photgraphic digitizing?

[Curt Harms]

SWMBO has boxes of slides, negatives and 110 negatives. She wants to digitize at least some of them. An MFD scanner doesn't work with negatives & slides as far as I can see. Any recommendations for a good slide/negative scanner? The Canon 8800F seems to get pretty good reviews. The quality doesn't need to be professional grade, but it should be usable.

[Eric DeSilva]

SWMBO has boxes of slides, negatives and 110 negatives. She wants to digitize at least some of them. An MFD scanner doesn't work with negatives & slides as far as I can see. Any recommendations for a good slide/negative scanner? The Canon 8800F seems to get pretty good reviews. The quality doesn't need to be professional grade, but it should be usable.

Years ago I purchased and spent a lot of time using a Nikon scanner. The scans were good, but I have to tell you... Consider getting it professionally done. It is a huge commitment to sit there, feeding slides through, pre-scanning, and finishing. If I was doing it again, I'd do what my pro friends who shoot analog do... Send it to a reputable shop.

[Curt Harms]

Years ago I purchased and spent a lot of time using a Nikon scanner. The scans were good, but I have to tell you... Consider getting it professionally done. It is a huge commitment to sit there, feeding slides through, pre-scanning, and finishing. If I was doing it again, I'd do what my pro friends who shoot analog do... Send it to a reputable shop.

Thanks for your response Eric. That seems to be the consensus from a thread in 2005 as well. Maybe I should not be a knothead :o. SWMBO has boxes of slides and lots of time. Maybe she doesn't need to scan them all.

[Eric Franklin]

I would agree with Eric. You will be dealing with a lot of dust in each picture unless you get a higher end slide scanner that will automatically remove it.

[Brian Brown]

Digmypics.com. Don't know how well they do on negatives, but their slide scans are excellent. The best part, yo can sip lemonade on the veranda, or make sawdust in the shop while they are doing it.

[Brian Darold]

Take a look at the Epson Perfection v500 model. I just recently completed digitizing all my old 35mm slides and negatives and used this scanner with the photo lid.

This scanner supports prints, slides, and negatives, although you can only scan one type at a time. However the scanner does support scanning multiple slides or negatives at the same time. This was my favorite feature as I could load in 4 slides, set the scan area, and hit the button. In a few minutes, I had 4 images files saved and named the way I wanted.

The color correction and dust removal features worked very well also. It did take a long time to go through all my boxes but it was very easy and relaxing.

[Michael Arruda]

If you have the time to do it yourself, I say go for it. It's not that hard. Buy a Nikon Coolscan III, IV or V on ebay with the slide feeder. Drop in a stack of 50 slides, or a strip of negs, and have it batch scan with general clean up- Digital ICE on the Coolscans is phenomenal for scratches and small imperfections. You can then do a batch convert in photoshop to color grade if you have a lot of the same type of film of the same age- it'll get you in the ballpark. Then, store them on DVDs and when you want to print them, do a final edit when you're ready to do that and you're good to go. After that, sell the scanner and slide feeder for what you paid for it or more- the Coolscans are industry standard, professional slide and neg scanners that hold their value.

-Michael