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My dad has an big box full of slides of pics he took back during Vietnam that haven't seen the light of day (or a slide projector) in decades. I've been thinking about scanning them all onto a cd and giving it to him as a Christmas (or whatever) gift. I keep seeing this thing below that looks like a huge piece of crap. I'm wondering if anyone here has actually dropped the money for one of these things, if it's worth a damn, and how much you would or did pay for a gem like this. From looking at it, I'm a little afraid that it'd break after a couple dozen scans.

If you have a recommendation for an alternate unit, maybe even one that scans multiple slides at a time, I'm all ears. However, I'm not looking to spend more than $100, if even that much. Heck, if I thought I could get away with buying one, using it and returning it, I would. The gift will be the photos, not the scanner, which will collect dust after the task is finished. Of course, I already have a scanner that prints, faxes, copies and makes PDF's unless you upgrade to Vista. Of course, it does not scan slides or negatives.

Funk,

I just bought this one (Wolverine Film SCanner) via Costco online..... I have an older slide scanner that is ...well...older...and it is limited in it's ability to scan anything that is less than perfect. I an hoping that the newer technology of the Wolverine will do my slides justice or at least give me something that I can work with in Photoshop.....Worse case if it is not good I will send it back to Costco......

Don't know anything about them but hope you find one!! That will be an awesome gift for your dad!!! you are a good son!!!

Dutch Harbor PH wrote:Funk,

I just bought this one (Wolverine Film SCanner) via Costco online..... I have an older slide scanner that is ...well...older...and it is limited in it's ability to scan anything that is less than perfect. I an hoping that the newer technology of the Wolverine will do my slides justice or at least give me something that I can work with in Photoshop.....Worse case if it is not good I will send it back to Costco......

Costco Canada online doesn't have it. Can you tell us something about why you chose that one and how much it cost?

my brother is in the film business and recommends the nikon slide scanners but they'll be well above your price range. you might look into having someone do if for you. they'll use a really good scanner and do all the manual labor for you.

Dutch Harbor PH wrote:Funk,

I just bought this one (Wolverine Film SCanner) via Costco online..... I have an older slide scanner that is ...well...older...and it is limited in it's ability to scan anything that is less than perfect. I an hoping that the newer technology of the Wolverine will do my slides justice or at least give me something that I can work with in Photoshop.....Worse case if it is not good I will send it back to Costco......

The thing I like about that is it doesn't depend on computer based software. It stores the images on an SD card and then you can transfer them over. I can just see a unit scanning the image in 5 or 10 seconds, then you sit there while the system does its thing for another 10-20. You'll have to let me know how that one works out for you.

AlbatrossFlyer wrote:my brother is in the film business and recommends the nikon slide scanners but they'll be well above your price range. you might look into having someone do if for you. they'll use a really good scanner and do all the manual labor for you.

I've read that the Nikon's are really nice, but certainly not worth the money for me.

I have thought about looking around for a shop that would do it for me. Most of them are in the round projector cartridge things. I bet they have machines that can pull the slides from them in a breeze. I suppose the downside I see to that is when 5 or 10 more slides pop up a week later, It'd be another trip to the shop.

I'll let you know in January. My wife wants one for Christmas. She gets what she wants.

We researched and hemmed & hawwed all year and finally just upgraded our printer to a HP photosmart c8180. It does quite well scanning negatives and photos. It has one of those little slide & negative holders to use. Plust the printer prints fabulous photos.
We also didn't want to spend what it would cost for a professional quality negative scanner.

The problem with any of them- inexpensive, medium, expensive- is that they are all s...l...o...w...
Let's just say there might not be enough hours in the day to scan all you want between now & Christmas

Bed Bath & Beyond had a negative scanner and a 4x6 photo scanner (I think) on their ad cover this week.

There are also services where you can send them away to be scanned or have a photo shop in your town do it, but it also tends to be expensive.

Good luck! I don't know why they aren't making these things more accessible to regular people without searching and only having these $3000 machines out there!

Snowparrot wrote:

Dutch Harbor PH wrote:Funk,

I just bought this one (Wolverine Film SCanner) via Costco online..... I have an older slide scanner that is ...well...older...and it is limited in it's ability to scan anything that is less than perfect. I an hoping that the newer technology of the Wolverine will do my slides justice or at least give me something that I can work with in Photoshop.....Worse case if it is not good I will send it back to Costco......

Costco Canada online doesn't have it. Can you tell us something about why you chose that one and how much it cost?

Well my decision comes from already owning a slide/neg scanner.... The one I have is actually pretty nice but it is old optical technology. I is 1 scan at a time (no strip magazine) so you have to load it, center it, scan it takes about 5 minutes to do 1 picture. It doesn't have the best resolution (as it is an old unit) and it has a tendency to add in different colors so you have to go through a photoshop session to corrrect the colors and mess with contrast and saturation to get a usable picture out of it.... Anyway...

This one has these advantages:
- Costco has it....and I can return it if I'm not happy with it.
- It costs $99.00
- It cans at about 5 to 10 seconds per slide
- It has a magazine so you can scan somewhat faster
- Its upper resolution is 5 meg pix

It may not be any better than what I already have but it will be faster and the res is better so ++

Examples of the old scanner below......

This is a "Raw" scan from the scanner...note that the illumination of the slide is inadequate to pull out any detail....


The same imagine after lightening, adjusting contrast and saturation in Photoshiop.....still not that good and has very visible "artifacts of a moving scan....



Another picture set with the same issues....