Scanning pics of tractors (using slides)

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Mine requires a SCSI connection )</font>

Yep! Gary, the salesman who sold me my unit swore up and down that it was only SCSI and almost refused to get one out so I could buy it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Boy, was he surprised when we opened the box and it was USB. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I must have bought mine during the first few shipments of the USB type. I sure like it. I have many old box camera black & white family photos that I scan with it. I could use my flatbed, but it's so easy to use the PhotoSmart S20 that I use it instead. The scanning software even senses the edge of photos and slides and crops them for you. I like that! ....being the lazy bum I am. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[jinman]

Wal, I agree with your post 100%. We had a Polaroid brand slide scanner back in the mid '90s that was pretty good. It would go up to 4,800 dpi, I believe, but most of our stuff was going to be displayed at VGA resolution, so we dropped the dpi down and saved a lot of time. The Nikon scanner was around $5,000 in those days and I bought a 2x CD recorder for the "bargain" price of $2,500 /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gifand was actually happy with it. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Some things do change for the better. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[GaryM]

I like mine pretty well, but it's on my old PC because of the SCSI board. I really rather buy a new unit instread of buying a new SCSI board for a PCI slot. Mine does some edge detection, but if the photo's not in straight it needs some adjustment. Could be a little faster too.

The Nikon units that detect and remove scratches and dust, as mentioned by Wal, are really nice. I think that Nikon developed that technique and some others are using it now too. Maybe under license? I think they call it Digital ICE? But you're not going to get that feature in anything but a dedicated slide/film unit. Depending on the condition of your materials it could save lots of retouching time.

And in line with that, get yourself a digitizing tablet such as a Wacom. They're cheap and use a pressure sensitive stylus to vary the effect depending on how hard you press. this allows better blending of most of the retouching tools.