If someone has experience scanning 35 mm, photograph slides, can you please give me your impression of the equipment used and the final results? It appears that a scanner can cost from $65 to over $1000. Will a lower priced unit give me nearly the same image quality as the higher priced?
Thank you.
I scanned many slides but it has been at least 10 - 15 years ago. I used an Epson Perfection V500 photo scanner and they came out great. It has a slide holder and software for removing scratches and other imperfections. I’m sure the software is even better today. I think it cost about $300-$400 at the time. Epson shows $350 for one now. Looks like you can pick one up used on Ebay for less than $100. But I couldn’t comment on the difference between different priced models.
We use a Cannon CanoScan 9000F. It has a large bed for scanning photos and a tray for scanning 4 slides at a time. We’ve had it for 10-15 years and works great. The software that came with it is decent. I don’t recall how much it cost.
I learned that a library near me has an Epson for public use. I believe it does 4 slides per scan.
I seems there should be many used scanners for sale. If I ever get my old slides digitized, I would no longer need the scanner.
I had a Canon CanoScan 9000F for a number of years. I scanned all of my old slides and saved them as digital pictures. The process takes a lot of time. Don’t expect the quality of the digital picture to be anything like that of what you would get with a camera or a phone today.
I’ve scanned 35mm slides with budget and high-end scanners. Cheaper units work but often lack resolution and color depth. High-end models deliver superior quality, especially for large prints. Consider tools like https://ocrstudio.ai/ for enhancing scans post-process. If quality matters, investing more upfront saves time and ensures better results.