Scanners to Go?

[Manstein]

Any body have much experience of dedicated film scanners? I have to digitise a lot of colour neg stock and would be interested for any observations, experience etc.

[emalvick]

In the early days of my graduate research, I used to use a dedicated film scanner to digitize the photos of my lab tests. It also worked as a slide scanner, so I utilized that feature a bit more.

The scanner worked quite well. It was made by Kodak. There was another in the lab I occasionally used by Nikon. It was a bit slower (and perhaps older). Having a cheap flatbed scanner at home, the film scanners amazed me. They were quick, had high resolution, and did a good job on color.

The software provided many oportunities to adjust colors depending on the film type, etc... The only complaints I had (and these may be obsolete now) is that they always scanned too much. I'd have bits of the previous slide or negative in the scanned image. It didn't let me adjust the cropping. I had to do that seperately. They also used a plastic slide/film caddy type thing that tended to break real easily. I would guess that in the 5 years since I used one that things have improved. Do not use a cheap flatbed scanner with a slide scanning attachment. The resolution will be horrible and the slide or film will seem impossible to position as you want it.

Erik

[kgosden]

I am hoping you read most of the threads on this forum as there are not many. I think you will find that dedicated film scanners have not changed much in 5 years. They are a little better and most have added features like DigitalICE (dust and scratch reduction processing). They still use carriers unless you get into the multi-thousand $ units that accept stacks of slides. I have had two and currently use a Minolta Dimage Scan Elite. It is smaller than my old Accer (now Benq), but not necessarily a lot better. I have transferred most of my important photos a few years back, so now it just gets use when some family member digs out a box of oldies. I still would not give it up for a few years.

[Manstein]

Thanks for the responses. I finally went with the Scan Elite II and am familiarising myself with the software package. Obviously the results will reflect the condition of the film stock.

Thanks.

[camerafox]

Thanks for the responses. I finally went with the Scan Elite II and am familiarising myself with the software package. Obviously the results will reflect the condition of the film stock.

Thanks.

Has anyone used the digital camera slide copier attachments as seen on eBay? The idea sounds good, buut I don't know if one gets a usable photo using this approach. It is certainly cheaper than even a low res slide scanner, and it sounds better than projecting the slide on a screen and taking a photo of it. However, I wonder if the quality of the result is acceptable or not.

Here is an example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30066&item=7525071505&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW