Don said:
Not really. My impression is there aren't many scanners which will do
a decent job on 35 mm color slides.
Don,
Some of the preceding replies have unfortunately given you a very
negative and quite wrong impression about the relative quality of
scanners available today. The fact of the matter is that the common
Nikon, Canon, and Konica-Minolta models out there - the ones people are
always talking about and comparing - are capable of yielding quite nice
results! And frankly, the implication that they're somehow "all crap"
is unfair and misleading. All the unsubstantiated pejorative
descriptions like "quality suffers GREATLY", "VERY poor quality CCD",
"SERIOUSLY COMPROMISE capture quality", "TERRIBLE MTF", and so forth is
just the height of hyperbole! Sure, when you compare these scanners to
drum scanners costing 10's of thousands of dollars, they're not
quite state of the art. But there's a serious matter of diminishing
returns which needs to be considered here!
Now to be fair, I think most in this group will agree that scanning
film will require a bit of effort on your part - maybe even more than
you would like - as you try to develop a consistent workflow, get
consistent results, and as you try to eek out the last bit of quality
you can possibly get from them. It can take up a lot of your time and
there are a number of pitfalls. But basically what I would like to say
is that with some effort, you CAN get good results scanning film with
the scanners which are out there today. I hope you will continue to
pursue this path.
If it hasn't been mentioned before, you will probably want to stick
to dedicated film scanners (as opposed to flatbeds) if you want to get
results as good or better than what a lab will do for you. For
reference, some of the more popular models which photo hobbyists talk
about these days include:
Nikon Coolscan V $550
Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400 II $570
Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED $959
(B&HPhoto prices)
And there are more too, which I'm sure others will comment on. Of
course, it all depends on how good is "good enough", and without
knowing your needs, there may be lower cost alternatives out there
which would work well for you.
My scanner happens to be a Canon Canoscan FS4000 which I use for both
negatives and slides, and find does a great job overall. This scanner
is no longer being made, but when I bought it new (maybe a year ago?)
it was about $400. You can probably pick one up used for even less
than this. I couldn't disagree more with the one previous poster
and all his criticisms about this scanner! It was (and is) a scanner
roughly comparable to those from Nikon and Konica-Minolta, at a very
good price. Maybe a little better in some aspects, and a little worse
in others (much of which is a topic for another thread!), but overall
one of the contenders, I would say.
Another suggestion which comes to mind is to see if you can get someone
to scan one of your slides for you so you can see how well a particular
scanner performs. If you're lucky, you might be able to find someone
near you willing to do this. If not, you might be able to get someone
from this listing to scan it for you. I'm sure there are many - myself
included - who would be more than happy to show you what their favorite
scanner is capable of!
Jeff