Railfan Technology > What are people using for 35mm slide scanners?

What are people using for 35mm slide scanners?
I need a new one - what do people recommend?

If you don't want to spend an arm and a leg.
Dusting the slides and naming the jpg are far more time 
consuming than the scanning process with this machine.
To me it is good enough for posting on TO.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,5124819,5149030#msg-5149030

If you have a Nikon and the right lens, there is this...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1357884-REG/nikon_27192_es_2_film_digitalizing_adapet.html/?ap=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A514&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-6Td6avn9QIV1h6tBh0GrAOxEAQYAyABEgKtePD_BwE

I'd be surprised if there wasn't something equivalent for all the major DSLR cameras.

Many here on TO including myself use the Epson V600 (currently around $250), pretty affordable and easy to use. Auto or manual adjustment features in the software included or bring your own. Results are very good, search this site for more V600 comments or use my handle (jgilmore) to search any photos I've posted to see a "layman's" results. Hope this helps...

JG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/22 18:49 by jgilmore.

I've done hundreds very Hi-Res scans of both my own and my Dad's images with a Plustek 8200i.
Silverfast software gives you complete control over the output which can be a real advantage when dealing with slides from the 1940s and 50s.
I do have to add that the carriers are a bit flimsy but if you're careful they're fine.

Bob
nerrp.com

The cost of the Nikon micro and adapter is about $800 and you can only copy 35 mm film plus you will need a nikon fullframe camera for best results.  The complete cost of my Epson V850 with Silverfast software from Samy's in December 2020 was $1,282.35 which allows you to made digital files of almost any size film and type you can there is or ever was.  I am sure that the Nikon results are very good and in the right hands excellent but then the results I have been getting with my V850 are excellent especially when the slide are Kodachrome 25.  But which way do you get more for your dollars spend.      

DGOLDE Wrote:
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> The cost of the Nikon micro and adapter is about
> $800 and you can only copy 35 mm film plus you
> will need a nikon fullframe camera for best
> results.  The complete cost of my Epson V850 with
> Silverfast software from Samy's in December 2020
> was $1,282.35 which allows you to made digital
> files of almost any size film and type you can
> there is or ever was.  I am sure that the Nikon
> results are very good and in the right hands
> excellent but then the results I have been getting
> with my V850 are excellent especially when the
> slide are Kodachrome 25.  But which way do you
> get more for your dollars spend.      

If you are only looking at scanning film, certainly the Epson wins.  

However, the Nikon camera/lens combo has another use -- taking pictures.  The 60 f/2.8 Nikkor lens is a really good general purpose lens, not limited to scanning film.  

Seems to me that Epson and Plustek have been popular on this board, Epson being a flatbed and Plustek being a dedicated 35mm. I have an older Epson V500 that is good for posting on the web but would not be at the level of serious archiving or publication criteria. Although that seems to vary according to how rare the subject is.

Other folks have out of production Nikon or Canon scanners, sometimes with auto feeds. They seem to have a lot of quirky software and update issues. Those product names would also be good to use the TO search function with, there's lots of discussions over the years about slide scanners and frustrations with them. Note that the key word of scanner also gets a lot of radio scanner posts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/22 12:14 by TCnR.

TCnR Wrote:

>
> Other folks have out of production Nikon or Canon
> scanners, sometimes with auto feeds. 



That would be me.  I use two Nikon Coolscan 5000s (one is a backup) for slides and have an Epson V800 (around $800) for negatives and refective objects like prints.

These are seriously overkill unless you are, like me, selling photos for a living (and they are probably overkill for me, too, but I bought the first Coolscan 5000 when I was working and could afford nice things; I used the stimulus money to buy the second one).

BobE

Doing 16slides at a time has worked very well for me.
Set them up and come back after 20minutes or so depending on resolution.

I am the outlier here using a HP Scanjet G4050 for my entire collection of about 25,000 slides.
I see you can get them used on ebay for about 50$.
The software has gone through several iterations, as has my needs.

the original streetcar from 1972 Beograd is 4meg at 600 resolution.
the slide was 40years old when scanned 10years ago.
The learning curve says cleaning the dust off before hand would be helpful. and Redo?
Also, there are post fix-ups. Irfanview is a nice free tool for brightening, for example.

After this first pass, good to know what is worth saving, and perhaps redoing.
things age like fine wine.

and I have been told that slides of that era in color from behind the iron curtain are highly unusual....

Laurence Rohter


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/22 09:54 by arrowspatial.

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35mm slides and negatives are scanned on a Nikon 5000, while large negatives and reflective material are scanned on an Epson 850. If you are just scanning for occasional TO posts an Epson V600 Photo would be a good investment. I owned a Plustek 8200i but after a couple of thousand scans the LED's started to go out on the scanner. My used Nikon 5000 has had that many or more scans and only has needed a mirror cleaning and lube.

arrowspatial Wrote:
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> the original streetcar from 1972 Beograd is 4meg at 600 resolution.

For some perspective, that's not even close to what most of us would consider to be an archival quality scan. My 35mm slide scans are between 40 and 60MB each.

You are correct.
When I started out 15 years ago with an Astra, then the HP, to do 25,000plus slides I tested for each of the settings.
600dpi gave me the best match to the scanner and camera/film.
This has worked out well as a recon.
Yes, I now could go back and redo selected ones at better quality.
So many factors to consider.
As I said first, 16 at a time was very nice.

For a little variety here is 2-6-0 steam engine in Yugoslavia. 50 years ago to the month.
900k size now, original 600dpi, color auto adjust by Irfanview and labeled with paint shop pro.


 

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I am using an Epson V600 for the last 2 years.  I think it is great.

I'm with BuddPullman. I'm 30,000 scans in on my Epson V600 since June 2018 and am very satisfied. The price was right too at 225 dollars from B&H Photo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/22 07:51 by perklocal.

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Archival quality needs to be way more than 600dpi. Start at 3600 dpi. Archival quality needs to be 400pixels in the long direction.

RWJ

arrowspatial Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You are correct.
> When I started out 15 years ago with an Astra,
> then the HP, to do 25,000plus slides I tested for
> each of the settings.
> 600dpi gave me the best match to the scanner and
> camera/film.
> This has worked out well as a recon.
> Yes, I now could go back and redo selected ones at
> better quality.
> So many factors to consider.
> As I said first, 16 at a time was very nice.
>
> For a little variety here is 2-6-0 steam engine in
> Yugoslavia. 50 years ago to the month.
> 900k size now, original 600dpi, color auto adjust
> by Irfanview and labeled with paint shop pro.
>
>
>  

Might be worthwhile for some of you to read the resolution tutorial I posted here back in 2007. It's all still very relevant.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,1315869

My PlusTek 7600 is ten years old this month and still going strong.  If you want to, you can check out the quality by looking at my photos here on T.O.  Also, I highly recommend Train Junkie's tutorial.  It helped me a lot.

I am using a Nikon Coolscan V, scanning with VueScan and post processing in Lightroom. It's working well for me.

Steve Sloan
San Jose, CA

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I have been using the Pacific Image Powerslide X.  I am a big fan of it.