Scanners > Film scanner (35 mm) Scanners > SCSI (Parallel)

Advantages: Handles 35mm negatives, slides and APS
Disadvantages: SCSI interface may be a problem for some

...hence my purchase of a Canon CanoScan 2700F (you knew I’d get there eventually). The Basics ~~~~~~~~ The 2700F is a 35mm film scanner. It will handle negative strips, APS cartridges (if anyone uses APS!) and mounted transparencies (slides). There are two main advantages to scanning the negatives rather than prints; firstly, and most importantly, you are using the original image source so you have the chance to get as much information there is, ...
...it. Software ~~~~~~~ Canon supplies CanoCraft software driver for Windows versions 95 to XP and NT4/2000. If you don’t have the latest version it can be downloaded from the Canon website. For Mac users Canon supply an Adobe PhotoShop plugin. In Use ~~~~~ The way of working depends on the media being scanned. Slides require no adapter and simply slip into the slot in the front of the scanner. APS film cartridges are loaded using the special ... Read review

Advantages: Aps, ease of use
Disadvantages: Now out of date

This scanner was, in its day, a must have for any serious amateur photographer who was aching to digitise their negs and slides. And in those days it was superb at its job. You load a strip of negs into the holder and slide the clip over the frame you want, slot it in the scanner and off it goes. Mounted slides are even simpler, just load them straight in. The software it comes with, again, did the job. It provided all the necessary controls and ...
...with most scanning software there is also a set of "not really needed options" such as colour adjustment. These processes are best carried out in your image manipulation program where there are usualy better guides for the changes you are making. A major disadvantage now is the lack of any dust/scratch reduction option when you scan, meaning any damaged films wil need intense manual retouching. The scanner itself is actualy quite large and takes ... Read review

Advantages: Store your Slide collection, Ease of Use. SCSI Interface, Price
Disadvantages: Only works on Win 3.x, Win 95/98, NT and Mac. Noise Volume, SCSI Interface

...on to computer, then the Epson Filmscan 200 could be just the job for you. Being fairly small in size (6"x5"x12"), it is easy to fit on to the average desk surface, though you have to be aware that the slide carrier moves through the body of the unit, so you have to allow extra space at the back of the unit (otherwise you could damage the internals when it tries to push it backwards and forwards). There are two versions that I am aware of, the ...
...cannot use this scanner, with Epson not making a driver (they now want people to buy flatbed's instead). You can get around this by installing Windows 98 (if you have a legal copy of course) and using the PC as a dual boot system, which means you then select either Windows XP or Windows 98 on bootup. This is the only way I know of to make it work with XP. You don't need to install all the extras of Win 98, and all you would need id some form of graphic ... Read review

Advantages: Value for money, excellent quality
Disadvantages: Will take up all of your time !

...and swapped it for the Acer 2720s and haven't had a problem since. As an aside, Jessops were extremely co-operative about the whole process. Specification ************* The 2720s is a 2700 bits-per-inch scanner which can take slides or 35mm negatives which it loads from cartridges. Three cartridges are supplied, one for negatives, and one for each of thin and thick mounted slides. It will scan up to 36bit colour, but I have only used it at 24bit ...
...Windows 2000 and according to Acer needs a minimum of 32Mb of memory. That last part is wrong, the scanner driver may work with that but you will not be able to edit your pictures easily. I use paintshop pro, and I upgraded my PC to 64Mb. That is barely adequate. The scanner comes with Ulead Photo Express and Photoshop LE. I prefer paintshop, but Ulead products have always been good in my experience. My *experience* of the product ****************************** ... Read review

Advantages: 4000dpi,speed,ease of use,price,versitile, dust off feature
Disadvantages: negative film carrier hard to insert sometimes, colour control, software

...some consideration I bought a Polaroid SprintScan 4000. After producing a few hundred scans with this equipment I have come to know the scanner's strengths (many) and weaknesses (few). The Sprintscan 4000 offers a lot of features for the retail price (around £890.00 incl VAT): 4000dpi optical resolution, high dynamic range (which means it can cope with over-exposed/developed film much better), cold cathode light source (like the ones used on the ...
...(which is not). However, the Polaroid software is reasonably good and allows a good degree of correction and control of the final scan. Colour correction is not so easy and I have had to adjust the colour balances of scans quite regularly in an image editing program afterwards. The colour manipulation interface could be better, but it still produces very high quality images after some tweaking. One other criticism is that its not possible to scan ... Read review