Slide scanner?

[Greg McCary]

If I were going to buy a slide scanner what would be the best for the least? I don't need one for scanning pictures or negatives. Just slides.....

[mjs1973]

Check out the Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Elite 5400 II. I have never used a film scanner before, but when I was thinking about getting one, this is the one I would have purchased. It's just not in the budget for me right now, but if the funds become available this would be my first choice. I haven't looked at scanners in a few months, so I don't know if there is anything newer out there.

[another view]

The KM that Michael mentioned would be at the top of my list too, as well as the Nikon Coolscan V for about the same money. Whatever you get, make sure it has Digital ICE for automatically removing dust. This can't be added to a scanner later, so it has to have it from the factory. The resolution is one spec to look at, but at least as important is the DMax which is how much contrast it can record (basically exposure latitude). The higher the number the better, and for quality work I wouldn't consider anything less than a 4.0.

I have an old Acer (now Benq) 2720S which does not have Digital ICE. Believe me, if I were using it fairly often it would get tossed out the window. I blow the dust off my slides with a Giottos Rocket Air blower and they look perfectly clean. After scanning, I still spend a fair amount of time with the clone tool getting rid of the dust and it's a big hassle. That scanner is 2700dpi but I still get good 8x10's from it.

Those scanners pop up on ebay occasionally for $100, but make sure it comes with the SCSI card (and that you can install it in your computer). There is a WinXP driver on their website. There was a newer version of that scanner (2740?) that has/had Digital ICE too.

Realize that with any scanner there will be a learning curve to getting the best results with it. I'd guess that newer ones have better software than what I have so it should be easier.

[Greg McCary]

I bought a Olympus ES-10 on ebay for a song and am curretly playing around with it. It seems to do better on negatives than slides. I may upgrade to something more expensive later on. I am just playing and learning for now. Do you know anything about the quality of scanner an Olympus ES-10 is? Any tips on using it?