Film Scan & Save (PC)

I started to use this but after about 8-10 slides the screen started to flash green, so I turned it off and it would not start again so I returned it. I received a replacement very quickly which I am pleased with. To start with I noticed a lot of dust on the screen inside and thought I would have to send it back, however there is a tool/brush which I thought was just for cleaning slides & negatives but it slides into the slot and you can clean the screen. If you do this regularly you can keep it mostly dust free. I use the 10meg setting and am pleased with the results for Colour or B&W. So now I can now happily scan and copy all my slides and negs to my PC for easier viewing,(but will not get rid of them just in case), and all the family can now have copies as well. The biggest disappointment with it is that it will only do 35mm and does not do the old 120 size negatives and slides which I also have.

I was pleasantly surprised by this little scanner. It will scan colour negatives, black and white negatives or colour slides (35mm film) and transfer the images to SD or SDHC card as jpeg files, and will do this without a computer, although it can be plugged into a computer if you wish. It has a 5 MB sensor, and can be switched to 10 MB though in my hands I got better quality from the 5 mb setting. The results were excellent, a six negative strip can be scanned in seconds, and the resultant images needed very little attention in computer before producing good prints. The holder for Colour slides takes three at a time because of the size of the mounts, inevitably the contrast is high when copying slides, needing a little attention in the computer editing programme, and again will produce good prints. As with any scanner or printer, you must be careful to remove as much dust as possible from negs or slides, one slight peculiarity is that it dated all the images 1st Jan 2011,(if there is way to alter the date I havn't yet found it) but they can of course easily be redated on the computer. Altogether a very reasonably priced and good performance way to digitise your old negs and slides. Recommended.

Before I bought this product I tried to find out as much as information about it and other similar products.
I read the reviews here, asked question to other people and even contacted the company asking if they would have spare holders and if it would scan other types of negatives, well they said NO in both ways.
Still I went with this product because it has a screen display, it works without a PC (handy if you visit family and want to scan some negatives on the way).

In the box:
It comes with two holders, one for 35mm and for positive slides (the ones with a frame), an USB cable so you can download the scans to a PC, a video cable (to watch directly the scans on a TV, a code to download a free software to make a DVD (haven't tried it yet), a small but clear manual, a cleaning brush for the negatives ( not used it much) and an adaptor.

Ok, let me start:
Using it is very easy, there a few settings you can choose like 5/10 MB scan, brighter light or not ( I found this very usefull as some scans look overlighted and using this to add or reduce the light, the scans looked perfect), type of scan (negative, positive or black and white), and some other small options like language,....
So after turining it on, you just open the negative holder and add a slide in it, close it and push it in the scanner, then you see it on screen and press the san button.
I always leave it a couple of seconds before pressing the scanbutton, as it seems to auto corect itself for the light.
Sme slides turned out more blue than others, I corrected it by just moving the holder more to the left/right, so more/less light falls on the slide and the colours turn out perfectly (just a hint for other users maybe?)

In the beginning, maybe because it came from the fabric, you see some black lines (dust,hair,..) parts on the screen when ther is no holder inside the scanner. i take the little brush (with the hairs looking down) , enter it in the openinghole of the scanner and clean the light surface of the scanner, you can see on the screen the brush and how it removes the dust parts. It works great to clean also the slides, but I use for that a little cleaningcloth from some glasses. It was frustrating in the beginning, but knowing how to clean it it is OK.

Quality:

It is made of good hard platic quality, the buttons are easy to use and the holders maybe the first time very hard to open, but after a couplde of hours they are easy to open.

Scanquality:

I am surprised of it, very good quality.I scan at 10MB, and it gives me around 1,7MB for each scan. I can see them with good quality on my IPad and print them easy on my HP printer 2570 photosmart.
I read some people are not happy with the results, well it can be for some reasons, maybe they need to print bigger sizes or for professional use. Then yes, don't buy this neighter a scanner for 200, then you should buy better stuff or go to a store.
I am scanning all the negatives and if I want a special one to be printed, I pick it out and go to a store, pay 2.and get a professional print, easy as that.

Final verdict:

Pro:
- Easy to use
- You cau se it without a PC and save your picture on the 32MB internal memory or on a SD card
- Good quality for me, I can have now all the negatives on a DVD and print them at 10x15cm size like if they were new
- Scan is quickly and it has some good options to reduce/add more light to each scan
- Beside the 35mm sizes, you can scan every size, I have scanned 110mm and 126mm with it, you just have to put them in the holder, move then in the opening and scan them

Con:
- The adaptor is for UK use, so you need a kind of switch to turn it to European standard, althought it uses 240V. I luckely had such an adaptor from another device I have from the UK.Most travelar adaptors convertors will do this job
- The output cable to see it on a TV is rubisch, I saw the scans on my 32" Philips flatscreen and they come out strange, but it is a minor negative, as I won't use this option never
- You can not buy extra holders

Still do keep in mind this. IF THE ORIGINAL SLIDE IS IN BAD CONDITION, THE SCAN WILL ALSO BE IN BAD CONDITION. As people believe that scanning old negatives will delete the scratches, bad quality,...

I can recommend this product for it price and quality. I don't think if you just want to scan them and pass them to family members as I do, you don't need to spend more money or get flatbedscanners ( these are waaaaaay slower, up to 7 minutes a scan!! And much more expensive)

I love it and I have scanned about 700 photos during the first two week. Just watching some TV while doing the scans as it doesn't need a PC.And I am very happy with the quality