Scanner recommendation

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Scanner recommendation

Postby Phil Winkler » Feb 11, 2013 3:19 pm

A professional photographer friend of mine recently recommended the Epson V600 scanner for digitizing your photos, slides and even color & B&W negatives to positives. I bought one today, set it up in less then 10 minutes and then scanned a whole bunch of stuff including a print, slides and color negatives. It simply works great. And it only costs $200 at a commercial camera store I use. Amazon is probably a bit cheaper. You can scan 4 slides at a time.

I highly recommend this.
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby Squirrel Girl » Feb 11, 2013 8:37 pm

How many pixels are there per slide?
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby Bob Thrun » Feb 13, 2013 3:16 am

Be aware that the manufacturers' specifications are greatly exaggerated. What is called "optical resolution" is actually stepping or scanning resolution, which is better than the optics. Most of the reviews on the web simply repeat the manufacturers' claims. I have an Epson 4990, which was Epson's best, one generation before the V600, and I am disappointed with it. I could give a detailed rant, but I figure most of you would not be interested. There are a couple of articles that make side by side comparisons of now discontinued scanner models. The only website with real test results for a variety of models is www.filmscanner.info/en . Even its resolution tests are optimistic. The main competitor to the V600 is the Canon 9000F.
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby Squirrel Girl » Feb 13, 2013 7:40 am

Bob Thrun wrote:Be aware that the manufacturers' specifications are greatly exaggerated. What is called "optical resolution" is actually stepping or scanning resolution, which is better than the optics. Most of the reviews on the web simply repeat the manufacturers' claims. I have an Epson 4990, which was Epson's best, one generation before the V600, and I am disappointed with it. I could give a detailed rant, but I figure most of you would not be interested. There are a couple of articles that make side by side comparisons of now discontinued scanner models. The only website with real test results for a variety of models is http://www.filmscanner.info/en . Even its resolution tests are optimistic. The main competitor to the V600 is the Canon 9000F.


I had a Minolta version of the scanner in the picture and I hated it. I gave up on it and built

Image
The actual WABAC machine by Squirrel Girl cbk


Still, if Phil's scanner works for him, booyah!
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby Phil Winkler » Feb 13, 2013 8:47 am

I'm not looking for perfection just picture content and ease of use. My plan is to scan my zillions of slides so I can place them onto CDs. The Epson scans 4 at a time to 4 different filenames and works a peach.

Last year I setup my Carousel projector, a friends DSLR and shot right into the lens channel with surprisingly good results. But, I don't own a DSLR and have no plans to buy one. The rig was similar to Barbara's above, too.
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby NZcaver » Feb 13, 2013 1:02 pm

For what it's worth, Costco and Sams Club will scan negatives (and presumably slides) which is convenient if you don't have the time to do all the work yourself.

I had a few thousand negatives scanned last year at Costco and they worked out at 7.5 cents each. If there are issues with any images, they will happily scan them again. I would say the quality is good (sufficient for computer screen display or 6x4 prints) but if you want enlargements it's probably best to stick with having them printed from the original negative/slide.

For older prints and those without negatives, I shoot them with my DSLR on a tripod in indirect daylight. Works great. Haven't tried the slide adapter thing, but I might have to do it one day because I have a big stack of my father's old slides. Thankfully I only ever shot one slide film personally.
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby graveleye » Feb 13, 2013 1:18 pm

A couple of years ago I got one for all my film... this is not the exact brand but they look identical:

[url]
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Mustek+-+Sc ... d=34492929[/url]

It's very easy to use, and it's nice having the little viewer so you can see if you have your film in there the right way. Mine also will take slides too.
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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby Phil Winkler » Feb 13, 2013 2:28 pm

It is nice to see all the various options available to us.

Here is a scan of an old photo from 1976 or so of very muddy German caving friends of ours.


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Re: Scanner recommendation

Postby Squirrel Girl » Feb 13, 2013 7:44 pm

NZcaver wrote:For what it's worth, Costco and Sams Club will scan negatives (and presumably slides) which is convenient if you don't have the time to do all the work yourself.

I had a few thousand negatives scanned last year at Costco and they worked out at 7.5 cents each. If there are issues with any images, they will happily scan them again. I would say the quality is good (sufficient for computer screen display or 6x4 prints) but if you want enlargements it's probably best to stick with having them printed from the original negative/slide.

For older prints and those without negatives, I shoot them with my DSLR on a tripod in indirect daylight. Works great. Haven't tried the slide adapter thing, but I might have to do it one day because I have a big stack of my father's old slides. Thankfully I only ever shot one slide film personally.


I remember they used to be 29 cents a piece. But I had Costco do a few and they came out well enough.
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