Flatbed Slide Scanners

[SF-East Bay'r]

I have lots of slides to scan (1000's) but I am retired and have lots of
time. I have seen some discussion in this newsgroup about the Epson V750 and
the Epson V500. The V500 is more in my price range ($199 after $50 rebate),
the V750 is probably more than I want to pay. Ideally, I would like to be
able to load more than 4 slides at a time. I think some of the HP scanners
can load 12 at a time. I am unlikely to be making a lot of prints from the
scanned slides but will make some DVDs.

So, anyone have any recommnedations for me?

Thanks for your help.
Tom

 

[Colin.D]

SF-East Bay'r, 9/30/2008 11:33 AM:

I have lots of slides to scan (1000's) but I am retired and have lots of
time. I have seen some discussion in this newsgroup about the Epson V750
and the Epson V500. The V500 is more in my price range ($199 after $50
rebate), the V750 is probably more than I want to pay. Ideally, I would
like to be able to load more than 4 slides at a time. I think some of
the HP scanners can load 12 at a time. I am unlikely to be making a lot
of prints from the scanned slides but will make some DVDs.

So, anyone have any recommnedations for me?

Thanks for your help.
Tom

On my Canon 9950F top-of-the-line scanner, it takes about two minutes
per slide for a good scan, plus the time to change the slides after
scanning. Flatbeds aren't the best either; they can be pretty good, but
not as good as a film/slide scanner.

If you have a dslr camera it is easier and quicker to rig up a slide
copier setup and rephotograph the slide. You'll need a true macro lens,
but if you don't have one you might borrow or rent one. With a
reasonably good setup you should be able to shoot two or three slides or
even more per minute, so a thousand slides should take maybe three to
six hours or so, incomparably quicker than scanning.

Colin D.

 

[SF-East Bay'r]

In a quick scan of the web, Nikon film scanners run from $700 - $2400. Not
in my retirement budget.
Tom

 

[tomm42]

I have lots of slides to scan (1000's) but I am retired and have lots of
time. I have seen some discussion in this newsgroup about the Epson V750 and
the Epson V500. The V500 is more in my price range ($199 after $50 rebate),
the V750 is probably more than I want to pay. Ideally, I would like to be
able to load more than 4 slides at a time. I think some of the HP scanners
can load 12 at a time. I am unlikely to be making a lot of prints from the
scanned slides but will make some DVDs.

So, anyone have any recommnedations for me?

Thanks for your help.
Tom

I have an Epson V700 at work, highly recommend it, generally about
$500 but Epson Clearance had them for $325 a couple of week ago. Had
an MD I work for buy a V500, she was not happy with the scans, could
be she didn't have the foggiest on what she was doing, but the files I
saw were bad. So she bought a V700 and feels the scans are much
better. Another plus was that you can do 12 slides or 24 negs at once,
vs 4 on the V500. The V700 takes some careful set up, but if you do
this you get nice scan, better than the latest Nikon, no, but I put
away my Nikon LS2000 (2001 model) after I bought this scanner, just as
sharp and has better dynamic range. I also have experimented on
copying slides with my digital camera, Nikon D200. Even using a slide
duplication set up I felt the scanned slides were better. Bessler
slide duplicator with a Schneider Componon 80 f4, so the equipment was
quite good. The "copies" needed more work in Photoshop to get them
where I wanted, I have the scanning down to very little PS work, using
the curves adjustment in the Epson software.

Tom

 

[Phil Ardussi]

I have both a Nikon LS5000 (about $1,500) and an Epson V500 (about $225).
For the most part for most jobs, I prefer the V500 although it takes time,
about 15 mins/4 slides with dpi at 2400 and ICE (the scratch/dust removal
tool) enabled.

You have lots of time. Go for the V500. It is very highly rated (check CNET
and PCMAG) and, in my book, deserves those high ratings. A well kept secret
is that the install disk includes ABBY OCR software that will scan docs and
convert them to MS-Word, Excel, etc. I use Omni-Page so I know a little
about OCR and like ABBY very much because of it's speed and focus on only
one task, which it does well. Using ABBY might be of interest to you. It was
a pleasant surprise for me because of my work converting documents for our
local historical society.

By the way, when you're retired, it's kind of hard to tell what day of the
week it is. My trick is to look on the doorstep. When the fat newspaper
arrives, I know it's Sunday and I start counting from there.

Happy scanning!

 

[SF-East Bay'r]

You and I must be one of the few that still gets a newspaper delivered. The
PC monitor just doesn't duplicate the joy of a newspaper and a cup of hot
coffee.

Thanks for your comments. The V500 is only $199 with a rebate through the
end of this month. Do you have any timings without using ICE?

Tom

 

[Phil Ardussi]

I would estimate it would go much faster. ICE is pretty processor intense.
The other slow-down in the process is the 2400 dpi setting. I'd guess not
using ICE would cut the time in half. One of my friends sent me a link of
scanning info. I'll retrieve it and post it here.

 

[Phil Ardussi]

That link is: http://www.scantips.com/.

You and I must be one of the few that still gets a newspaper delivered.
The PC monitor just doesn't duplicate the joy of a newspaper and a cup of
hot coffee.

Thanks for your comments. The V500 is only $199 with a rebate through the
end of this month. Do you have any timings without using ICE?

Tom

 

[tomm42]

Re: "I put away my Nikon LS2000 (2001 model) after I bought this
scanner, just as sharp and has better dynamic range"

Virtually ALL Nikon LS-2000's are in SERIOUS need of cleaning.  As you
state, they are old (actually most are 1999), and the optics in them are
incredibly dusty in almost ALL cases.  I'll put a recently cleaned
LS-2000 up against an Epson flatbed any day, but you are comparing a new
Epson flatbed to a 7-year old scanner that probably has mirrors that
have the clarity of wax paper (and I'm not kidding, I can show you
photos of typical LS-2000 optics (in 2008) that will shock you).

Mine had just come back from Nikon, a two or three months before, just
didn't turn on one day. Our flat bed died a month later, that is when
I bought the V700. Just compared slides from the two, the Nikon was
sharp but blocked shadows, and had problems with deep reds, we scan
tons of retina photos. The V700 was as sharp and we were getting good
detail in the shadows, the dynamic range was just better in the range
we needed. We got one of the first V700s sold, timing of the mb frying
on my Epson Expression 1600. Yes there is that the LS2000 was
purchased in 2000 we got the V700 April 2006, the technology
improvements over that time were huge. I always say if you want want a
35mm scanner go for the LS5000 or LS9000 for multiple formats.

Tom

 

[Steve Chesney]

I use an Epson 4870 and it loads 8 at a time. After doing 1000's (with a
few to go) I would say go for more than four.

 

[SF-East Bay'r]

I recently read about the HP G4050 which allows you to scan 16 slides. It
takes 20 minutes or so (without scratch correction) but seems to get a lot
of favorable reviews and of course some "awful" reviews. Anyone have any
experience with scanning slides on the HP G4050?
Tom