slide scanner needed and question

[mazinz]

Hopefully this should fall under this forum's topic guidelines?

In my short research, I found various items on google and most of them are old or places I have never heard of. I currently own an Epson 4180 photo scanner.

I want to start a project and that involves scanning a vast amount of slides, all of which are on those circular magazine holders. If I use the Epson, I can do about 4-8 slides at a time.

Can anyone recommend a scanner that has a "box track" or one that can actually use the circular magazines (if such a thing exist) without it being in the 1000 dollar range?

I never plan on doing any sort of printing so the pics would just exist digitally. I just do not have the time to do 8 slides per scan and was looking for something that can do a bit more without breaking my wallet and giving at
least decent quality (I can always restore later if needed in photoshop).

Thanks again for any info--

[lordsmurf]

You might want to read these 3 threads:

• Scanning with ICE vs no ICE [Sample Images]
• Photo slides transfer to DVD
• Advice on scanners for slides, negative film and 8mm film movies?

Don't buy anything less than $200, those little $75-150 toys tend to be blurry off-colored crap.
There's no way to really scan a whole magazine of slides, no.

[mazinz]

thanks for the info LS.

I also found this link from your digitalfaq postings interesting as well
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/3000slides.htm

it looks like I am going to start saving my pennies for something in that Nikon 5000 series. The place by me who does slide conversion wants roughly $105 for 100 slides (they do really good super8/8mm film to dvd conversion as well so I know what kind of work I would have been dealing with). If I give everything I have for slides to this place, it roughly equals the price of the Nikon, so saving for the Nikon is where my money will be going (eventually). A few used ones on Ebay were in the 700-800$ range

[lordsmurf]

You need to be VERY CAREFUL about places that promise cheap scans (anything under $1 per slide). What Rockwell overlooks is that those places do automated scanning, with many of them not cleaning your negatives. None of them do touchups. Some don't even use ICE, either not having the hardware, or having the hardware and not using it since it takes 1+ minutes per slide.

His info on DVDs is also flawed (much like his obsessive love over Mac and its own dedicated myth-filled page). However, the conclusion to use a hard drive is still a good one, even if he took an odd route to get there.

I'd suggest a RAID-1 external drive. You can buy this enclosure from Amazon, put in a pair of quality match SATA drives, and then turn it off when not in use (to avoid dead SATA drive and data loss), connect via eSATA for speed.

[wingnut2003]

you could try this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4899294&CatId=297 or this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5391131&CatId=297 they aren't that expensive and may do what you want.

[lordsmurf]

you could try this .

No, that thing is garbage. The scans are terrible. It's all fuzzy, off-color and crappy.
Read the links I posted above. It already covered this.

[mazinz]

thanks guys.
In my case it seems to be more beneficial (financially) if I end up doing the scanning myself, though time is what works against me and the reason I was looking for a scanner that could do more than 8 slides per scan.

The place I mentioned in one of the above postings is by me and do good work (one of the few indie camera shops in my area that has been around for 30 plus years), but the 105$ for 100 slides, I might as well save up for the scanner then since in the end with the amount of slides I have, it would roughly come out to that 800-1000 price anyway

i