Automated 35MM Slide Scanner

The concept is great, works great for a while, but it has jamming problems if the slide frame is not plastic and also doesn't insert all the slides in completely. I tried THREE different units and the same problems happened with EVERY one. DO NOT RECOMMEND.

So far, I'm very disappointed, especially after reading all the rave reviews of this machine. I've had it two days and have had nothing but problems with it. The documentation/instruction book is totally inadequate and the packaged software feels clumsy and inflexible. For example, there is no way that I can see to scan jpegs - only TIFFs, and you can't send it to a destination on your hard drive. It chooses where to store the files and then you have to move them. Automated 35MM Slide Scanner More importantly, in each batch of scans I have done using the 50-slide magazine, at least a quarter of them show up blank. Others are dark or strangely cropped. The ones that do scan correctly invariably need to be adjusted for exposure. Lastly, I'm finding the batch scans often stop at some point in the process and the application freezes.Since it's the weekend I haven't been able to reach anyone at tech support, either for the hardware or the software. If this doesn't get resolved in the next couple of days I'm sending it back. I don't have time for all this.

UPDATE Oct. 2012 - It's the good and the great!OK - this unit does an outstanding job of scanning 35mm slides after all. I have now scanned about 1,000 slides, and the results are stunning. My wife and I are now enjoying these old memories on a high definition TV screen.I've experienced slide feed errors of only about 1 in 1,000. Much different that my original experience. As other another reviewer noted, to make this unit work successfully you need to plan to spend many hours of trial and error effort. Furthermore, at least two additional purchases are needed - VueScan Professional software and a Paximat Model 100S slide carousel. The slide trays that came with the PowerSlide 5000 (and the free tray included with my purchase) just don't work for cardboard-mounted slides. I purchased two Paximat 100S carousels so that I could load 100 slides while 100 were being processed. I also purchased a Paximat Model 100 (no "S" prefix) which has wider slots. I did this in case I acquired some glass mounted or plastic frame mounted slides.Learning to use the VueScan software was also a challenging trial-and-error experience, but once mastered it is a powerful and flexible alternative to the included CyberView X sofware. In addition, VueScan Professional has a key added feature of creating "raw" scan files. In short, you save raw digital files that are direct digital captures of images seen by the SlideScan 5000's sensor (I also set the scan at maximum 5000 DPI). Assuming no physical scan error issues such as a slide misfeed, you can then post-process very quickly and as often as you want by having VueScan Professional rescan the raw digital file instead of rescanning the actual physical slide. This is perfect for archival purposes, which is my main objective. Handling old slides only once also has clear advantages. In other words, THIS IS A VERY POWERFUL AND FLEXIBLE FEATURE FOR POST PROCESSING such as for creating JPG, TIFF or images! I also purchased the "VueScan Bible" which has been extremely helpful. In addition, I have a 3TB USB 3.0 external hard drive connected to my PC (Windows 7 64 bit) to capture the images, as raw files in particularly are EXTREMELY large. Furthermore, I copy all scans to a second external drive for backup. I have about 5,000 slides yet to scan and the overall process has now become very straight forward and reliable.My only remaining concern is whether or not the PowerSlide 5000 will last through all of my remaining slides (and hopefully more). I'm also hoping for the same experience that other reviewers have had of ... many slide processed with no machine problems.A final note is that I have found the support by Pacific Image for the PowerSlide 5000 to be very responsive and helpful. The same if not more for VueScan Professional - I have had a number of questions and issues and Ed at VueScan responds within minutes, and in one case four times by email on the same day.I have increased my rating on the PowerSlide 5000 to a 5 star rating now that I have figured out the unit, its idiosyncrasies, and the key accessories required.---This unit is outstanding in many aspects and disappointing in some others. All things considered, would I buy it again? The answer is a definite yes. However a note of warning: this is not a machine for the casual user. Patience and technical skill are both absolutely necessary.First the bad: the construction quality is disappointingly marginal, and slide feeder jams are a common occurrence. Historically, most consumer slides were mounted on thin cardboard and one would expect a high end machine like this to accommodate them without jams or failures. This is not the case, and apparently plastic slide mounts were assumed in the design. When converting thousands of cardboard-mounted slides, even a 5% misfeed rate (not uncommon) is very time consuming and highly frustrating.Another complaint is the lack of good documentation on the unit's operation and its bundled software. The documentation should ideally explain the effect of using a particular software option along with step-by-step instructions on loading slides and scanning slides. A good example is the option of "Quality" versus "Normal". What does that really mean??? Unfortunately, one needs to guess the impact based on the one or two word description provided, and find out through extensive trial and error what if any impact there is. Much is left up to discovery and the machine's operation is not at all intuitive.After spending a 3 day holiday weekend of trial and error and frustration , I figured out how the unit operates along with its many idiosyncrasies along with which software options NOT to use. This unit is outstanding in many aspects and disappointing in some others.This is my third prosumer slide scanner. The first two units were Nikon Coolscan units (models 4000 / 5000) with optional auto feed trays. I bought the first Nikon in 2001 and the second in 2008, around the time Nikon exited the business. The 4000 was outstanding and gave me many years of service for ad hoc conversions for children's' weddings, etc. The 5000 is still in its box for future use if the PowerSlide 5000 ever fails. Unfortunately the Nikon units only operate on a Windows 32 bit machine, which is becoming rarer.The good: my slide conversions are outstanding, even better than what my Nikon CoolScan unit provided. I am converting at the full 5000 dpi rate and saving as "TIF" for archival purposes, and then using a program to convert to duplicate JPG files for easy viewing, etc.The ugly: the "Free" slide tray provided with this package deal does not work with this unit!!! I nearly destroyed priceless slides trying to use it. Furthermore, the slide tray that comes packaged with the unit (White Paximat 50 Magazine) cannot be found anywhere for sale. Slide trays available from Amazon and others associated with this unit also do not work with it.Bottom line: a good machine that can provide great results, but requiring much invested time and frustration.

Here's my report on my use of the scanner....I did 20,000 slides!- You can't do big quantities of slides with those hand slide scanners for less than $100. If you have more than 700 slides or so buy an automatic scanner. It looks like one of those old slide projectors with carousels without the lens which projects onto a screen. Instead, that hole is covered and hides a CCD behind it onto which the internal light projects the image. I bought the Pacific Image Powerslide 5000. The SAME scanner is sold under alternate names...you can tell when you see the picture. (The 5000 stands for maximum scanning resolution of 5000dpi) Be aware this scanner costs $1000. I bought mine here at Amazon. But having a service scan all MY slides would have been much much more. Maybe that wouldn't be true for you. Do the math. I plan to sell it to my sister at 33% discount and then she to my brother to use with their slides. When we're all done we'll sell it on eBay, maybe for $300-$500. So hopefully the net cost to me will be $200 to $300.- It comes with a 50 slide tray but it doesn't work well and takes too much loading. So I then also bought TWO (one running and one to load for quicker turnaround) of the rotary trays (VERTICAL not Kodak HORIZONTAL). Also sold on Amazon.- Then you tinker with the included software and decide what resolution you want. Try several settings and compare the results. The tradeoffs are that the higher the res (up to 5000 dpi) the longer the scan takes per slide AND the larger the resulting file. I settled on 3500 dpi. Each slide took about 4 minutes, and is about 6-9mb. At 5000 dpi, the scans were 10 minutes and 80-100mb. At that setting I'd still be scanning at age 95 and require 1600 TERABYTES of storage...which at today's prices would be $160,000. Do the math.- I also used the setting which prescans the slide with infrared and then adjusts the final scan to remove dust. IT works pretty good! I did not use the auto color adjust. Instead I used Photoshop elements aftewards for those needing help.- I let the scanner run all night and all day. It bogs down my computer when it's processing the scan (about 30-45 seconds of each 4 minute scan) so you may want to do it ONLY at night if you use the computer for other things during the day. Or maybe you have a faster computer than my Portege I5 1.6ghz.- The tray sometimes jams....I had horrible problems at the beginning. I discovered two things that help: First, make sure the slides are not bent or even warped. If they are, it's sometimes because on old slides the film sticks to the cardboard mount. It shouldn't. The slides are meant to just sit loosely in the mounts but heat and age can make them stick. So instead of trying to bend the mount straight, just PULL on the edges and twist gently to make the film break loose and it will settle in and the mount will usually straighten. Second, the rotary trays have little plastic "tabs" which grip the slides when you put them in. The idea is to keep the slides from falling out IF you turn the tray upside down. That's useful if you use the old projectors, but the scanner is too delicate and the slight pressure from that tab can hold the slide too tightly and make the mechanical arm which pushes the slides into the scanner miss and jam. It's a nightmare since it happens at night, you don't realize, then have to restart computer, scanner, figure out the numbers where it stopped....etc. But the solution is just to BEND or BREAK OFF those little plastic tabs....yes all 100 of them in each tray. Of course now you won't want to turn the tray upside down! But it works great.- Each morning I'd run through the scans (I kept them in different directories to keep them sorted). I would use Windows Live Photo Gallery to flip them or invert them as needed, crop them (both because the scanner sometimes leaves black edges and the original might just need cropping). When exposure or color was bad I'd tinker with Photoshop Elements. You can do this with Photo Gallery but Elements is MUCH better and it's auto color correction is perfect 90% of the time. All this might take a minute or two per slide. Many don't need anything, but oldest ones and film rolls where I consistently underexposed needed a lot. This takes time! 20,000 x even 1 minute. Do the math. But the amazing thing is that even those old washed out totally RED slides can be restored. What fun to see them brought back to life!! Some suggest using a calibrated target slide. I bought one but didn't use it. Frankly with so many to scan I couldn't be that fussy.- The scans come out pretty good. One disappointment has been that they often seem a bit out of focus.I wasn't sure it scanning at a higher res would have made any difference. I've been too lazy to dig out an old projector and match the scan on my large screen with a projected image of the slide. I suspect the slide is still sharper., tho not always since I am not an expert photographer. BUT....with Photoshop you can sharpen them, and part of why some may seem a bit fuzzy is because I am looking at them on a 27" monitor from 20 inches! When I show them on the 46" TV or sit back they look just great.Overall, after initial frustration, and now months and months later, I am happy with the purchase and would recommend this device to anyone with a little technical savvy and lots of patience.

I bought 2 of these, the second was a replacement, both of them lasted about 1000 slides. When it worked it worked well. The second one was returned for refund when it jammed plastic mounted slides. It damaged a few of my slides before I decided enough is enough. This model has now been discontinued. I will not purchase the replacement model because of my experience with this. If anybody has any recommendations on batch slide scanners I would be interested in looking at them.

Installation is really messy. The driver on the disk is outdated and a newer one must be obtained from the manufacturer. Then one can run it with Vuescan. The magazine supplied is not only useless for slides in normal slim cardboard/Pakon mounts, but will cause your slides to jam and even get eaten by the machine. You will have to send away for the compact black Braun magazine. (Cardboard mounts will jam in that, only Pakons will work.) It works fine for thicker mounts. The manual is really misleading: why illustrate loading from the BACK of the scanner?Absolute obscurity attends the question of which way round the slides should be inserted into a magazine. The instructions in the manual, apart from the aforesaid stupid illustration from the back of the machine, appear to have been written by someone who had never looked at a real slide. Side 2 is conventionally the emulsion or back side. Sharper scans are always obtained when your slide is properly oriented in relation to the lamp, with the right or shiny side towards the lamp. This is a separate question from whether they are inserted upside down or horizontally instead of vertically. If you load as illustrated, with the right side facing forwards towards the next lower number, your scans will all be mirrored; therefore for some time I have had the impression that what is right for this machine is the OPPOSITE of what is written. It turns out that I was just misled by the manual, and your mirrored scans are right, they must simply be flipped in software. Incidentally this scanner has one advantage over most, that the scanning area is square, so that portrait v. landscape is not a problem, and other formats than 35mm may be scanned.Excellent scanner once one can get it going, fast and produces big files. I haven't tested the degraining, but the dust-and-scratches mechanism is very efficient. It will clean up dirty slides decades old.

Works as advertised. High resolution. Even lighting across each slide. Automatically scans a tray of slides. I am happy I got it.

terrible, slow and poor quality for the money. very old technology. I can scan faster by hand