What do I need to scan 35mm slides???

[IgoByte]

I have an Epson Perfection 1640SU scanner, and need to scan in a whole bunch of 35mm slides. Epson tells me I need some sort of transparency adapter.

Anyone have any experience with this schtuff?

I'd appreciate any feedback.

IB

 

[Biochem101]

Most scanners of this nature work on a reflective-light scheme. The scanner bounces light off the media and an image is generated from the "camera"

A transparency adapter passes light "through" the media. This light is what is required since determining the color and intensity of the media depends on the amount of light that is transmited and not reflected.

Think of the transparencey adpater as the cold light behind a flat panel, the media as the crystals in the matrix, and your eyes as the camera. If you tried to veiw the LCD without the cold light, you wouldnt see much ...even if you had a ton of light reflecting off the LCD screen.

BTW, thats a pretty nice scanner to use if you do end up getting the transparency adapter.


I hope thats what you were wanting to know.

 

[WebDude]

If you're doing a lot of slides, or need high quality scans, you'ld be a lot better off with a dedicated slide scanner. They are built to do the higher magnification you need, and you can easily insert and remove the slides (and they are aligned better). Of course like all good things this comes at a price, and slide scanners are not as cheap as flatbed. But depending on how much you have to do, it may be worth it.

WebDude

 

[IgoByte]

Thanks folks. I appreciate the input.

WebDude, got any names for me?

 

[WebDude]

Nikon makes some good units (at least the reviews I have read are favorable), as well as Minolta and Polaroid. (Here's a list, with links to reviews.) I looked into slide scanners a couple of months ago. What I decided was that I wanted one that would work on a fast bus (firewire, USB2), because at high resolution the transfer times for the image (which can be several mb's) can be really long. (I have a Microtek 5700 firewire flatbed scanner, and I've been spoiled by the firewire bus.) Unfortunately I could only find one such unit, the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 which runs on the firewire bus, but it's over $1500, more than I want to spend. So I've decided to wait a bit. Maybe they'll make a moderately priced USB2 unit in the near future.

WebDude

 

[rbaibich]

There's a cheap way of doing what you want: get yourself a Cabin Light Panel, and put it on the slide you want to scan. It works perfectly well with my Canon n1220u.

 

[lorlabnew]

I'm curious how you do that? Will those slide frames fit into the scanner? Please describe and which model of those cabin light panels is suitable?

I use Canon CanoScan-D660U (with film 35mm film adapter)...

Thx
Dave




<< There's a cheap way of doing what you want: get yourself a Cabin Light Panel, and put it on the slide you want to scan. It works perfectly well with my Canon n1220u. >>