Editing the accumulation of 35mm slides and want to add the image to Photos library. The transfer would be ongoing during the editing process rather than waiting for the task to be completed. For the first 50 having COSTCO to transfer to a DVD, hoping then to transfer to Photo library.
Have looked at the Kodak Scanza Digital Film Scanner. But not sure if these images could be added to Photos. Any other alternatives in the less than $250 range ? OK on having to manually feed each slide.
Any other scanning and transfer process recommendations w/o using a commercial service?
Before you make any decisions, whether buying a scanner or using a service, decide on how high a resolution you want the scans to be. Keep in mind that the higher the resolution, the better the images.
I’ve never used a service, but I’ve been happy with scans I did myself on high res printers. This was about 15-20 or so years ago, so I can’t make any recommendations relevant today. But if you do decide to roll your own, multi slide holders will make the process much less tedious, time consuming and aggravating. Some examples are here:
I purchased Kodak’s Digital Film Scanner from Amazon last year to scan my negatives and slides.
I’ve been pretty happy with the unit. I’ve never been pleased with the Costco’s service. I had them transfer some 8mm films to a DVD a couple years ago. Although they did not do the work themselves and sent it out to another lab, the resulting video was very poor quality. I was not impressed.
I recommend TIFF or Photoshop, as JPG is lossy. Scan the files at the highest possible dpi; you can always reduce copies of selected photos, or make a copy and save as JPG . But once the opportunity to use a high res image is gone, it’s gone gone for good.
I bought this in late 2017. I haven’t really gotten going on my project, but I have played with it a bit. The scans are acceptable, but the real bonus for me is being able to at least see what I have better than squinting at a light.
I figured if there was something I wanted at a higher resolution, I could get that scanned in professionally. I thought some of the ones I tested came out a bit dark but again, I haven’t done much with it.
I have slides and a variety of negative sizes, many without actual photos.
I’ve used the Epson V550 to scan around 1500 slides and lots of negatives. If you’re particular to removing dust, it’s definitely the way to go, as dust removal in software is problematic. It does two passes: the regular scan, and a dust scan using infrared. This model has been around forever, is quite reliable, and is cheap.
The Epson V550 and/or Kodak Scanza, anyone aware of the methods and programs to transfer the scanned 35mm slide images directly into the iMac Photo Library ?
I’m in Europe (UK and France) I’ve had Veho Smartfix device that scans 35mm positive and negative in colour, and also black and white negs (I mostly use it when people ask me for a black and white print, since although I have a few thousand negatives, I stopped darkroom work years ago. It’s a pretty simple device, but it works well. It can send the scans to a Mac or PC via USB, or put them on an SD card for bulk uploading later. Mine is only 5 megapixels, but I see that it’s now been upgraded to 14 mpx which is pretty good for most things. See
Just to confirm I have absolutely no connection with the manufacturer apart from being a satisfied user.
The method I use is to scan a batch of images (e.g. a slide tray) to a folder, then drag the files onto the Photos icon and import. After the import is complete I then delete the files in the Finder.
I have been using my Wolverine quite a bit, but definitely need better resolution for some of my negatives and slides. So I’m looking at the Epson V600 (I love my old Epson Perfection flatbed, but I bought it refurbished and it didn’t come with the slide/negative holders).
My question is - how is the software that comes with it? I am still running Sierra though I will be upgrading to HS when I get the time to do my ssd upgrade.
I do have VueScan but I don’t think that has ICE built in the way the Epson software does.
Vuescan does do ICE on scanners that have infrared lights (which includes the V600), though they don’t call it that because ‘Digital ICE’ is a proprietary thing. If you look in the Filter tab, it’s called ‘Infrared clean’. I don’t think I ever tried the Epson software since I already had Vuescan.
I love my V600, though since it has to live in a closet when not in use I don’t use it as often as I should. One of the extra nice things about the good non-multifunction flatbed scanners is they use CCD instead of CIS, and have a really big depth of field so you can use them to scan plants, bugs, cats, etc at high resolution. Search for ‘scanner art’ to find examples.
My experience has been that the Epson software (Epson Scan) is far better than VueScan when it comes to infrared cleaning, at least for Epson scanners. As you have an older system Epson Scan should work fine. You have to be running Mojave or earlier (or Windows 10 or earlier) for Digital ICE with Epson Scan. I’ve used Epson Scan with Parallels on Mojave and on Windows 10. Both worked OK.
So I have a garage with a very large box of 35mm slides taken by my late father. He had a magnificent eye and we have framed pictures to attest to that (he also received a number of awards - and also was asked to do some crime scene photos during his time as an FBI agent - many of which involved his 3 sons as they grew up - I take the 5th lol).
So I looked up the Epson V600 and saw a recurring theme: long scan times and long adjustment times w touching up. Has that been your experience? And I’m still unclear as to whether it behaves nicely with the latest Mac operating systems. You folks all obviously have much expertise and I would welcome your feedback! Thanks.
If you can wait a couple of days I will give you my first impressions then.
I had a Minolta Quickscan35 that I bought used in the late 90s and it was pretty slow too. Plus I could only scan one negative at a time and then had to remove the carrier and reposition the negatives.
My current scanner is an Epson Perfection that I bought refurbished from Epson in 2007/2008. It works great but the resolution on the new one will be much better (plus I never got the negative/slide attachments with the Perfection)
Even the Perfection can take awhile to do a high quality pass of one photo. The new scanner is supposed to be able to do a few at a time, or a whole sleeve of negatives etc, so that needs to be taken into consideration. I plan on setting it up on the iMac behind my desk and just let it work as I am doing other work.
