[BZ]

I have hundreds (maybe a thousand) slides that I need to scan. I have looked at services that charge $.50 - $3 a slide which at that point seems it is cheaper to buy my own film scanner (A friend of mine will even buy half of it with me).

Now... which one to get? I would like it to be USB and work with OSX AND be able to load up a bunch and do them automatically (I don't want to have to hand load each one).

Suggestions? Comments? Pointers in the right direction?

Thanks,
BZ

[buddhabelly]

A variety of higher end scanners can scan a whole roll of film, either 35 or even APS. However, because slides are already cut, I don't know of anyway to do multiple scans on any of the consumer/prosumer models. (that would be of any quality)

At work, we have a very high end Creo/Scitex scanner that can do 8 at a time, but it was quite expensive.

[Corys]

By the time you dust and color correct scan number 359, you might have wished you just paid someone to scan them for you..
$3 for a 35mm scan is a great deal assuming it's good enough quality..
I would seriously consider paying someone else to do it..

I don't know of any consumer level scanners that would batch scan 35 mm slides either. I know the flatbed scanners have cards that would hold 8-12 individual slides and scan each one, but you will probably not be happy with the results..

if you want to do it yourself, I would get the Nikon Slide scanner...Don't recall how much they run ($1500?), but you can get some great results..

[King Chung Huang]

We've got a Nikon LS-8000 scanner here that does up to 5 35mm slides at a time. It also comes with trays for other film mediums. It's has a FireWire connection, scans pretty quick (unless you're doing 4000 dpi), and has great quality! It can also do batch scanning, and supports Mac OS X. I wouldn't recommend getting a USB scanner since the data rates are so slow. Even on our scanner, a 35mm slide @ 4000 dpi takes up to 30 minutes, and produces a 300 MB file!

[CMYKRGB]

Both the Fuji C-550 and Fuji Quattro have slide holders that can hold 40 at a time. The C-550 can automatically select and scan about 80 5mb scans an hour - and the Quattro about 40/hr. Dynamic Range 3.9. C-550 is Mac only, SCSI only. Quattro is SCSI or Firewire. Mac only.

http://www.fujifilm.com

Or the CézanneElite from ScreenUSA has the biggest scanning bed at 13" x 20.9" and can scan and process to CMYK about 100 35mm slides an hour to 400% @ 300ppi - Mac only, SCSI only. Dynamic Range 4.2. 5300ppi

http://www.screenusa.com/scanners.cfm?id=3

[BZ]

Just want to thank everyone's suggestions and advice. I am still not able to find anything that will really do a "BIG" job for under $1500 or so. It looks like all of the slide scanners hold 4-5 at a time.

My next question is, what is the best flatbed scanner for scanning slides?

BZ

[bluedog]

The Epson2450 I just picked up for $499/US does a great job with film negatives (albeit slowly) and can scan a maximum optical resolution of 4800x2400 with 48bits/16bits per channel and pass all color data into your application if it can handle it (the only one I know of it Photoshop with limited editing abilities and Quark only for output).

I haven't tried it yet with slides, but the quality was there (on par with what I've seen from that size film at service bureaus for scanning). This model comes with the ability to scan 12 images from negative or positive films at a time and up to 4.5x9 inches in size off the flatbed.

It has firewire and USB interfaces (I've only used the USB as that's the cable it comes with), but assume the firewire interface will yield faster scanning.

Previews are really quick on this one and the drivers (while beta in OSX) have all the tweaking and saving ability for settings that I've seen in other more expensive scanners. I'll put up a photo I've scanned on my website for you to view (while I can't take credit for the quality/lackof for the exposure itself.

Here's the link:

[sCreeD]

This thread peaked my interest so I did some searching on Pricegrabber .
The Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED (approx. $1100 two vendors) plus the 50 slide capacity Auto Slide Feeder for about $450 - $470.

Well, so it's not under $1500 as much as right around $1500.

Screed

[Eric E.]

Another vote for the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000. I have one myself, and the quality is just great. It does use a Firewire connection since USB will make scanning very slow at high resolutions. But you will need the 50 slide adapter as Screed mentioned.

Eric