Discussion
Hi there,
can anyone recommend me a reasonably priced slide scanner please?
I have a couple of thousand of my parents slides from between the 50's and 70's that I would like to make .jpgs.
I am currently scanning in all of their normal photos and it is a wonderful trip down memory lane and I would like to put them and the slide scans on a couple of digital frames, one for my Mum and one for my Dad who is now in a home.
I'd rather not go above £100, I am happy to spend a while loading each slide.
The professional slide scanner services seem a bit expensive at first glance.
Thank you
can anyone recommend me a reasonably priced slide scanner please?
I have a couple of thousand of my parents slides from between the 50's and 70's that I would like to make .jpgs.
I am currently scanning in all of their normal photos and it is a wonderful trip down memory lane and I would like to put them and the slide scans on a couple of digital frames, one for my Mum and one for my Dad who is now in a home.
I'd rather not go above £100, I am happy to spend a while loading each slide.
The professional slide scanner services seem a bit expensive at first glance.
Thank you
Nikon Coolscan might be the one, if you can find one for budget. Shouldn't be impossible.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m57...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m57...
If your final destination for the bulk of the scans is a digital frame (or similar) you probably don't need to invest in much of a scanner and just go for lower resolution and higher speed.
Coolscan, as mentioned, is a possibility or one of the old Minolta scanners but they have not been made for some time. You might find the £50-60 product sold under a number of brand names is perfectly adequate for purpose if a small low res digital output is all that is required. Or even get an adapter for a digital camera that will do the job adequately for your immediate purpose.
If you find some that you feel justify more effort then have those processed or decide whether you want to get into the art of slide scanning.
What are you using to scan the prints?
One potential problem with older scanners is that the drivers may not continue to be compatible with newer computers. There may, for the foreseeable future, be ways around that if needed but there is always the potential for a lot of additional aggravation and time wasting when heading down that road. So approach with some caution.
Sadly I don't think there is a quick way to scan with high quality and image clean up - not without a significant investment in equipment. Scanning prints tends to be much easier than scanning slides or negatives, though going back to the original film may give a better result.
As an alternative approach, how about this?
http://www.srb-griturn.com/slide-copiers-634-c.asp
There are a number of products around that work with some form of digital camera - including some compacts. Requires some time and effort and a little investment but may well be more productive than using a scanner in some circumstances. Not tried it myself. Maybe someone else has and can comment from experience.
Coolscan, as mentioned, is a possibility or one of the old Minolta scanners but they have not been made for some time. You might find the £50-60 product sold under a number of brand names is perfectly adequate for purpose if a small low res digital output is all that is required. Or even get an adapter for a digital camera that will do the job adequately for your immediate purpose.
If you find some that you feel justify more effort then have those processed or decide whether you want to get into the art of slide scanning.
What are you using to scan the prints?
One potential problem with older scanners is that the drivers may not continue to be compatible with newer computers. There may, for the foreseeable future, be ways around that if needed but there is always the potential for a lot of additional aggravation and time wasting when heading down that road. So approach with some caution.
Sadly I don't think there is a quick way to scan with high quality and image clean up - not without a significant investment in equipment. Scanning prints tends to be much easier than scanning slides or negatives, though going back to the original film may give a better result.
As an alternative approach, how about this?
http://www.srb-griturn.com/slide-copiers-634-c.asp
There are a number of products around that work with some form of digital camera - including some compacts. Requires some time and effort and a little investment but may well be more productive than using a scanner in some circumstances. Not tried it myself. Maybe someone else has and can comment from experience.
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