Curious about Slide Scanner
in [Digital Cameras]
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From: Mirsky on 4 Aug 2010 21:52 Hi. My mom has 3000 slides and wants to digitize them. She can't afford to have a store do it. I just found a cheap scanner on Amazon that scans slides: http://amzn.to/9K7DHs It's even cheaper on buy.com I can't find any reviews of it anywhere other than Amazon. I'm a little skeptical that the quality of the scans will be good, but I'm not an expert on scanners and scanners are much cheaper than they used to be. So, I'm looking for some opinions on whether it's worth buying the scanner. It's cheap and mom can afford it. I just don't want her to spend lots of time scanning if the quality of the scans isn't any good. Thanks, M
From: Ryan McGinnis on 4 Aug 2010 22:29 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 8/4/2010 8:52 PM, Mirsky wrote: > Hi. My mom has 3000 slides and wants to digitize them. She can't afford > to have a store do it. I just found a cheap scanner on Amazon that scans > slides: > > http://amzn.to/9K7DHs > > It's even cheaper on buy.com The quality will be very poor; you get what you pay for. There's reason Nikon slide scanners cost what they do. Do you have a macro lens? Have you considered just building a box with a light and shooting them with a digital camera? - -- - -Ryan McGinnis The BIG Storm Picture -- http://bigstormpicture.com Vortex-2 image licensing at http://vortex-2.com Getty: http://www.gettyimages.com/search/search.aspx?artist=Ryan+McGinnis -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJMWiILAAoJEIzODkDZ7B1b550IAKDcNACoV6OhiUw5dkmlBi5W 0EOIhxyeDLHXlrWRXvCi78V0VKy9ObsuWCpnGsZ5wOdcbzD9rwEXzVYNUxJC6+Nw /cfLoOSzkJvE6Vs9VBSY61cfmxe/CImh3ZAlsQ6/zZaI07GaPYHToDs7s7AvPflv mvDV+laXIQKyiBfK2AsrJdhRxcd4IdV5NLlE7BFeKhdMLJYo7kJWY4EXMou9pQs9 YUEsCoHfPV863BakGXACDoPM7CWATLoG6vWDIkV0DXbU4TVnqmdpY4e7KNI/MfDD sZeXdvyaCPslnbUGfHFtAP4BBxH4XQMc9gML5EE5HVtiBnem20xAG7Q872mTE8E= =EpNY -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
From: Ofnuts on 5 Aug 2010 03:26 On 05/08/2010 03:52, Mirsky wrote: > Hi. My mom has 3000 slides and wants to digitize them. She can't afford > to have a store do it. I just found a cheap scanner on Amazon that scans > slides: > > http://amzn.to/9K7DHs > > It's even cheaper on buy.com > > I can't find any reviews of it anywhere other than Amazon. I'm a little > skeptical that the quality of the scans will be good, but I'm not an > expert on scanners and scanners are much cheaper than they used to be. > > So, I'm looking for some opinions on whether it's worth buying the > scanner. It's cheap and mom can afford it. I just don't want her to > spend lots of time scanning if the quality of the scans isn't any good. > It isn't really a scanner, its a low quality camera so it's fundamentaly the same as a slide duplicator on a camera. But you camera may be lot better. -- Bertrand
From: Bruce on 5 Aug 2010 04:03 On Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:52:52 -0700, Mirsky <mirsky(a)mirsky.com> wrote: >Hi. My mom has 3000 slides and wants to digitize them. She can't afford >to have a store do it. I just found a cheap scanner on Amazon that scans >slides: > >http://amzn.to/9K7DHs > >It's even cheaper on buy.com > >I can't find any reviews of it anywhere other than Amazon. I'm a little >skeptical that the quality of the scans will be good, but I'm not an >expert on scanners and scanners are much cheaper than they used to be. > >So, I'm looking for some opinions on whether it's worth buying the >scanner. It's cheap and mom can afford it. I just don't want her to >spend lots of time scanning if the quality of the scans isn't any good. It's junk. There are many of these cheap Chinese-made scanners around. As you say, they can be bought even more cheaply than the one linked to. They have poor resolution and very low dynamic range. Dynamic range is very important when scanning slides - it is slightly less important with negatives. At the other end of the scale, there are Nikon scanners costing many times more. They produce scans of a very high standard and are suitable for professional use. You would be better buying a mid-range scanner such as one of the Plustek OpticFilm range. They offer much higher standards than the cheap scanner you linked to. They aren't as good as the Nikon scanners but they are more than good enough for most home use. The latest Plustek model is the 7600i. It offers very good resolution but it cannot manage the outstanding dynamic range of Nikon's top of the range scanners. However, it should be good enough for your purpose. There are two 7600i models which differ only in the bundled software. The 7600i SE is cheaper than the 7600i Ai. The Ai's software is more sophisticated but it is probably more than you would need. Here's a review: http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/PLTK7600/7600.HTM If you search on Amazon for "plustek opticfilm" you will find the 7600i SE offered at prices from $367.29. After you have scanned the slides, you should get quite a lot of that back if you sell the scanner on eBay.
From: bugbear on 5 Aug 2010 04:11
Mirsky wrote: > Hi. My mom has 3000 slides and wants to digitize them. She can't afford > to have a store do it. There was a recent thread ("Digitizing Slides") on this very topic. Perhaps some of it will be applicable to your circumstances. BugBear |