Best slide scanners for Mac

[Jonathanm1222]

I'm looking for a reliable scanner that will scan slides, price range $100-$400. Any recommendations?

 

[flynz4]

I'm looking for a reliable scanner that will scan slides, price range $100-$400. Any recommendations?

That is where I started looking as well. As I researched, I realized everything in that price range would be total crap. I actually had an HP PhotoSmart scanner many years ago... and learned that it is nearly impossible to clean slides well enough to not make them look horrible.

Then I learned about ICE technology... and it is absolutely amazing. With the 4th Infrared light source, all of the dust and dirt just disappears. However, I was disappointed in the price range of these.

Nikon CoolScan seems to be the top of the line. The most basic model started at about $700... but if you want to use slide feeders etc... the price quickly rose to about $1500.

Looking for used CoolScans... I quickly learned that used scanners were selling for approximately the same price as new scanners... so I went to my local photo shop, and learned the reason was that they are always in such tight supply... the ability to get one new was nil. After a few years of waiting... I finally got a new CoolScan ED 5000 and a stack loader for about $1500.

The amazing thing is that they have held their value... and I could easily sell mine for the amount I paid for mine... or probably more. Nikon no longer makes them... but they are still hot items.

Understanding that I would be using it for a couple of years... and then never needing it again... I realized that it was actually less expensive to buy this high end scanner... and then sell it... rather than buying a cheap piece of junk that never does the job right... and sinking a few hundred bucks into it.

/Jim

 

[Giuly]

Epson Perfection V600?

It has the ICE technology flynz4 talked about, and it's $199.

 

[thedeske]

Epson Perfection V600?

It has the ICE technology flynz4 talked about, and it's $199.

Likely a good choice on a budget. I used 2 V500s and a V700 for a slide project last year. At the time, the old Nikon's were still 2k used, so no way.

Ice was useless for us. We turned everything off & did all the dusting in Photoshop. Lightroom was a great tool to bring everything back to life. The scanner software is useful to a degree, but we had better luck using the real thing.