# Recommendations for a good slide scanner



## Antono Refa (May 22, 2019)

A relative has gone on a very long (around a decade) trip abroad as a young man, and has shot a large collection of slides. Now he wants to scan the slides.

Could you recommend specific slide scanners, or features he should look in one?

E.g. should he be looking for a scanner than can handle scratches and dust? Auto feeders to save time?

Thanks!


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## dcm (May 23, 2019)

Lots of content already posted here regarding the different approaches.

https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?threads/copying-slides-and-negatives.25223/
https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-scan-slides.30368/
https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/i...negatives-and-slides-scanner-ore-macro.32125/
https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?threads/can-someone-recommend-a-good-scanner.25511/


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## neuroanatomist (May 23, 2019)

Zeiss makes a great slide scanner, does 100 slides a single run, *very* high resolution scans. Just ordered one, it cost $200K and should arrive in about 3 months. 







I probably should have led with the fact that it’s for _microscope_ slides.


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## Dantana (May 23, 2019)

neuroanatomist said:


> Zeiss makes a great slide scanner, does 100 slides a single run, *very* high resolution scans. Just ordered one, it cost $200K and should arrive in about 3 months.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


3 months?

Great. That gives me time to peel the paper holders off of all my slides and mount them on blank microscope slides. Course I may have to crop a bit.


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## Antono Refa (May 23, 2019)

neuroanatomist said:


> Zeiss makes a great slide scanner, does 100 slides a single run, *very* high resolution scans. Just ordered one, it cost $200K and should arrive in about 3 months.



I'm sure he'll find a quarter [of a million dollar] between his sofa pillows.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (May 23, 2019)

This is a case where having them done commercially may make sense. Quality slide scanners for enthusiasts have pretty much disappeared from the market, probably because most of those old slides have been scanned.

It does depend on the quality of the slides, are they worth high end scanning, or will a low cost $500 to $1200 scanner work? Forget the cheap ones.


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## Valvebounce (May 23, 2019)

Hi Mt Spokane.
So you mean the £30 Lidl special I was given is no good! ☹ 
I do wish people would listen when I ask for universal vouchers for birthdays / Christmas, then I could get something useful instead of wasted plastic! 

Cheers, Graham.



Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Forget the cheap ones.


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## cineman (Feb 7, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> A relative has gone on a very long (around a decade) trip abroad as a young man, and has shot a large collection of slides. Now he wants to scan the slides.
> 
> Could you recommend specific slide scanners, or features he should look in one?
> 
> ...



I wouldn't advise getting scanner because of the software you need with it and the difficulties actually using the tech; a few of my friends have tried scanning old film and all of them experienced some kind of problem during the process and resulted in getting them professionally done. the one closest to us is 35mm Slide Scanning Service UK | Details and Information (supaphoto.com) but I'd recommend getting them done by a local company especially your relative doesn't want to risk damaging the slides from his lengthy trip. If you have any questions about the process I'd be more then happy to ask for you


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## Rocky (Feb 8, 2021)

Antono Refa said:


> A relative has gone on a very long (around a decade) trip abroad as a young man, and has shot a large collection of slides. Now he wants to scan the slides.
> 
> Could you recommend specific slide scanners, or features he should look in one?
> 
> ...


I have been using V700 from EPSON that I got last year in the last couple months . I have scanned over 800 slides so far. I am very happy with the result. It does not have auto feed. You load 4 slIdes at a time.
All my slides are either Kodachrome or Ektachrome,( only type I would use for sharpness and color redition) taken either with Leica or Zeiss lenses. They are excellent slides.


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## stevelee (Feb 9, 2021)

My experience with professionally scanned slides was that they picked up too much contrast. I have a very old Minolta 35mm slide and film scanner whose software quit working 15+ years ago. But VueScan supports it very well, much better than the original software. Last year I scanned very many slides from a 2000 trip to Eastern Europe, posting some on line, and putting some in a book I had made. I had it do multiple passes, and then I needed to do a lot of TLC in Photoshop to deal with ravages of time. The green layer had faded faster than the others, leaving a magenta tint, particularly in the shadows. I produced the book in Lightroom Classic and used it to deal with some additional issues. Split toning in the Develop module took care of the remaining magenta cast in neutral areas.

On a 2001 trip to Seattle and Glacier National Park, I shot negative film, and scanning some of those in would be my next project, but now I can’t find what I did with the cut film carrier. I’m mostly sure that I found it when I looked for the slide carrier last year. VueScan, in my limited experience, does really well with compensating for the orange mask of color negatives, customized for different stock.


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## Rocky (Feb 9, 2021)

stevelee said:


> My experience with professionally scanned slides was that they picked up too much contrast. I have a very old Minolta 35mm slide and film scanner whose software quit working 15+ years ago. But VueScan supports it very well, much better than the original software. Last year I scanned very many slides from a 2000 trip to Eastern Europe, posting some on line, and putting some in a book I had made. I had it do multiple passes, and then I needed to do a lot of TLC in Photoshop to deal with ravages of time. The green layer had faded faster than the others, leaving a magenta tint, particularly in the shadows. I produced the book in Lightroom Classic and used it to deal with some additional issues. Split toning in the Develop module took care of the remaining magenta cast in neutral areas.
> 
> On a 2001 trip to Seattle and Glacier National Park, I shot negative film, and scanning some of those in would be my next project, but now I can’t find what I did with the cut film carrier. I’m mostly sure that I found it when I looked for the slide carrier last year. VueScan, in my limited experience, does really well with compensating for the orange mask of color negatives, customized for different stock.


May I ask what type of slide that you were shotting. My slides hardly faded even after 60 years. Also image of slide is more contracy than the color negative.


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## stevelee (Feb 9, 2021)

Rocky said:


> May I ask what type of slide that you were shotting. My slides hardly faded even after 60 years. Also image of slide is more contracy than the color negative.


They were Ektachrome and not stored under ideal conditions a lot of the time. Kodachrome is much more stable. I do have some slides over 50 years old that still look pretty decent, including Ektachrome and Anscochrome and Fuji.

The contrastiness of slides gives them more punch when projected. I found shooting slide film helped my photography technique a lot, because there is no saving them after you push the shutter release. There is little room for error in the exposure, and none in the composition. It is easy to lose detail in the highlights.

I'm expecting the negatives to have aged more gracefully.


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## Rocky (Feb 9, 2021)

stevelee said:


> They were Ektachrome and not stored under ideal conditions a lot of the time. Kodachrome is much more stable. I do have some slides over 50 years old that still look pretty decent, including Ektachrome and Anscochrome and Fuji.
> 
> The contrastiness of slides gives them more punch when projected. I found shooting slide film helped my photography technique a lot, because there is no saving them after you push the shutter release. There is little room for error in the exposure, and none in the composition. It is easy to lose detail in the highlights.
> 
> I'm expecting the negatives to have aged more gracefully.


You are absolutely right . Shooting slide help me a lot too. No adjustment , no cropping after the shot. I don't even have exposure meter on my Leica M4 and my Exakta VX IIa ( I am still having both and are still in excellent condition). So that make me check everything , think twice before taking the shot.
Now it is the opposite. AF, AE, Photoshop, memory is "free" in the camera. I am REALLY getting VERY sloppy


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