Slide/negative scanner help

[relimw]

Hey folks,

I'm looking for an automated slide scanner, I have around 3-4000 slides I want to move into the digital world for archival reasons. I had the Coolscan for awhile, but it was just too slow, and required me to do something every 3 minutes or so. So I'm looking for something that I can just load up a carousel and hit a button and it generates RAW files that I can manipulate as needed later.

Thanks.

 

[aricher]

What resolution do you want to scan at? Nikon's Coolscans are the best IMHO. I picked up a used 9000 ED on ebay - best scanner I've ever used. Very slow indeed though. It took me months (off & on) to scan a 5000+ collection.

 

[ChrisA]

Hey folks,

I'm looking for an automated slide scanner, I have around 3-4000 slides I want to move into the digital world for archival reasons. I had the Coolscan for awhile, but it was just too slow, and required me to do something every 3 minutes or so. So I'm looking for something that I can just load up a carousel and hit a button and it generates RAW files that I can manipulate as needed later.

Thanks.

Check these guys out. They claim to have to date scanned over one million slides. Have them do it or read below what they use. Notice that they do NOT use an automatic feed scanner. They claim that none of them work well enough.

http://scancafe.com/

For prints, we use the Epson 4490. For slides and negatives, we use the Nikon 5000 and the Nikon 9000. We rely on Digital ICE for the initial processing but each and every images is manually processed using Adobe Photoshop to remove the remaining blemishes to ensure the highest quality.

These guys will do your 4000 slides for about $1K.

I use an Epson scanner for both prints and film. It does a good job. ICE is great. The bottle neck is ICE. It is very slow unless you have a top of the line Mac. On a G4 mac I jstart a batch of slides then go to work and it's done when I come home. So technically the 4490 meets your requirement of noot neediong to do something every few minutes, I toutch it about twice a day to load in a new batch, then go to sleep or work. (I really want a new Mac Pro.)

I'm about to give up and send off my 35mm stuff (in batches) to these guys and just do the medium format scans myself. But AFTER I upgrade the computer. Just one 6x7cm neg takes hours on my slow computer

 

[aricher]

Check these guys out... Notice that they do NOT use an automatic feed scanner. They claim that none of them work well enough. ...For slides and negatives, we use the Nikon 5000 and the Nikon 9000.

The Nikon Coolscan can batch scan five 35mm slides at a time and costs between $1300 - $1900 depending on where you buy it.

The question is, what is your time worth. I would rather have to slowly scan my archive myself than pay $9K+ for a service. I could use that $9K to buy a helluva Mac Pro.

 

[relimw]

The Nikon Coolscan can batch scan five 35mm slides at a time and costs between $1300 - $1900 depending on where you buy it.

The question is, what is your time worth. I would rather have to slowly scan my archive myself than pay $9K+ for a service. I could use that $9K to buy a helluva Mac Pro.

Umm, batch of 5... hmm, let's see, how long would that take to do 4000 slides?

I was looking at the Pacific Image PowerSlide 3650 which can batch 50 (optional to 100) slides at once for around $700.
I already have a decent Mac, so that's not the point.

 

[ChrisA]

Sory, TYPO

The Nikon Coolscan can batch scan five 35mm slides at a time and costs between $1300 - $1900 depending on where you buy it.

The question is, what is your time worth. I would rather have to slowly scan my archive myself than pay $9K+ for a service. I could use that $9K to buy a helluva Mac Pro.

Sorry TYPO. Not $9K.

Yes I agree. I was looking at several options. the $9K was for profesional scans done in a high end lab here in Los Angeles.

The web site I listed will do the job for about $250 per thousand. So it's more like $750 to $1K. Actually less than the price of a scanner, but close.

( I just edited out this typo. Almost moved a decimal point in the process)

 

[filmamigo]

Hey relimw,

You should check out this option:

http://www.moviestuff.tv/slidestream.html

It's really the only option to scan 4000 slides in a reasonable amount of time. If you will have ongoing archival needs (i.e. you work in a museum) then it makes economic sense to buy one of these units yourself.

If you only have the 4000 slides, then ask Roger Evans (the guy who runs Moviestuff and invents all the cool gear) to tell you who has purchased a Slidestream near you. Then you can have your slides transferred by that facility. Per-slide prices from a facility using the Slidestream will be much lower than another facility using traditional filmscanners. This is because of the ability to scan a whole tray of slides, with no operator intervention, quickly.