Slide Scanner Recommendations

[Sideonecincy]

My grandfather passed away yesterday morning and while going through his belongings, I came across five large size boxes of old photography and slides. I would estimate that there is probably over 10,000 pictures in here. I looked at sending them away to a company, but that would cost lots of money. I am not too familiar with slides, but I just can't let these pictures all sit in a box. I am aware that this is going to be a long-term project.

I am looking for recommendations on a scanner that can do both photos and slides preferably. I currently have an Epson 4180, so if there is a device that can do slides, I would be open to that too.

I would be looking at keeping this under $500 hopefully, obviously the less expensive the better, because after this, I really don't see the device going to much use, unless it doubles as a film scanner / document scanner.

Thanks for the help.

 

[HBOC]

I am really sorry to hear about your loss!

As far as a scanner goes, i had the Nikon Coolscan IV ED and it was great. I think i got mine for like $400 used, but this was some 5 years ago or so. Check eBay, which might be the easiest place to locate one for a good price.

 

[Sideonecincy]

I'm sorry that I just want to clear up.

I have a bunch of slides like the image below (I don't know if there are different types of slides). He used them in projectors typically.

 

[Doylem]

I would estimate that there is probably over 10,000 pictures in here.

I use a Nikon Coolscan V ED too. It's a very capable piece of kit. I scan old trannies a few at a time, as I need them. The idea of scanning 10,000 pix is one I'd rather not contemplate. It's a time-consuming process. I'd think about picking out just a few of your grandfather's best shots for scanning...

 

[pdxflint]

Get a little light box and a loupe... then do some serious editing. Pick the best 300-400 images and scan those. There might be a lot of redundant shots or shots of people you don't know. You can always keep the slides safe for archival uses later and scan as needed the remaining ones. Surely there are many of them that could be rejected on the first pass thru.

The Nikon coolscan series are perfect for slides, BTW. But it's a labor intensive process, so that's why I said to just cull the numbers way down. Make three initial piles: rejects, maybe's, and keepers. Then do it again. When you get to a more reasonable number you can be more critical about why you would want to scan an image based on historical significance or overall quality.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

I agree with others about the Nikon CoolScan for scanning slides. If you have photos to scan, then you will need a flatbed scanner such as Epson Perfection V700 series. I have this scanner, and can scan 12 slides at a time. But slides alone (the ones you posted), the Nikon slide scanner should be better.

Also, whichever scanner you decided to buy, give an application called "VueScan" a try. It's a lot better than the software that comes with the scanner, and not expensive. My V700 scanner came with the Epson scan software as well as Silverfast, but I use VueScan instead.

 

[HBOC]

Yes, scanning slides is such a daunting task. I scanned mine into a TIFF format, and the files were like 40-50MB each.

 

[ssmed]

Nikon Scanners

Nikon don't market the lower priced scanners anymore and I would be careful buying a 2nd hand one to ensure that it is completely clean. Repair costs from Nikon, if still available, are steep. Unfortunately with the decline of slide film there is a much smaller market for these now. We used a LS2000 and then a LS4000 (equivalent of the one mentioned above). Without a slide feeder, they are quite hard work.

Nikon make this one still - its about £4000

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/p...Param=0&Subnav3Param=0&RunQuery=l1&ID=6606117

The Epson Perfection V750 (with Digital ICE) does a good job in our hands, but is not quite as good as the last Nikon (although these used cost a lot more). You can load 12 slides at a time and leave it running with not too much post processing being needed.

HTH