Scanner recommendations anyone??

Been looking on the Internet - some conflicting data/reviews - lots of reports of issues with Macs, etc, etc.
I need to find a "budget scanner" (under $350 or so) that will work with my g4 1.2ghz emac. It has USB 2.0 - 768 RAM - plenty of disk space - it's running Tiger.
I need to scan about 200 to 250 old slides - and want to digitize them - no hurry - I'll do 5 to 10 or so per day.
Can anyone make any suggestions??
Thanks

I had over 1000 35mm sildes taken from the late 50's to the early 70's by my father, which I wanted to preserve and print and which I scanned with an Epson Perfection 2580 Photo scanner. That model is obsolete now, but the rebadged equivalent is the Epson Perfection 4490 Photo.
I used my 1Ghz eMac with 640 GB of RAM and for the approx. 14Mb image each time it was a bit of a work out, but it did not tire.
It was slow, having to place each slide into the plastic positioner, but what I liked about it was its tremendous resolution of 4800 dpi and detailed pre-settings that could be used to adjust the input before I took it to Photoshop.
The high dpi is necessary to transform a small 35mm analogue image into a digital file large enough to be detailed accurately.
These presets took some time to understand and manipulate, but they had the effect of being able to rescue a poor exposure, and then a little bit more fine tuning in photoshop, produced quite a good print.
Most of the slides were well exposed and scanners aside, what was remarkable about that project which took several months, was how resilient and colour fast the 'pigments' in the slides remained after almost 50 years. Whilst I was making an archive, the funny thing is that the slides themselves are an excellent archival medium, unlike prints whose colours tend to fade after about 20 years.
Once happy with the image I printed a selection on high quality paper with Canon archival quality inks. I was surprised at the clarity and colour of the photos; they could have been taken yesterday. Scanning old prints cannot achieve the same result because there is less 'data' to begin with.
Whilst I had success with the Epson Perfection scanner, there may be others that would do just as well, but I can recommend that one at least.

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Hi.Since I upgraded to Maverick my scanner which is Fuji Xerox Docuprint CM205 fw could not be used for scanning as mac wouldn't find the scanner.Can anyone help please?

Hi.Since I upgraded to Maverick my scanner which is Fuji Xerox Docuprint CM205 fw could not be used for scanning as mac wouldn't find the scanner.Can anyone help please?

There's an alternative ...
Using Image Capture as a scanner:
Connect the scanner to your Mac whether Wi-Fi or USB.
Launch Image Capture.
Click the very small black box bottom right side of the Image Capture window.
You'll see this pop up menu: Connecting this (device) opens:
You can select a default app to scan (Image Capture) and select a folder from the Imort To pop up menu on the right to save scanned files to.

Scanner Recommendation iMac

I am looking for a scanner recommendation for this iMac.
Photos, and documents, but not necessarily a document feeder.
what to look at what to avoid...
Guidance and Thoughts welcome,
The Floor is open.
-Russ

I'm not an expert but I just last year completed scanning three different huge sources of old photos to digital. I can't imagine just push a button to do stacks of photos. I had to use different settings on different photo material types to get the digital how I wanted the final result.
I used an Epson Perfection 4990 scanner with Epson software because it contains Digital Ice which itself was a life saver to revive old and damaged photos.

Scanner recommendation for 1000s of slides?

Hello All,
I posted here because this is a graphics questions. I recently aquired 3000+ slides from my grandparents who just moved into a retirement community. I have been using an Epson scanner to scan one slide at a time for previous projects, but as you can imagine, that's pretty tedious.
I wonder if anyone here can recommend a scanner that would allow me to scan several slides at a time. Of course, I am looking for something reasonable in price, preferably under $500. Anyone with any first-hand expierence?
Thanks in advance for any and all advice.
Adam

Hi, I have been scanning negatives in 35mm, 120 and 220, and 4x5 and 8x10 format for many years. I currently have a Minolta DIMAGE Pro (discontinued), considered the BEST (Drum scanners not considered) and an EPSON 4990.
I assume you have 35mm negatives (not slides), and you want to keep all of them in storage.
My first recommendation, equipment wise, is to wait for the NEW Epson V-750 M Pro ($799). According to preliminary reviews, it is much better than the already excellent 4990, plus you get optical 6400 DPI, an absolute MUST for 35mm negatives. This will outresolve film grain (in all likelihood you will have 200 and 400 ASA film, which is very grainy).
Be prepared to do A LOT OF COLOR CORRECTION, which is what film labs do before printing, to take bad exposures and other problems people run into when using their cameras.
Another suggestion, DO NOT SCAN ALL OF THEM. It takes a lot of time, and is probably not worth it. Sort them in a light table (a 5000K good one is $60) with a 6x loupe (again another $120 for a good one). Scan for the resolution you will likely print them: if you want 5x7 or 4x6, scan at 1800/2400 dpi. Get a good system for storage and rescan if you need a larger print (do not try to print larger than 8x10, unless you really know what you are doing). Silverfast is recommended.
Be prepared to spend LONG HOURS doing this. A good 2/4 pass scan of a 35mm negative, plus correction and retouching will take no less than 5 minutes, times 3,000 is a lot of hours: More than 10 days of non-stop non-sleep work.
If you have a LOT of money, you can send them to a lab and they will give back a CD for you, for a price.
Good luck

Photo Scanner Recommendations

This has probably been discussed many times in the past, but I cannot locate a thread at present. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding a small scanner dedicated to photographs, perhaps with a feeder. I'd like to scan our photo library, but the flatbed route is so tedious....
Thanks in advance.

I don't know of any small, auto-feed scanners but my Canon 8600F scanner will scan multiple photos on the scanner bed and automatically separate and save each to it's own file. Most Canon scanners can do that. That model is no longer available. I got it because it was an optical scanner instead of and led type. Also because it also scans negative strips and slides. Take a look at the various scanners available at the Canon site. The software that it uses for multiple photos on one scan is CanoScan. Saved me a lot of time as I could do 3 4x6s or 5 3.5 x 5s at a time.
I would imaging the other scanner manufacturers would have similar software capability but don't know that for certain.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Slide scanner recommendations

To any who have experience with a slide scanner:
My father has years worth of slides from traveling and has selected out a few hundred that he would like to transfer to digital and keep on his Mac.
I am pretty well versed in Photoshop and Illustrator while learning to use Aperture but have no experience in scanning 35 mm slides to digital format.
Since I respect this community, I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on a good photo or slide scanner that won't break the bank but will still provide excellent results (let's say less than $500, but preferably less than $300).
Or am I just sitting on a cloud and there really isn't anything on a high quality level that fits in that budget?
Note - I tend to be somewhat picky in my hardware (evidenced by my switching to a Mac platform and Apple hardware), thus I turn to you all.
Thanks for any input (or even ideas other than scanning at home).
I have a few errands to run, but will check back later for any responses.
TIA -

I have scanned several thousand slides using a Nikon Coolscan V ED - sadly, I believe out of production. My first effort was with a Minolta ScanDual IV - nice machine with a slick four slide carrier, but the absence of infrared cleaning was a show stopper. Some thoughts:
-- Dedicated slide/film scanners produce much better results than flat bed adapters.
-- Vuescan is very nice software, much better and faster than NikonScan.
-- I have found no need for Photoshop; Aperture is more than enough, with, perhaps, the exception of really cracked emulsion skies, where layers may be needed to clean up.
-- Infrared cleaning is almost essential for older slides; often being better than actual physical cleaning.
-- It is amazing what you can clean up, but still, GIGO. If it is a poorly exposed, out of focus, thirty year old slide processed by a low cost lab, then digital scanning isn't going to help much.
-- I scan to TIFF (100+MB) because I don't want to scan again and because I want as much data to work with as possible. Newer, less damaged slides may be fine scanned to JPEG.
My website has many examples.
Best wishes!

Need a scanner recommendation for slides

(Not sure if this is the correct forum, but here goes)
Any recommendations for a scanner that will do slides? I've got my father-in-laws slides from the last 20 years and want to scan them, but can't quite figure what scanner would do the job. I don't need (nor want to spend $) on an auto feeder, but would like to be able to scan at least 4 slides at a time. I've got old photos and negatives that I'll be scanning as well, and would spend up to $400. Thanks!!

YMMV but I just finished scanning over 1200 color 35 mm slides from the 60's and 70's for eventual prinitng and use in my scrapbooks. I have an Epson 4870 scanner and I can scan 40 slides an hour using it. It works well. The price is a bit more, $440 or so, but the advantages are worth it.
If you have 2.25 x 2.25 glass slides you will have to build your own slide holder to scan them.
I got the scanner originally for a major scanning project for the local historical society of about 1500 5 x 7 glass plate negatives from the early 1900's. It's doing good archival quality scans of these materials as well as archival scans of our other historical negatives, about 2000 nitrate negatives of our local area. It's a low end professional scanner but IMO worth every penny.
For info on digital imaging help you might want to take a look here:
http://www.cdpheritage.org/
The best practices document on digital imaging is excellent for all the issues you will face and need to deal with. Geared towards historical collections it's still useful for personal stuff.
The Epson SW and scanner works well on the Mac. I just upgraded to Tiger, and it still is working, unlike many other items. <G>
I use Photoshop CS for histogram evaluations, image processing and thumbnail creation for the historical negatives but have just used the files as scanned for my scrapbook images.

Scanner recommendations ...

Hello All
I have been shopping around now for a couple of weeks for a scanner.
I have looked at the Epson 4490 but, I'm not sure if its Leopard compatible..
Macintosh Requirements
iMac® or any G3 or later with built-in USB. USB: Mac OS X 10.2.x and OS 10.3.x. Hi-Speed USB 2.0: Mac OS X 10.2.7 or later. 128MB RAM (512MB recommended for Digital ICE), 450MB of available hard disk space minimum (1GB recommended for Digital ICE), CD-ROM drive (4x or faster), available USB connection.
What I'm needing this scanner for, is to scan stills for importing into Final Cut Express and, other video editing apps. I'm currently using an older Epson CX4800 all-in-one but I'm really needing something that will give me better and faster scans.
Thanks for any help and or recommendations.

The Epson website has 4490 OS X 10.5 twain driver and utilities available for download. At least Epson thinks it is compatible with Leopard. The site seems to indicate that the Leopard drivers are not on the CD that comes with the scanner.

Scanner Recommendations for Professional Output

Hello All,
I hope I am putting this in the correct forum, if not PTI and I will move upon any notice.
I have a friend who is looking for a scanner to use for scanning photos and retouching in Photoshop.
This person is very excating. She just bought a Cannon Prixma (highly rated in the mags) and hated how washed out the scans of the photos were.
Tried some adjustments, but I did want to get recommendations from those in the know. Price point is wide, so any recommendations would be welcome to a scanner that would be professional level.
Thabnk you,
Del.

Just wanted to add one more thing:
I use the V350 mainly to scan old slides and negatives, and on the whole it does much better than the scanners I've had before. Resolution is even overkill at 6700 pixels for a 35mm frame.
There is still one problem though, and that is chromatic aberration, showing up as colored fringes towards the edges of the frame. It's fixable (just a slight misalignment of the three color channels), and I've put together a Photoshop action to take care of it. Still, it's a bother.
So I think this is an important consideration that might justify spending more money. Unfortunately, this is (again) something that you cannot infer from the specifications. Resolution isn't all.

Portable Document Sheetfed Scanner-Recommendations???

Am wondering if anyone has used a portable scanner that can be traveled with, is light and has decent resolution? Any help is appreciated.
AJ

Hi, Aaron. There are very few, if any, portable (by which I presume you mean handheld) scanners for which MacOS-compatible drivers are available. There used to be more, but I don't think they did very well. The handheld scanner market appears to be very small, and of course the Mac segment of it is just a small fraction of that. So while there may be Mac owners out there who use such devices, they won't be easy to find and consult. This is a perfectly reasonable place to fish for them, but it could be a long time before anyone with the experience you're looking for comes along and spots your post. You have to remember that most PB owners never come here at all, and nearly all who do are seeking the answer to a specific question or problem. Not many of those people scan the forums while they're here, looking for questions to which they can provide the answers.
I've never looked into or used such scanners myself, and I can't suggest where you might stand a better chance of getting useful feedback quickly. Sorry...
Afterthought: With all new Macs using Intel processors and able to run Windows natively, handheld scanner makers probably see no future in developing Mac OS drivers for any new scanner. It would be reasonable to expect that any Mac user who really needs one is likely to have a Windows-capable machine in the near future, if they don't have one already.
Message was edited by: eww

Sheetfed scanner recommendations?

I need to copy multiple papers quickly, in color (at least 300 dpi) and black and white (at least 600 dpi). What scanner do you recommend buying to complement my Mac OS 10.6.7? The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M?

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Scanner recommendations please...

I'm in the market for a new scanner. I had an Epson all in one, but the LED went out and I don't want to shell out the big bucks for another one, so I'm opting for purchasing a printer and scanner separately. I've heard that some people have had issues with certain scanners giving mac users trouble. I will generally use it for scanning photos and scrapbook pages. Can anyone suggest a scanner for me?
Thanks

Hi Ya
I use a CanonScan Lide 60 with my eMac with no problems at all.
http://www.canon.co.uk/ForHome/Product_Finder/Scanners/Flatbed/canonscanlide60/index.asp
Hope this helps.
Washac

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