Photo Scanner - recommendations required

beefster

I am looking to copy a host of old family B/W and colour photographs. Some go back to the early 1900's (possibly older!). I have had a brief scan through the internet and PC world but a recommendation on ease of use and speed would be welcome.

Budget approx £70 so that should secure a good ish one but not to discount cheaper ones that you feel performe well. Pictures are going to be uploaded to a web site and stored for safety.

Flat bed preffered. I have a good printer so dont want a combined unit.

Thanks for looking

BillScarab

I've got a Canon scanner I've always been happy with. Looking on ebuyer here http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/?strSearch=&bolShowAll=true&intStoreID=77&intCatID=16&intSubcatUID=65&intMfrID=6&bolShowAll=true

the canon scanners seem to get good reviews.

ormus

i last used a cheapo epson combined unit from asda for 39 quid.
did lots of old family BW photos. not a single problem.
uploaded some onto the bbc family history website.

beefster

Is there such a thing as a scanner that will sopy from slides and / or negatives?? Got lots of these to..... Lots of work ahead

BillScarab

Yes, you can slide and negative scanners. Some flatbed scanners can scan negatives but in the past the results were not that good, they may be better now. You can also get dedicated slide and negative scanners which are better but are generally more expensive. Something like this is within your budget (just!) and claims to do negatives as well.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/80292

It might be worth searching the net for reviews before purchasing though. Glancing at the reviews apparently Canon have a factory outlet on ebay that sells cheap kit that may be worht looking at.

hc25036

Just outside your budget (at £83) is this one (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/?qfind=v350). This will scan 2 35mm slides at a time and will also automatically feed film strips. The software that comes with it is excellent (watch out for that with cheaper ones). I've used several scanners for films and slides and this is the cheapest I've had and the best by a distance.
When you get your scanner make sure you try lots of different settings to find the best time/quality compromise. If you are scanning 50 slides it can make a huge difference to how long you spend mindlessly feeding the scanner!

Stephen_Leak

You can get specialist photographic negative scanners (a lot of professional photographers still use film but then digitally manipulate the images), but they do tend to come with a price tag to match.

Personally, I'd go for a decent "normal" A4 flatbed scanner. I highly rate the Canon Lide ones - excellent quality, good prices, easy to operate, not much bigger than a quarter of a ream of A4 paper and powered by the USB lead, so they have no bulky power supply unit to muck about with.

OK, it may have its disadvantages for the negative scanning job, but it is then usable for everything else that you will find that you need a scanner for - scanning passports so you don't have to carry around the originals, scanning thermally printed receipts for items with longer guarantees than the original receipt will remain legible for, etc.

PS. Don't get too hung up on the maximum resolution figures - all high resolution images do is take up memory space! A photo' in any high quality glossy magazine (including those!) will be printed at a mere 300 dpi (dots per inch).

BillScarab

hc25036 wrote: »

Just outside your budget (at £83) is this one (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/?qfind=v350). This will scan 2 35mm slides at a time and will also automatically feed film strips. The software that comes with it is excellent (watch out for that with cheaper ones). I've used several scanners for films and slides and this is the cheapest I've had and the best by a distance.
When you get your scanner make sure you try lots of different settings to find the best time/quality compromise. If you are scanning 50 slides it can make a huge difference to how long you spend mindlessly feeding the scanner!

I agree with the above about experimenting with the settings.

BTW the Canon one is £13 cheaper and does four slides at a time! :whistle:

Software is pretty good with the Canons too

I'm sure either would do the job well.

beefster

Cheers guys, the canon 4200f looks great but...... is the 4400f any better as i have found it at £55 inc delivery etc.
Seems to be better on the dpietc and looks a better machine. Any thoughts?

fatnbald

beefster wrote: »

Is there such a thing as a scanner that will sopy from slides and / or negatives?? Got lots of these to..... Lots of work ahead

There are some negative / Slide scanners out there but the process is very very time consuming and decent quality scanners do tend to be more expensive from new. I am sure a quick ebay search might throw up some less expensive ones second hand. In many instances if your time is valuable it may be worth using a photo lab to do the job for you they will get you much better results usually because of the quality of the equipment they have to use.

Peak imaging are very good but, as quality costs money, are at the top end with their prices

beefster

Thats a bit price prohibitive with the amount i have to do. I just want to ensure safety of copies i have of old family pics. But there are hundreds!