Need a slide and film scanner

grandpaw

Senior Member
A friend of mine is looking for a good slide and negative scanner for around $300.00 or less. I told him I would ask here and see if I could get any recommendations. If you have any ideas please let me know so I can tell him because this is something I know nothing about. Jeff
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Is he the DIY type? My brother and I were talking about these when we discovered a bunch of slides my Dad had sitting in his closet that went back to the mid-50's. He looked at a bunch of them and decided that the DIY Method was best. I can ask him exactly what he's using, but essentially it's an old enlarger negative tray mounted in front of a white board at a 45 degree angle and a camera with a macro lens on a small tripod set in front. Shoot some bright, diffused like against the white board and voila!! He say's it's easily 50-75% faster, and infinitely better quality (24MP's of digital RAW image) than what he can get from a scanner.
 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
The HP G4050 has been on my want list for a while and it looks like a good bet. It scans 16 Ea 35mm Slides at a time, which is a benefit for those who have a lot of slides to scan. Your friend might also consider the Epson V600 which sells for the same amount, but it scans only 4 Ea 35mm Slides at a time. I've not compared their specifications head to head.

I have no interest in the $100-or-less units made by Ion and Wolverine because of their sketchy specifications and one-shot scan capability, nor higher price units made by brands like Plustek and Pacific Image because their customer service and driver software seems to be lacking judging by many Internet reviews.
 
Last edited:

Sandpatch

Senior Member
I am almost certain that HP stopped offering 35mm Slide Scanners and just began to sell the G4050 again. Not that this has anything to do with its quality, but that HP realized that they'd prematurely turned their back on a market.
 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
I tried to use my (old) Nikkor macro on my D5100 to reproduce 35mm Slides and trying all sorts of setup scenarios, never achieved anything suitable. It was fun to experiment and it held promise, but I have given up on that method.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I have this one by Epson and I've been happy with it. You or your friend might want to read up on some of its reviews. It's within his budget, too. :D It won't scan really large photos, but for smaller photos, film, and slides, it has options to scan in at a high resolution.
 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
I have this one by Epson and I've been happy with it. You or your friend might want to read up on some of its reviews. It's within his budget, too. :D It won't scan really large photos, but for smaller photos, film, and slides, it has options to scan in at a high resolution.

Hark, would it be possible for you to post a 35mm slide scan you've done with your Epson V600? Or I can PM you with my e-mail address and you could send me the jpg so that I can see it in detail if that would be okay. After returning two HP models for lousy quality, I'm leaning toward a V600. Thank you.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Hark, would it be possible for you to post a 35mm slide scan you've done with your Epson V600? Or I can PM you with my e-mail address and you could send me the jpg so that I can see it in detail if that would be okay. After returning two HP models for lousy quality, I'm leaning toward a V600. Thank you.

I will need to rescan something--what I scanned previously was done by a different computer with an uncalibrated monitor. Will take a few days as this computer isn't set up to work with the scanner but will be the better computer to use.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Oh, thank you! :)
BTW, I haven't used it in quite some time...and can't remember what file formats it scans as, but I'm pretty sure TIF was an option (as well as jpeg). The scanned files can be huge depending upon the size you choose.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
@Sandpatch please PM me your email for a scanned jpeg from a 35mm film. You preview the results first.

There are a lot of options to choose from before scanning. You can get an idea:

epson.jpg
 

aroy

Senior Member
One of the best methods is to use the Nikon 60mm Macro with slide adapter. That will give you 24MP RAW (if you use the bodies with 24MP sensors). The RAW file will then be processed as a normal photograph.
Nikon ES-1 Slide Copying Adapter
Nikon ES-1 Slide Copying Adapter 3213 B&H Photo Video
Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D Lens 1987 B&H Photo Video

Though together they will be quite expensive, you gain a 60mm Macro, when you are not copying.

The problem with flat bed scanners is both the quality and low resolution. At 1200 DPI optical resolution (that is what most flat bed scanners can achieve), a 35mm film ( 1.5" x 1") will give 3K x 2K = 6MP image, where as even a D70 will give 7MP and the D3300/D610/D750 a 24MP.

Another step while scanning a film negative, is that you have to process it further
. Get rid of the Orange tint
. Invert colours
There are lot of articles on the net with various solutions for copying slides and processing colour film negatives.
 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
Thanks aroy. I was looking at the Nikon ES-1, but it seems that it also requires a tube adapter and I was thinking through how I'd keep everything consistently set up for thousands of slides. I need to look this option again. The upscale Epson V700 actually includes a focusing lens below the glass to overcome the usual flat bed scanner shortcomings with slides.

hark's copies of 35mm slides using an Epson V600 look pretty good, even without editing. I'm thinking of going the V600 route and seeing what develops (pardon the pun). <g>
 
Top