Now before you ask, yes there was a thread started here on RYPN in 2014 about slide scanner recommendations which you can find here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37314&hilit=Scanning+slides

While I have most of the same questions I figured it would be better to start a new fresh thread since the other one has since been used to post slide scan results (which isn’t a bad thing) and it’s now currently 2022 to which I’m sure since the technology and quality for scanning slides to digital has improved over the past 7 years.

So with that out of the way, my question is does anyone have any new recommendations for scanning slides in 2022? I have a collection of original slides mostly Kodachrome’s I would like to digitize but I need help finding the right machine. Are there machines anyone here would recommend for railroad photos?

Espon V700 You can scan negatives as large as 8 X 10.

Kevin K

Make that: Epson V 700 My bad.

Kevin K

No big jumps in the technology, the software has gotten a little better.

I budget 5 minutes per slide.


-Hudson

p.s. The currently available high end Epson model is the V850,
or if you are on a budget V600.

A quick Internet search will show you multiple lists of "best slide scanners 2021/2022"; unfortunately many amount to easels to rest a smartphone upon and take a picture of the slide image.

I think it says a lot that the Epson V600 has often been selling USED for more than its original new price. If "money is no object" or this is a business expense, go for the Epson V600 and up. The current "state of the art" is the V850 at $1,150 on Amazon, though they currently have a V600 up for $249 new. Right up there for pro use are the Plustek Opticfilm line, currently topped by the 8200i at around $500.

If you want to gamble, I know where there's a Plustek film/slide scanner in a local Habitat For Humanity ReStore for $50 that I can check out and send to you--I only passed it by because I have a V500, a V600 in reserve, and a Minolta Dual Scan III in reserve behind that.............. You'll have to download the software and driver and/or buy aftermarket VueScan software, but.....

Whatever you do, DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM NIKON. Twenty years ago, I had a koolscan, cost me $1600, and it worked great... for a few weeks. The software was so sophisticated that it could tell the difference between dust on the film surface, and tiny flower blossoms in the background of a photo. It reproduced the blossoms, and it digitally made the dust specs disappear. It had a year warranty, so I took it to their authorized service guy, who said it would be fixed in a week, no charge. For the rest of that year, they lied every time I called about it, finally I got it back ONE WEEK before the warranty expired, THEN they demanded $25. After I got it back, it functioned until I got about half my collection scanned, then I made the mistake of cleaning up my work station. The cord of the vacuum just touched a corner of the plastic cabinet. That was all she wrote, the machine went completely bug shit crazy, and I could never get NIKON or anybody else to fix it after that.

They used to be a good company, back when cameras were made of metal and glass. The computerized junk is a different story, and our local pro camera shop won't touch it. Many people despise NIKON today, for similar reasons to mine. I try not to say anything about anybody on here unless I can say something good, but NIKON rates an exception.

Santa brought me a Magnasonic last year for Christmas which seems to be working pretty well so far, Sammy...

Good deal, Pete, you can scan all my purple dinosaur pictures !!!

FWIW, I came across this $3,495 camera attachment that converts your DSLR into a slide scanner that can scan slides at a rate of 2 seconds per capture: Slidesnap Pro
The webpage says the product is "Built on restored Kodak projectors for continuous operation and standard tray support."

There are much cheaper attachments for DSLR / mirrorless cameras that can be used for slide imaging. My understanding is that they work pretty well and are much faster than a scanner.

I gave up on all the little cheap gadgets I have tried and have been using the Epson V-550 for the last few years. The quality has been excellent. Current model is the V-600, lots of reviews on Amazon.
I’m very picky about exposure and color. I do not want it to make “great looking” scans while clipping out detail. The software with the Epson allows you to determine how much or little to apply in the scan. I prefer to tweak things later in Photoshop.

I have been using an Epson V700 for several years and have been more than pleased with the results. I have a collection of old negatives from 35mm up to 5x7, mostly 616 and PC size.
Lots of slides and have never had any issue with them.
I use Epson's software because I'm familiar with it and like it as well.
I don't know if the 700 is still available. If you just want to do slides and 35mm you don't need to spend the extra money. Epson is good stuff!

That has not been an option for years.

Recently the Coolscan V that I bought circa 2004 decided it would no longer scan slides (although I can still scan negatives and I cannot figure out why). I was told a Nikon stopped supporting scanners several years ago, so I bought a Plustek which has been working fine although the softeware takes some getting used to.

A DSLR may be better than a scanner for digitizing old glass-mounted lantern slides since the camera can be precisely focused on the emulsion. A scanner is focused for film negatives or slides and might not have enough depth of field to compensate for the thickness of the glass.

I used my DSLR on a copy stand to digitize a set of old glass slides and donated the digital images to a historical society. The archivist asked me how I got such sharp images, she said that in her experience lots of scans of glass slides are slightly fuzzy.

The V700 has not been made in a few years. The 800 and 850 are even better, but pricey. Same negative/transparency adapters work on all.

Curious to hear what mount you used for 616 format negatives?