Scanners > Film scanner (35 mm) Scanners > by Sample Max Colour Depth

Advantages: Inexpensive, very fast, high resolution good quality output
Disadvantages: Unreliable and low quality construction

...minutes per full-resolution scan, the Plustek takes a minute. In fact I spent more time fiddling with the slides putting them into the mount than actually scanning. The resulting scans, while slightly noisier than other lower-resolution scanners I have used are wonderfully high resolution. Colours are also perhaps more subdued than the Canon, but of course, a few adjustments in Photoshop or Gimp soon fixes that. The bad news however is that it turned ...
...noises and something inside jamming (not sure what, but turning off the power usually fixed it) that became more frequent as time went on, eventually resulting in it being unusable. I returned it and got my money back in full. Would I recommend this scanner? At this price I probably would if you only want to scan a few of your favourite negatives or slides, but not if you are a professional. I am a very heavy user archiving my full back catalogue ... Read review

Advantages: Quick and Easy to use
Disadvantages: None

...scans it through. The Nikon Coolscan IV ED offers an ultimate in professional film scanning technology. It is a desktop scanner which offers a super-fast throughput when scanning 35mm strip film or mounted 35mm slides at upto 2900 dpi optical resolution. That means it produces an image on the PC of in excess of 12 megapixels from a 35mm frame, which means you can create an image which can be printed onto an A3 page in full photo quality. Digital ...
...(Image Correction & Enhancement), Digital ROC (Reconstruction of Color), and Digital GEM (Grain Equalization & Management) this device ensures maximun image quality with minimal retouching required from a standard 35mm film. So you dont have to get them developed and can be shared online and through email and CD's. It comes complete with a manual that is well layed out and easy to read. It is easy to install, as it comes with an installation CD. ... Read review

Advantages: Superb quality images and amazing ICE dust removal
Disadvantages: Poor user interface & price (especially for the optional APS adaptor)

...finally decided to get the Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED. All the reviews I read suggested a good balance between cost and performance, and I can confirm this. The scanner cost $1065 or about £600 from a US company called Cameta Camera who were selling the scanner new on ebay. When it arrived, it was very easy to install and get working, and came with the adaptors to allow me to scan both standard 35mm film and also slides. In order to scan APS films ...
...but it's around half what Nikon are charging for a brand new one! Unbelievable!! Anyway, 12 months later, and I've now scanned a lot of negatives (no slides though), and the scanner has been perfect. There's no point my listing all the technical detail about this scanner, the main feature is that it produces very high resolution scans (up to 4000 dpi) which can then be saved in a variety of file formats e.g. JPEG or TIFF. Some of the file sizes ... 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: 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