Flatbed scanner for old photographs and negatives

R0C

I have hundreds of very old photographs, negatives, and also many slides which I want to scan to the highest possible quality using a scanner in the 200 euro or under range (from eBay or such).

I've been doing research but only getting reviews from American sites. Can anyone here in Ireland give me some recommendations on scanners from personal experience?

I imagine I may not be able to scan the slides using the same scanner, at least not to very high quality, but my priority is the old photographs, followed by the negatives.

I need something that works with a Mac, I had a flatbed scanner in the past and it's software worked with PC only.


EDIT to add: For the moment, the photos are my priority. I have many really old ones from the 1800s that are black and white, and then many from the 50s to the 90s that are in colour. So I can't have just a specific black and white scanner.

The negatives are a mixture of colour, and black and white and some of the very old ones are quite dusty/speckled so ICE may be necessary.



Any recommendations please and thank you!

Heebie

There are several threads on this topic in this forum. You should look them up & read through them.

Personally, I really like my Epson Perfection V500 Photo, and have worked with several models of scanners from Epson and several other manufacturers. In that price range, I've not seen anything that does any better of a job.

The Epson V700 or V750 or something was purchased a bit ago by after a lengthy discussion on here, and the person who bought it was happy. (again, you should look up & read the thread.)

Since you have slides & not just photos, you need to make sure that you get one with a transparency adapter that will handle the film sizes you need. (In case you have 35mm, or OTHER formats, such as 120, 126, 127, or anything else that's not "the usual" You're not likely to find a scanner in that price range that will handle 4x5 or higher transparencies or negatives well unless you go to the used market..and then you're not likely to get quite the same quality. You can probably find a used scanner that could do up to 8x10" negatives & transparencies used on ebay within that price range..but the shipping would kill you.

The Epson V500 can be had new for around the price you're looking for.. so you can probably find it, one another similar model, used for within that range.

mathepac

Get the best scanner with the highest resolution you can, and use it with Vuescan (see below). If possible get a flat-bed with a transparency / film adapter or see this other thread for a possible inexpensive film scanner - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056056289&highlight=negative+scanner

Scanner Software (Mac / Windoze / Unix) - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056053309&highlight=vuescan

Bear in mind that the software that is delivered with most consumer scanners has modest capabilities even if the scanners themselves have fairly decent resolutions / other abilities.

R0C

Thanks for your responses!

Heebie

I've found that for scanning anything that is not a perfect exposure works much better with Epson's own software (in professional mode) than using Silverfast. Silverfast doesn't seem to have any ability to tweak the scan to compensate for over or underexposure.. I was very dissatisfied with that. (and glad I only tried the demo version.) I have not tried Vuescan. Hopefully it has good compensation mechanisms.

The highest resolution isn't as important as the deepest color-depth if you're working with imperfect exposures.. but it's a good idea.. but you also want to make sure you're looking at the OPTICAL resolution.. not just the "resolution" My scanner, for example, can do 9600x6400 dpi optical.. but it will let me scan at 19200 dpi.. the resolutions above the optical are "interpolated".. which is by using a computer algorithm that makes new pixels out of thin air (well, by taking the average color of those that would, in theory, be "around" it if it were actually a higher resolution scanner) I try never to scan at above the optical resolution of the scanner. (which is still something on the order of 20 megapixel resolution from a 35mm negative or slide.)
The inexpensive film scanner mentioned is probably not a great scanner, but if you're not really fussy, it might suit your purpose.
The cheap ones tend to be a cheap 2 megapixel camera engine with a light that shines through the negative or slide and interpolates the resolution up to whatever it says it actually does.

mathepac wrote: »

Get the best scanner with the highest resolution you can, and use it with Vuescan (see below). If possible get a flat-bed with a transparency / film adapter or see this other thread for a possible inexpensive film scanner - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056056289&highlight=negative+scanner

Scanner Software (Mac / Windoze / Unix) - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056053309&highlight=vuescan

Bear in mind that the software that is delivered with most consumer scanners has modest capabilities even if the scanners themselves have fairly decent resolutions / other abilities.