I used a Wolverine originally and scanned 1,000 slides. It was mind numbing, boring and repetitious work. I quit and five years went by. I have over 2,000 more slides to do. When I discovered this one had a stack loader, I had to have it. After you figure out all the little nuances and quirks, this thing is just great! It is not able to handle a stack of slides without adjusting each one because the tolerances are so exact. Once you figure out how to tap the stack each time you advance the slider, it moves right along. I finished 2,000 slides in about a week in front of the TV in about two hours per night. Compared to the Wolverine, this was enjoyable. When I finish with it, I will never ever need it again and I plan to pass it on to my sister.
For the money this device provides excellent results. It's simple to set up and incredibly easy to operate in spite of the lack of a simplified US full color manual. As noted, no SD card is included but is required in order to operate the device so order one if you dont have one on hand. All images are scanned directly onto the SD card and it is not possible to view the images in real time on the PC. After scanning the image/s you can then choose PC from the device menu and open / import the files on the PC via USB. The slide feeder is a real pain in the butt if your slides are not flat and in good condition and in that case forget stacking them. I will not retract a star for this because it works as intended with good flat slides in good condition. If that becomes an issue in your case you can use the provided film tray for slides as well. I love the option to adjust the contrast in real time while scanning without having to go into the menu but I have also found that in most cases adjusting the contrast was a mistake unless the slide was very very dark. The images appear less light / clear on the device screen than the actual scan. I noticed almost no difference in image quality between the 5mp & 10mp scans so I decided to scan everything @ 5mp in case I decide to do any future editing. I am sure a few devices get through that are not quite up to par as is the case with every manufactured device but IMO this device is solid and well worth 50 bucks. I would definitely recommend this device to anyone who just wants to get their collection of home slides digitized on the cheap before they turn to dust. If you've got the money and can afford more then sure, go for bigger and better. Otherwise this will do quite nicely nicely.
A more expensive product might have made clearer jpgs, but with my abilities with Photoshop this did just fine (Auto Level and Unsharp Mask works wonders) ... Here's some pics of my 1988 Eagle Premier lifted from some old 35mm negs.
My husband loved this film scanner. He was given a few boxes of slides from his childhood. He was using this scanner within 20 minutes of opening the gift. He had 75 slides done within an hour and downloaded them from computer to CD for his mom. We have some old *mm film to try next. The tray was the selling point for me when looking for a scanner and it was indeed a feature that my husband really found to be very handy. Worth every dollar I spent and I didn't need to buy a more expensive one.
When a low-cost product can be easily adapted to do exactly what you want and with good results, it deserves five stars! This is a very small, well designed, device which in my case, as pictured, sits on a homemade wooden platform, the sole purpose of which is to simplify the task of digitizing several thousand 35mm slides. The platform raises the scanner and makes a place for a box that catches the ejected slide and the support under the slide stacker, keeps the scanner in place, should you need to press down on the loaded slides to compensate for warped or uneven ones that may resist being fed. Configured as shown, I am able to scan about 20 slides a minute. The other units I considered, all use the same four slide holder which, taking into account the loading and unloading time, one would be lucky to do the four in one minute.
The screen is small, the price paid for the overall compact design, but an included cable will connect with the AV input of any TV or monitor. The fact that scanned images are stored as JPG images on an SD card means no software to worry about. Scanned image quality is quite good and there are adjustments that can be made. For my purposes, in order to maintain maximum throughput, any editing will be done on a PC.
Feature Product
- Includes adjustable rapid slide feeder; Once you digitize them into JPG files they can be copied, moved, duplicated freely with a simple click of a mouse.
- 5/10 Mega Pixel Stand alone Film/Slide, scan film to your SD card(up to 32GB SDHC) in 1800DPI high resolution
- USB 2.0 interface Convert Video Cable to TV out feature: NTSC/PAL
- Display is 2.4 inch TFT LCD screen (480x234)on the bottom, you can make the adjustment conveniently
- Operation system: Windows XP, VISTA, 7, 8，10，Mac OS
Description
Product Description
Size Name:M125
Features: Have any old 35mm films or slides? Here's the perfect device to help you easily organize and externalize them. At the touch of a button, the image digitizer will scan and convert your old memories into sharp, vibrant digital images in JPEG format. These can then be viewed on your computer or other device, or printed out as regular photos. There is no need for a computer connection to operate the scanner. Once scanning is complete, the built-in 2.4-inch color LCD screen will display your digitized image.
Specifications: e Balance: Automatic
Resolution: 5.0 Mega pixels / 10 Mega pixels (interpolation)
Scan Quality: 1800dpi & 3600dpi(interpolation)
Film type: 35mm film, monochrome, slide Picture Effects: B&W, slides, negatives
Light Source: LED
Backlight File format: Picture: JPEG
TV-OUT type: NTSC / PAL
External memory card: Supports SD card up to 32GB
Power Supply: DC 5V (Adapter USB Port)
Multi-languages Support: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese
Supports system:for Windows XP / Vista / 7 /8/10
Size: 88*86*102mm(L*W*H)
Package Content: 1 x Digital Scanner 1 x USB Cable 1x Video cable 1 x Negatives (Film) Holder 1 x Positives (Slide) Holder 1x Rapid slide feeder 1 x UK DC5V Adapter 1 x Cleaning Brush 1 x User Manual
NOTE:1.This film scanner must be need a SD card. 2.buyers need to scan the picture into sd card then connected to computer under usb format, please choose the usb format on the film scanner screen when the film scanner is connected to the computer, after that , the computer can recogise the sd card and the picture will be showed sucessfully on the computer.At this time the computer is only for the power source.
A very nice little scanner for the money.
Pros: I found it simple to operate. It works easily with 35mm slides and 35mm film negatives. Other sizes won't fit the holders but if flat you can push them through without using a holder. Scan quality depends largely on the quality of the slide and/or negative. This device can not make a blurry slide sharp. Some film I scanned was out of focus and some near perfect. Just the way they looked many years ago when I still had the original prints.
Cons: I didn't like the plastic holders. The tops jump off when opened and they're a royal pain. Maybe I can secure them with a little tape. As everyone has stated, the instruction manual has serious shortcomings.
This is not really a problem but a reality. A photo enhancement software is needed. I just use the free Irfanview to crop, rotate, adjust contrast, etc..
All in all, I'm happy with it. It's not a flatbed scanner made for this purpose, but it's small and handy.
Here is a typical scan from my mid 1960's films.
My father took the most amazing slides while he was in the Air Force. He was an amazing photographer, the few who saw his work said they were National Geographic quality. I was able to bring to life his slides in a number of videos from all over the world. He now suffers from macular degeneration. In short your product made it possible for me to recreate his early life and travels in a simple and effective way. The only reason I did not give this product 5 stars is because the instructions were not as helpful as they could have been and I lost precious time during the holidays in figuring it out for myself. I feel those who write the instruction manual need to keep in mind we’re mostly ignorant. Better safe than sorry. Otherwise, your product made a dream come true.
We purchased this to create a digital archive of a slide collection for ourselves as we were quoted several hundred dollars to have it done for us. There was the occasional jam or stuck slide and some of the photos were over exposed but for the money and ease of use, you really can't go wrong with it. One thing that isn't obvious from the description is it doesn't connect to your computer in the traditional sense. You are actually saving the photos to an SD card and then when you choose to connect to the computer, it acts like a card reader.
This is easy to use. Plug the USB into your computer, turn it on, set up the type (negative, positive slide), check the resolution and put the media into one of several easy to use feeders. Clean the screen every couple of loads to ensure dirt and fuzz don't ruin the output. Switch the Mode to open the folder and copy/cut them to your hard drive. You MUST get a memory card to plug in the device to hold the pictures until transfer, but you can get a good sized card for $8. Also noteworthy, the bulk slide feeder works well with plastic slides, but jams frequently with card-stock slides due to size differences in the card-stock plus how cards degrade with age. I have transferred family memories from 1965 to 1980 and am very pleased!
This is not a "pro" quality device, but I knew that going in and set expectations accordingly. For the money it is awesome. The photo attached is a slide taken about 1959 that I scanned using the included slide stack feeder.
So far I have used this product to digitize 250 old slides - some them close to 60 years old. The included slide feeder is awesome compared to my previous method of using a flatbed scanner and loading the slides into a holder 4 at a time.
I got through all 250 slides in a long afternoon - this included the extra time I took to clean and order the slides, and the time I spent editing metadata. (I manually updated the metadata based on the month/year stamp, any notes written on the slide, and location when I knew it - using a separate tool.)
The included slide feeder is (all things considered) an awesome way to quickly scan a bunch of slides. I could easily get 20 slides loaded at once. You have to be gentle as you are advancing the slides or they will "overshoot" (Tip the device it a little to one side to reposition the slide properly in the frame if this happens).
The slide feeder will jam completely sometimes and you'll have to reload the slides. Most of the time a tap on the top slide is all it takes to get a reluctant slide to fall down and then it will feed normally. I can't ding the device for this.
The resulting mage quality is *OK* (I only used the default image quality setting.) Quality varies based on the conditions of the slide and the original image on it. Keeping dust out of the device and off the slides is important and the included tools help some. Even when I used a projector and display the imported files as a 12 foot wide image on my wall the results are more than acceptable - for my purposes...
I was satisfied with my results. I just wanted to import these old slides so they could be viewed... If you are a pro, you probably want a better device. If you are trying to revisit slides you have been unable to look at for decades and save them electronicly -this will suit you perfectly. (IMHO)
I am rating this for stars and not five because:
- The instructions... They are less than awesome, but, eh.
- It will not remember the last mode used and you have to remember to navigate through the menus to set what you want. I wish it defaulted to "Color Negative" mode at least.
- It acts "glitchy" after scanning 100ish slides... I did smaller batches and deleted images form the SD card in between to avoid/work around this for the most part.
In short - know what you need. For me this device is nearly perfect. I'm looking for other old stuff to scan now. :)
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