Slide And Film Scanner Reviews

This slide scanner works great for slide.

For a manual image advance 35mm film strip or mounted slide scanner it produces great high quality scans. The Silverfast software can produce a usable scan from under exposed or overexposed as well as faded original images

I ordered extra slide holders for my Plustek 8100Ai Film Scanner. Just in case Something should happen to the one that shipped with the scanner itself. Holds 4 slides at a time.

I've owned this scanner for a few weeks now. I have scanned hundreds of images consisting of Kodachrome slides, color negatives, and BW negatives as old as 68 years and as new as last week. At 3600dpi, the scans have the resolution of wet process enlargements. At 7200dpi, you can magnify the image and clearly see individual grains in the developed film. Though somewhat slow due to manual feeding (and the obligatory babysitting), it is capable of producing scans that may finally have squeezed the last drop of 35mm film's excellent resolution. This scanner will probably bog down on a less than great computer. My machine is Intel Core i7 quad core at 2GH with 16GB RAM running Win7 64 bit. The only issue I've had with the hardware is that on some VERY dense film (grossly underexposed slides and overexposed negatives), the backlight is a little underpowered to cut through, leaving a noisy scan. The Silverfast software is excellent, but only after you learn how to use it from a third party. I think everyone agrees that the manuals are worthless. Once you've learned to place RGB/CMYK measurement points in strategic locations on the prescan (a process the manual doesn't describe) and fine-tune the RGB histogram, you can get absolutely perfectly color balanced and exposed scans. The infrared scratch and dust detection is amazing, but note that it can't be used on films containing metallic substances, including BW. Get a third party book on Silverfast. I will include a few 3600dpi scans of Kodachrome from 1945-1950 reduced in size by 50% and compressed to JPG format. The newspaper in the slide with cats is from June 27, 1950 and the headline announces the start of the Korean War. The car in the slide with kids is a 1941 Ford and that slide was shot in 1947.

I use this scanner for archiving a lot of 35mm Kodachrome and Fuji Velvia Slides. The color representation is excellent and the overall quality is very impressive. I also scan 35mm color negative film strips. The accurate color and brilliant end result are much better than the original prints. I have found the included EPSON Scan software adequate and easy to use so far. There is optional SilverFast SE Plus 8 software included yet I have not used it yet due to negative online consumer reviews. If it does what it says it will do on the packaging, my slides would hopefully look that much more impressive. The two things that I wish were different are the included slide and negative holders that sit on top of the scanner's main glass area. Each slide needs to be positioned just right in its respective place in the tray or the software crops the image more that you may want. If the slide is positioned in the tray with just a little bit of the white holder showing around the transparency, the software cropping does not happen. I also wish the film strip holder did not have an extra layer of glass and that you could just place the negatives in the holder by themselves. In all fairness to EPSON however, I did not notice any degradation of the final image though after the scanning process was complete. All in all, this is a very good scanner and I would have purchased it all over again.

This is a great companion product to a Nikon CoolScan film scanner. While the film scanner is the ideal way to digitize a slide, it is time consuming. Using the ES-1, you can have a digital version of a slide with the press of a shutter release. If you are using the 60mm Micro, you do NOT need the PK-13 extension tube, as the 60mm lens will allow you to capture the slide without any trouble. You will need the BR-5 adapter ring, but that's it.

Great slide film!

I see many negative reviews about the price or the film holders or this and that. Read the manual!!! Yes, it comes bundled with 3rd party software- none of which is required to operate the scanner just fine. You want that extra level? Sure, whatever. Install and sign up and do your thing. I have an interest but it hasn't been needed yet. The scanner is quite resolving and the results are quite good. I typically scan 4x5 and 8x10 glass negatives. The results are perfect for creating enlarged digital negatives. Easy to work with. Learning curve like any other piece of hardware. No big deal. Read the manual! Would I recommend? Absolutely! Do I think it is a worthy upgrade for another $300 over the 800? Yep! They also post Dmax which was a super important part of my purchase decision over others. Glad I did!

I had done my slides on a flat-bed scanner. This Wolverine scanner is a pleasure to work with. Slide one slide in, press scan, press OK, repeat for the each subsequent slide. Very easy and very fast.

E100 is the go-to film for slide photography.