Veho VFS-008 Smartfix Scan to SD Stand Alone Slide and Negative Scanner

Now here is something worth buying! I have spent 10 years trying to scan my 101 boxes of positive colour-slides and countless 35mm colour and B/W negs, using traditional medium price 'sweep' type film scanners, as time allowed. Quality has always been a bit iffy, lacking in tonal range, but as I use Photoshop for correction, dust removeal, perspective control etc, etc, I have laboured on. I calculated that with the years left to me, I'd never finish the job. Then I saw this unit using a CMOS sensor of 5 meg. The price was too cheap to be any good but I bought it having read between the lines of the various reviews, some of the writers obviously expecting miracles at the price. It was an absolute doddle to use and so quick compared to the old scanners I was using, 4 secs scan time each against up to 1 minute for the same size image. Loading is dead easy and I use a blower brush after loading the slides or negs into the holder to remove dust. Colour and B/W negatives come out very well with a very good tonal range needing little correction. Colour slides being inherently of a very high contrast range come out fine provided there are no very bright highlights which affect the auto-exposure setting which tend to burn out. This might be the only downside to this effective scanner but I have managed to complete all my slides in a few weeks with only a small number being discarded, but these were not good slides to start with. However, with tens of thousands of negatives to start on (40 years worth of 35mm format, before going digital in 2000), I look forward to speeding through these over the next few years and we'll see who gives out first, me or the scanner. The fact that the unit can be used remotely is a bonus point and the use of a standard card (SD) is even better. I actually use the unit attached to the PC and delete the images from the card after every box or film (takes a few seconds). The range of holders is good and they are solid compared to some other flimsey plastic devices you see around. The problem you get with black lines along one side is easily cropped where it occurs. It is no problem for me but for someone not used to using editing software, I can see their aprehension. I suggest that the bundled software be used for every scan session before saving into the final file. Colour negs have different background dyes according to the manufacture and the 'adjust colour' will bring it back to normal. Black and white negatives will usually benefit from a bit of contrast adjustment to suit your taste. All told this is a remarkable piece of kit at a stupidly low price. My congratuations to the manufactures (and the retailers). I would be interested in any future higher spec models providing some adjustment before scanning for the problems with colour-slides but this might take away from the extreme ease of use. I am not a professional photographer, just a keen amature wishing to record my life's old fashioned film hobby of the family etc. and I have no vested interest in the sales of this product. I just like to give credit where it is due.

I decided to pay a little more for a better scanner and very pleased I did.
Its so simple to use, you hardly need to read the instructions. I have since scanned over 100 slides and negatives on to the smart card and transferred that to my PC.
The pictures scanned better than expected and in relation to cost of having a developer carrying out this task, the scanner has already paid for itself.
So if you have untold negatives and slides to copy, it would certainly be worth both the purchase, time and effort to carry this out.

Within minutes of receiving the scanner I was away, sorting and scanning my Mum's 1700+ 35 mm slides. In about 10-12 hours they were all done and on the supplied sd card. My husband timed me and it took 35 secs to load, scan and unload 3 slides. The picture quality when on the PC is superb, assuming the slide was superb in the first place! Each digital picture is 2544 x 1696 pixels, which is much the same as my Panasonic Lumix camera on best quality mode. One caution, when scanning onto the sd card the photos are numbered from DSC00001 upwards. If you then upload onto a PC and then delete from the card the file numbering will go back to 1 again. OK if you are going to keep in separate folders but you may have to rename each image if you want to put them altogether as you could have several different images with the same number. However the sd card will hold over 2500 images so don't delete until you have to. I haven't tried the software since I use Photoshop Elements quite happily and saw no reason to change. If you are in any doubt give this a try, you will not be disappointed and at least you can look at those old, old photos and have a good laugh at the hair and fashion.