[jennk]

My dad was asking me if I knew how to scan slides. Of course, I don't have any slides so I have never tried. Do you guys know if you need a certain kind of scanner to do that or if a regular scanner can do it? I don't know if it is the hardware or the software that makes a scanner capable of scanning a slide or negative. Does anyone out there know?

If you need a scanner with that feature can anyone recommend a decent one that isn't too expensive? I have a feeling that I may be the one to scan a lot of slides! :-)

Thanks for your help ladies!

[anna]

I think (but I can't remember for sure) that my scanner came with some plastic or metal frames or something that are for scanning slides. Hang on a few minutes and I'll see if I can find them and I'll let you know.

[Jennifer in NC]

I have an Epson Perfection 3170 which has holders for two kinds of slides (35mm and 110). It's not easy to scan them, because they have to be manually changed out (the 110 slides can only be scanned one at a time, and that's what my parents used for years.), but it does a nice job. I have to change to manual setting and tell it it's scanning a transparency, so it seems to require software that's slide-capable. I think they sell them at Amazon for about $70 now.

[anna]

Jenn, I can't find anything here. I SWEAR it came with it, but with the state of my office right now, it could take me a month to find it......

But, I ran a google search, to see if there was some neat, niffty little doodad you could pick up cheaply, and I ran across this site. It sounds cool and plausible, but I've never tried to scan slides, so I couldn't say if it really works.

How to Scan 35 mm Slides On a Flatbed Scanner

[jennk]

Thanks both Anna and Jennifer! I will check out the site and see if I can figure it out. I would love if he could just use the scanner that he has but at least I don't think they are too expensive anymore.

[PatBowman]

I have an Epson Perfection 3590, and it has capability to scan both slides and film. There are attachments that come with the scanner. You can only do one slide at a time though, but it does a beautiful job. The film attachment will hold a strip of 35mm film. I think I got it for about $150 last year at Best Buy.

[Susan Neff]

Jenn, the prices have definitely come down over the past couple years. I'd definitely see what you can find at the various stores. You're going to find a big variety.

Flatbeds need attachments in order to scan negatives or slides, and not all scanners have such attachments. Also check out the scanning ppi (dpi) capability when you're checking out scanners. If you scan a 1 inch x 1 inch image at 600 ppi, then when you convert it to 300 ppi it becomes 2" x 2". Sooo... that same image scanned at 1200 ppi becomes 4" x 4" when converted to 300 ppi. That's still not very big - just something to think about.

Good luck with your quest.

[Kricket]

Hi Jenn,

I have an Epson stylus 3170. I've had it a few years and it does both slides and negatives. It has plastic flat panels that you set the slides, neg. in. It does a good job but is very time consuming.

My parents took thousands of slides and I don't think I'll ever get thru them all!

Check out the Epson on the internet.

Good luck.

Kricket

[scrap_horse]

Bumping this back up...

Any other people using the special slide scanners? What make/model? Care to share a little about your experience? My dad has taken tons of slides over the years. Some of which I'd like to scan for my use (things from my childhood). He would, too, and wants to buy a slide scanner (that we can share, yay!) if I can find out more about them.

[Munchkinette34]

I know this post is a bit old but I wanted to share what my family uses to scan slides. Keep in mind we have over 17 boxes of slides! My parent recently purchased a slide scanner called a Plustek OpticFilm 7200. Its scanner made specify to scan slides and negatives. It can scan up to 4 slides at a time. It works really well, and did a great job scanning the slides. So if any of you have alot of slides this type scanner might be worth looking into.

Becky

[scrap_horse]

Becky, I am so glad to see your post! After my hubby did some research on features and customer service (support) reviews on scanners in our price range, we recently bought the same thing! (it actually has an "i" after the number, right? ours does) I just haven't had time to try it yet! It will actually be my dad's, after I scan some slides we have here at our house. Glad you are having a good experience with it, and thanks for sharing that with us!

[scrap_horse]

Hi again! I'm happy to report that I have started using our Plustek OpticFilm 7200i scanner to scan slides and it is working very well. I set the images to be about 7x10 at 300dpi. It might be possible to go a little bigger, but figured that's big enough and don't need any bigger files.

I recently found some negatives I want to scan, so I'll be trying that too. Just had to share because I was so excited to find these particular negatives, I had no idea I even had them, but I looked on a whim and there they are!

Okay, back to what I am supposed to be doing... LOL!

[MazG]

As long as your scanner has an attachment for slides (or negatives, if you want to scan those) then you'll be fine. All that does is put the slides in a certain spot so that when you chose slides it scans just that spot at a very high resolution (so they can be enlarged to a printable size).

These kind of scanners can be had for little money, I think I paid about $120 almost 2 years ago now for my Epson Perfection (1280?) so they are probably even cheaper now.