Railfan Technology > slide scanner recommendations?

I have 35 mm slides that I want to convert to save onto a flash drive. So I need a slide scanner. Any recommendations or advice as to brands or models that are "best? Any that should be avoided? Other general advice appreciated ttoo. 

GAPRoute Wrote:
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> I have 35 mm slides that I want to convert to save
> onto a flash drive.

Hi! What kind of a flash drive, exactly?

Did you mean a solid-state hard drive installed within a computer -- either a 2.5-inch SSD, or a "stick"-shaped SSD that fits into an M.2 slot on your computer's motherboard?

Or did you mean a USB "thumb drive" that's outside your computer, and plugs into an external USB port?

I ask because thumb-type external USB drives use flash memory cells that are really not optimized for storing data across any significant length of time (say, a year or more). Those little flash-based thumb drives are cheap and very convenient, but in no way are they any substitute for proper long-term file preservation. If you're going to the effort of scanning film to get your images across the analog-to-digital gap, you want to insure your time investment doesn't go to waste.

If you're in a hurry, check out the Epson 600 flat bed scanner, it has a little tray for 35mm slides and lots of folks have had good luck with it.

If you're beginning research, the TO archives have lots and lots of posts about slide scanners and software, there are some posts about reliable digital archiving as well. Be aware of the radio scanner posts, same only different.

How many slides? If it's less than, say, a thousand, consider sending them to a scanning service like digmypics.com. The time committment and learning curve requirement for getting decent quality scans is quite involved. 

See recent posting on this topic:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,5415259

Unless you have completely run out of things to do, consider a scanning service like scancafe. Another, digmypics, was mentioned earlier and there may be others. Just send off the slides and be done with the scanning chore. Use your free time to take more photos and write your book or magazine article.

MirandaDepot Wrote:
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> Unless you have completely run out of things to
> do, consider a scanning service like scancafe.
> Another, digmypics, was mentioned earlier and
> there may be others. Just send off the slides and
> be done with the scanning chore. Use your free
> time to take more photos and write your book or
> magazine article.

Half the fun in scanning is going back thru the slides you have and, just like Christmas, it takes ya back to when ya took the shots, even one's ya dont remember.  If you do them yourself, one has more control over the final image. I, myself, would not send my slides/negs out anywhere to get scanned. Do it yourself. Epson for the cost, does have some good scanners, I use an EPSON V550 and it is great. Can scan 4 slides at a time, which might seem a bit tedious, it works. Negs can be scanned up to strips of 6-8 with a total of 8-12 perscan (There are 2 slots, lengthwise on my V550 which is how you can get 6-8 per slot and up to-8-12 perhaps even 16, I myself do 8 at a time) . Medium Format Negs, about 2-4 at a time. Editing programs are another story. Everyone has their favorite. Find one if you decide to go this route, that you are comfortable working with, both scanner and editing. There is a learning curve to these, but once ya get comfy, It is you who have it all at your fingertips in regards to what/how you scan.  Good luck whichever way ya choose. Ben

I totally agree with Ben. Scanning my slide collection is like having my own personal Time Machine.

I've been using a Epson V600, and it works very well. It's a all purpose scanner that can scan 4 slides at a time, also does film strips and all manner of print documents.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I just bought a Epson V600 and satisfied with early results for slides and negatives.  I used ScanCafe to scan 1,000 plus older slides that have faded, were clean, some turned pink and they did a great job with them.  I'm not interested in photoshopping each scan and taking the time to do that, but want to have my collection digitized to match up with the other digital photos I've been taking.