps going.

I have only had feed issues with a few batches of 3" x 5" prints from long ago on thin unbranded paper that would stick together despite fanning and shuffling.  Dropping them in one by one as the unit feeds itself is still much faster than a flatbed.

I use a Swiffer followed with canned air to clean the dust and particles every 200 or so prints, and a microfiber cloth for the glass.

I've done over 3000 prints in a day at 600 dpi jpeg with a straight scan and automatically corrected scan as output.  If you want to make a dedicated day of it, you can easily beat that number.

It will also output a tif file, without a significant drop in speed.  Depending on the subject matter, I will sometimes go to tif if I don't have the negatives.

It will take me a long time to get around to scanning my negatives - but now I have a digital image of the prints and I've recovered some space as well.

As a "bonus", it can also function as a high speed sheetfed document scanner.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Need to scan 3x5, 4x6 prints and 35mm slides for electronic storage and for magazine articles.

I would think the V600 would fill the bill, unless you want to scan slides in groups of 12.

I am happy overall with the Epson V600 I got a few months back for Slide Scanning.  The only caveat is that it had dust INSIDE the glass, which is not accessible.  I found a tutorial on taking it apart to clean and did so, but I think i might have dust again (different spot under glass).  I like the workflow and the quality, but am disappointed in the dust issue.  The digital ice is nice for elimiating dust specks but I've found it also eliminated small details off of locomotives, so I dont use it. 

I have had the V600 for several years and many scans, and would recommend it, especially for prints and medium and large format negs (I've scanned a lot of 120 negs with it and made large prints with good results). It is OK for 35 mm slides but clearly not as good as a dedicated slide scanner like the Nikon Cool Scan, I have both and have done comparisons.  At $140 refurbished from Epson it is a real bargain even if you later decide you need a dedicated slide scanner.  But I do recommend the Vuescan software rather than the software thac comes with it.

JBWX



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/20 17:18 by jbwest.

If you have a quality DSLR/mirrorless camera, you could use that to "scan" the images.
I suggest a tripod with a 90° arm so you can shoot straight down while mounted on a table. Use good lights, mounted a 45° to the print. 
You might have a camera that has a smartphone app for the camera. With it, you can see the image before you shoot. You can check focus and exposure. 
If you think this a lot of work, consider that you may have a camera already so that saves money. 
The best thing is, the shot is instant; no waiting for a scanner to laboriously scan the image, taking 30 to 90 seconds to do each image. That is a lot of time saved. You might finish in one evening.

Dennis Livesey
New York, NY