20 Best Scanner For 35Mm Negatives (2023 Updated)

This is a great little scanner. I have used/owned 4 different ones in the past, from those made to work with a full size scanner to 3 made to scan slides and film. The key things I really liked about this is that you could make adjustments to the brightness and/or color range of the slides before scanning.

With all the various types of damage from film aging this was a great plus, even though I also use photo repair software. It also makes transferring the photos to your computer a snap; either all at once or one at a time.

The nooks and crannies on this make it easy to hold and manipulate it as you are scanning even though it is a fairly small piece of equipment.

I was looking at over 1000 – 35mm slides that needed to be scanned. After researching the cost of having them done professionally, I took a chance on this scanner and am very pleased The overall quality is more rugged than I anticipated and it is quite compact In size.

The product’s interface is not too slick, but the instructions were very easy to follow. I actually plugged the scanner into a PC monitor via the HDMI output (cable included) which allowed me to ensure the slide was clean and positioned correctly before scanning.

Sometimes it froze and had to be restarted, but images were never lost. Also, you must manually insert the slides into the guide and push them into position. At 22 meg, the images are as sharp as I expected since many of these slides were 40+ years old and been stored in hot climates.

Easy set up. Be sure you have an SD card (not included) with adapter. It took me a little while to remember which buttons did what, but once I got the hang of it, it was super easy to operate. I chose this model because it had the biggest screen so you can really see the image you are working on.

Transfers to my Windows 10 computer are super easy. A great project during the corona virus lock-down to convert all my grandparents’ slides to digital. One caveat, some of their slides were bigger than 35mm so the whole image doesn’t convert.

I was able to work around on most of them by inserting the slide rotated 90 or 180 degrees to get the subject into the converted image.

Scanned about 1000 slides and negatives in last week. Was able to pull out some almost non-existent images on ancient slides. Fairly easy to use. Had some jamming of paper mount slides in adapter. Minor annoyance.

The instruction book was not very well written or comprehensive. Most functions easy to figure out. Power time out is bothersome. Haven’t figured how to lengthen working time or disable time out. Adding SD card helps extend time between dumps.

Photo quality good. Provides enough to clean up with Photoshop. Liked this scanner and will use it a lot digitizing old negatives and slides.

Wish I realized that older negatives are larger (sometimes much larger) than 35mm and wont fit into the adapters or even the slot. But operation is easy to figure out and has worked great for my first 500 negatives.

Many more to go.

This digital scanner worked great, I scanned hundreds of 35mm slides and the digital prints are high quality. Better than I expected

Wife sorted through over 500 35mm slides and stored scans in jpg format for storage on computer. Basic ‘corrections’ were made using the device with acceptable results.

Purchased this scanner as I have a tonne of negatives lieing around and recently got myself back shooting 35mm. The scanner works fine. Obviously a very long process scanning so many negatives, so would be nice to have two negative attachments instead of one.

Had major problems getting the software working as the serial numbers didn’t work, I don’t have a cd/dvd drive you see as I’m using a Mac. But Wilkinson’s helped me out and so did the software company.

All in all it does a good job but I might of benefitted from a flatbed scanner instead. But time will tell. Great product and fits perfect on my desk.

I’m very disappointed in this Magnasonic film to video converter. I’ve set up a projector and screen in the past and recorded 8mm films in the past that turned out very nice when I recorded them with my digital camera.

I thought this converter would make the job easier and faster. Yes it’s easy and relatively fast but the video quality is poor. I will not recommend this converter to anyone who asks. Go though the effort of using a camcorder to record your old films on scree and projector.

The machine itself is well made but doesn’t make up for the low quality videos.

this worked right out of the box the way it should, but in order to help others here are some tips, some metal reels cause problems mounting them, it requires more pressure to mount them on the hub, splices on some of the older film 60 years old become stiff and will stop the take up reel by getting caught in the film path and if your not there to catch it you will have a lot of film in the floor, to get around this i did not use all the film path and went under the last guide to the take up reel.

never had a problem on film without splices. this is a good machine and i am happy its performance.

So far I have digitized 75 super 8 mm 3 inch reels. The Magnasonic has worked excellent. Easy to operate. I recommend this product.

I bought the scanner about a week ago. It arrived in two days. I installed the scanner software and the SilverFast 8 software. When I inserted the slide holder into the side port the small swinging flap broke off and fell inside the scanner.

After much shaking I got the small part into a position where I could remove it. I then inserted the calibration slide onto the slide tray and inserted it. I started the SilverFast software and clicked on the calibration icon.

It scanned the slide and a window popped-up showing a registration error. I tried multiple times but could not get past that error. SO, I was unable to calibrate. I decided to test the device on a slide photo.

I inserted a slide, touched the intelliscan button and it stuck so that the bottom was in and the top was out. There was no way to get it unstuck. I called B&H customer service and, as always, they were wonderful.

Within minutes I was able to print a shipping label and a return authorization document. I asked for a replacement and hope the next one will be a working system. The SilverFast 8 software is very poorly designed and lacks an option to save the photos.

That was very disappointing in an era when most software is very user friendly. Another issue is that, in the literature, the SilverFast software is supposed to load a driver into Photoshop. I have an Adobe subscription that is always updated and there was no usable driver or plugin that I could find.

Smooth as silk. The plustek 8200i is hardy and well made. Ease of use from my first scan. The maximum scan resolution @ 7200i gives 66 mega pixel files. Lasersoft software silverfast studio 9 is pretty intuitive with simple controls.

The overall scan quality is far superior to the my current flatbeds and also to two Nikon coolscans which have since been retired. Several tone curves built into silverfast render authentic tonal properties (negafix).

I was stunned by plus x pan and tri x negative to positive conversions. The scanner self calibrates in about two minutes with the provided IT 8 target. Other functions in the easy to find GUI are iSRD ( Equivalent of Digital ICE infra red automatic cleaning of dust and scratches) , AACO (adaptive contrast optimization), Saving files to PSD or RAW in addition to standard Jpegs Or TIFF (16 bit), Unsharp mask, Level and Curve adjustments, Auto exposure.

On the whole, A very satisfying experience.

The scanner itself is very good. But the Nikon software is buggy and the scans are nowhere near as fast as advertised. How well the software will work and scan speed will probably depend greatly on the specifics of your computer configuration.

It did not work reliably or fast on my Mac G4 running OS 10. 3. 9 with USB 1. 1 connections. Probably would run much better with USB 2 connections. I was able to solve the software problem only by buying Vuescan software.

Works great with Vuescan although still slow. With Vuescan my old Polaroid Sprintscan 4000 is actually faster than the dual sensor Nikon, although that may not be a fair comparison since the Nikon is running digital ICE which the Polaroid does not have.

If I were doing it again I would not spend the extra bucks for the “Super” version, and be prepared to buy different software.

Pros: Good Bit Depth, Fast, Accurate Thumbnails, Good Resolution, Consistent Cons: Occasional Jamming Other thoughts: I’m converting my large collection of 35 mm color slides to digitial images on CDs to pass on to my children.

This will reduce possibiity of loss from fading or other natural events and allow each child to have the complete collection for their own benefit. The ease of use of this Nikon Coolscan scanner greatly speeds this task and, with built-in adjustments, simplifies any corrections needed.

The only problem in my judjment is that the device has been disontinued.

The scanner itself does a very good job, can provide very high resolution scans, and is the reason for the high rating. There are two areas of concern. One is the automatic slide feeder. It jams very, very easily.

This leads to problems with the software. With a problem, there are lots of resets on the software since it doesn’t automatically pick up where it left off. Summary, good scans, bad feeder, poor user interface.

I had over 800 slides, in slide trays, that were taking lots of storage space. I have a limited amount of space so with this device I scanned ALL of my slides into my computer. Once they were inputted to the computer I picked out my favorites and used Photoshop to correct the color then performed a crop if it was necessary.

Then I loaded all the slides onto a 2GB, SD card and sent it to my kids. It is all theirs now. Pros and Cons: Pros. It works, there is no change in the sharpness of the photo. Many slide were over 40 years old and had started to change color.

Con. the device will not make a color correction. It will make an aperture correction, lighten the slide, but no color correction. The screen is not very large but once you get use to the size it becomes easier and faster as you progress with your scanning.

For what this cost and for what you get and how it performs I am very satisfied.

This works very well! We had many 50-60 year old family 35mm Kodachrome slides that we wanted converted to digital and then print. I really have no technical ability but easily figured out how it works.

Easily scanned the slides to the disc included, then uploaded the images to my laptop. All connectors and the battery were included – I didn’t have to purchase any additional items. No problems at all and the digital images came out great.

The scanner does do a bit of correcting over or under exposed slides and that helped. I actually was going to pay a service to convert the slides to digital but it would have been well over $200 and take 4-6 weeks! So I found this online and figured I would try it to save time and money.

I completed the scans and loaded them onto the laptop in one evening.

I was in the Navy 6 years a long time ago (1967-1973). I am a Vietnam Veteran. Traveled all over the world and shot a lot of slides. I have over 1,200 slides that have moved from closet to closet many times I moved without looking at the slides.

I want to give copies to my kids and grand kids. Solution. convert the slides to digitize pictures so it makes it easer to view. The Sharper Image slide converter is easy to use and quality is great.

Plastic housing with metal base and it feels quite solid. Extremely compact and whisper quiet. Setup and installation on Win7 was brisk without any glitches. Scanning color and B&W negs delivers surprisingly good result.

Images are very sharp and Silverfast NegaFix does a great job adjusting color and contrast with almost professional result. But when you working with slides (E6), especially the high contrast intense color films like Velvia, it looks like neither scanner nor Silferfast have no idea how to have deal with them.

Many images came out very dull and muddy looking. Especially in dark shadow areas where very strange color spots and tons of artifacts appeared. And this version of Silverfast has no options to change the setting.

The bottom line: If your workflow includes mostly C41/B&W scanning – look no further, for this or even higher price you won’t find anything better. But if you like to work with slides – be ready that your beautiful colorful and crisp Velvia’s and Echtachromes will be converted to some sort of dull, muddy, sometime strange looking and dirty images.

So you’d better shop EBay for 15+ years old Nikon Coolscan.

The most important feature of this scanner is the Digital ICE implementation. The combination of the infrared LED scanning and dust removal really works. This saves much post-processing time. However, the scanner is NOT a speed demon! If you are looking for faster scans and more efficiency, a different model with the batch adaptor would be better.

The 4000dpi scans are very impressive (I have not tried lower resolutions yet) but of course large (up to 60mb)(TIF). The scanner is solidly built. I am using it with VueScan. Color accuracy is reasonable, but of course depends on film type and condition.

Many of my slides are old and faded. I had high expectations due to the reputation of these scanners, and they have been exceeded! Loses one star for slow speed. Highly recommended.

I was really grateful to purchase this product as a replacement for my Nikon LS40. Together with Vue Scan software these scanners are so easy to use. I am halfway through a project of scanning slides for friends in order to raise funds for my church re-building fund.

I have only retested one slide for colour so far and it is great. If anyone reads this can they advise as to where I can get my LS40 refurbished/colour corrected, via eBay sources, my this model has developed a nasty blue bias and scans are not acceptable!.

I would love to have a back up machine in good working order.

Nikon CoolScan V becomes a new scanner with SilverFast 8. Dynamic range reaches up to try 4. 0 with Multi-Exposure. The focus dialog in SIlverFast uniquely allows precise focussing. It is even possible to defous so precisely that you can get rid of film grain and keep all the image details.

SilverFast iSRD gives you full control over dust and scratches and you can even save the infrared channel along with HDR (48bit) data and do the dust and scratch removal later on in SilverFast HDR application.

Based on reviews, there is currently NO consumer level 120 scanner that works reliably. Hence the sky-high prices on Coolscan 9000s, which has USB interface, 16 bit color, and a more diffuse lighting system that doesn’t emphasise film grain.

Coolscan 8000 prices are creeping up because 9000 prices are insane. In return you get 14 bit color, a light source that’s like that in every other consumer-grade film scanner, and Firewire interface.

But you get close to an honest 4000dpi resolution, and nothing will get you that for cheaper, unless you find an old unloved Creo/Scitex or Heidelberg or Screen someone wants to get rid of. And then you’ll be dealing computers and OS’s from the 90s.

Have a plan for Firewire. I was never able to get it running on a stable configuration on my Windows 10 PC, but others claim they have, using the “legacy” Firewire driver. I wound up buying an older Mac Mini with OSX Snow Leopard just to run the scanner for a hundred bucks and.

it works fine. Note that Firewire to USB adapters WILL NOT WORK. You can match the cable pin-outs, the interface logic is completely different. It may not be the absolute best 120 scanner, but it’s very very good and by far the most (semi-practical) affordable one.

EXXXELENT scanner. Much bigger than I’ve expected. I run it on Windows 7 (THANKS TO SOMEONE ON THE WEB) with Nikon original scan software altough it is not supported by Nikon anymore. From my 6x9cm scan I get a 300mb file HAHAHAHAHA.

Film holders could be built better, specially for the medium format. And yes, there’s no holder for 35mm square format (24x24mm). I did i myself and put it into medium format film holder. I regulary shot with film (voigtlander 6x9cm, lomo lubitel 6x6cm, and Lomo LC-a 35mm).

You loose some time to adjust the scan accordingly. Especially for x-pro is difficult to obtain the colors of the lab. It cost money, I’d like to buy Nikon 4000 ED, but it’s only 35mm. Any flatbed scanner is out of this quality class.

I was disapointed with delivery. The priority mail just sucks. 120 euros for delivery and it came damaged. Front panel was detached from the body and there is a huge bump on the rear. Thanks god it works.

It took me awhile to actually use this scanner. It keeps wanting to scan medium format film instead of 35mm film. it has taken me a whole day to figure out how to get it to scan my 35mm film. I am using a Gigabyte X399 Designaire EX computer with 32gb of ram running Windows 10 Pro.

My previous scanner is a Minolta Scan Dual III.

Creates beautiful scans at 4800 dpi. Teams seamlessly with VueScan and my Mac running High Sierra to correct color and exposure values from some old slides in bad condition. I have scanned 35mm slides and strips of color negatives.

It has also driven my SF200 stack loader, with some intervention every few slides. Overall, I am very happy with the scanner. I produces better output than anything else i have seen at twice the price.

This is an amazing scanner. I am running it on Mac OS 10. 12 Sierra using 64-bit VueScan. All of the features work including the Digital ICE. It has taken old faded slides and slides with scratches and delivered incredible colour accurate scans completely fixed with almost no adjustments necessary or post-processing.

If you’ve got a computer with a Firewire 400 port and need to scan film or slides, this is a great investment.

This is the second machine I have purchased through e-bay. The reason for the purchase is, I do professional slide, photo, negative and positive restoration and repair. At the present I am doing preservation for 1st Air Cav Pilots tours of the Nam, from 1966 through 1972, from Pleiku, to Northern I Corp Camp Eagle just south of Hue, Gunner’s Gulch, Danang and on.

The first Nikon was purchased about 10 years ago, and I had to get it repaired after about a year, but still far less expensive than the 5000 or a new one. The first machine was for the restoration of my Mother’s professional work, Hydroplane race reporting and slides of her National work in the late 50’s through the early 70’s.

The average scan capability with ICE at fair and ROC and GEM on moderate, is about 17 slides per hour. That is the highest repair I let the machine do. Any higher and you loose personal touch. I then repair and restore via a very simple photo program.

All the above work requires the most professional equipment you can get for a resonable price. To me that is the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ed. After learning to operate this machine, it is fairly automatic for a person to do this.

One needs to understand that the cost for a one time use for most is probably not worth it. Far better to have professionals do the work for you. One that does each slide one at a time, not with a batch scanner and machine fixing.

As far as the Nikon goes, I would not have purchased another if the machine was not Top of the Line, in my opinion. Thank You for Your Time, and I hope this helps. Popcorn590.

A magnificent scanner; the resolution in the scanned files is splendid and the fact that the slide frames hold your film perfectly flat makes so much difference. Put this up against a regular flat bed scanner and it’s chalk and cheese.

The fact that it came without the original box was no problem; the important things were there, namely the three film holders, the UK power lead and the firewire 400 to 800 interconnect cable. The instruction booklet is included (all the different language ones in fact) and the original scanning software, though the latter is now obsolete.

I use Silverfast but other people use VueScan as well. The firewire 400 pci board is included but not really necessary these days. The internals were clean and dust free, though it was clear that the unit had been in an exposed position for a considerable time; a quick clean soon rectified that.

This is a fantastic scanner and if you are going to the trouble of shooting on medium format/120 film then this is the scanner which can exploit the full potential of your film negatives or E6 strips.

I am very pleased with this purchase.

Our company was looking for a scanner that would do a great job and allow us a productive workflow. This scanner does a very good job but not an “end all be all” job, at producing a decent scan but the workflow is tiring.

We took one of these on loan for about a month from a client with the option to purchase but returned it when we realized how slow and tedious the operation of the unit was. Albeit we were comparing the work flow of this unit to a less capable in quality, Epson V750 but the V750 was so much faster in set up and how you handle the film than the 9000 ED, it was impossible to ignore the implications for workflow on large scanning jobs.

In the end we purchased a more capable in all regards, Creo iQsmart 3 for about the price of two of the Nikon 9000 EDs but we can get through piles more work much more easily and faster than we ever would even begin to approach with 2 or even 3 Nikon 9000 EDs.

Film Rescue International.

Before sending my Nikon 9000 to eclecticmusic101, the scans I was getting from it weren’t terrible, but I was definitely having issues with reduced contrast and that brownish blooming that happens around frame edges and other high-contrast areas on color negatives.

Before buying this service, my scanner wasn’t ejecting the film trays properly. I had sent it to Nikon TWICE and there never fixed the problem completely. Nikon never cleaned the scanner’s optics, even though I asked them to do so.

On top of all that, Nikon will charge more than twice as much for their subpar service. Ever since I got my scanner back from eclecticmusic101, it scans like I just bought it–great color and contrast, no weird noises, no more stuck trays, just scanning bliss.

eclecticmusic101 will keep your Nikon scanner running in top for years to come :).

discontinued slide scanner, good for light duty use, recommend use of 3rd party software as original software may not be compatible with current operating system software. overuse may cause overheating of internal components chip sets leading to circuitry faIlure.

a good cleaning of slides or film strip to be scanned is recommended before scanning to reduce post scanning cleaning with photoshop type software. Note: slide trays are integral part of scanner usage.

if you don’t have trays to hold mounted slides or film strips, the scanner cannot be used. recommend also to unplug scanner from electrical outlet when not in use. note: scan dual IV model is faster than scan dual III model both utilize the same trays.

The Minolta Dimage Scan Dual IV slide scanner is quite a bargain. The software is easy to use and still allows a wide array of adjustments if desired. Color is terrific and 3200 dpi resolution is more than adequate.

A full resolution scan takes about 20 seconds. There are two film carriers for 35mm film, one which holds up to four mounted slides, and the other which holds a strip of film. These carriers are rare, so make sure they are included.

Dual refers to the APS mode which requires a special film roll unit. The USB connection will fit most modern computers. Although the software has not had recent updates, it will work with Windows 7 64 bit.

Hints for configuration are on several websites. Software and manuals are available on Minolta’s website. The scanner is mostly plastic and may lack the hefty feel of other brands, but it is sturdy enough to work all day.

I have both the Minolta Scan Dual IV and a Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED. The Minolta work flow is faster and it produces good slide and film scans with the latest version of the Minolta software. If you buy and use Silverfast 6.

6 SE, it is capable of nearly matching the Nikon (probably even better with Kodachrome). Batch scanning with the holders works well, and is easier than the Nikon. Also, the Minolta does APS. It works great with the AD-10 adapter (if you can find one).

Even does 110 and 126 well enough with the film holder. I scanned 3800 Kodachrome slides, 300 E-6 colour slides, and 1500 colour negatives with the Minolta (all at 3200 dpi). This scanners’ only weakness is the Minolta and Silverfast software don’t do a good job with damaged, dirty of faded colour positive and negative film.

I use the Nikon with ICE and ROC for that work. Overall I like the Minolta so much that I bought a second one to start scanning 6000 colour negatives. Make sure you clean the internal mirror first if you get one!.

Very easy to use, BUT, the images are not high resolution and certainly don’t look like they are 14 MP resolution, it’s look more like 3-4 mega pixel resolution maximum. Also, the colors are not good (the DEL light inside the machine isn’t good to begin with and you can take 2-3 takes from the same slide and you will never get the same colors each time) and it’s a very long process to edit each pictures in photoshop.

I use it only for my old slides and if your slides are made on Kodak Kodachrome it will not work at all, I wasn’t able to scan those slides (they are different, if you look closely on of these slide, they are textured, it’s like they have some amount of ink on them).

I was able to scan all the normal Kodak slides (if you look at those slides, they are not textured and they look like pictures only). The program on the CD is not good, it’s a pain in the ass to use it and photoshop is much better especially to remove the black spots and dust on the images.

Don’t except professionnal results, I did try to scan some old 35mm negatives and the results was awful. Almost impossible to edit each pictures in photoshop. The colors aren’t accurate and the images look weird.

Not to bad a machine. Resolution is good for the price. I have only used the slide magazine (not the strip negative carrier) and while plastic slide mounts load and feed well, cardboard slide mounts jamb occasionally in the hopper and don’t feed well.

I don’t normally write reviews but I have just had such a bad time freeing multiple jambs that I had to vent and I have omitted the expletives. To be fair, patience is not my long suit. No slides mounts have been damaged which is amazing considering the jambs I have had.

Tip. You have to exit from the light adjustment mode before the machine will do the copy. This wasn’t immediately obvious (to me anyway) but once learned, it was OK. All in all, a good machine for the price.

Delivery was on time as promised. Friends and family just love the photos from yesteryear that were lost in the cupboard stored on slides that all can now see on a laptop or tablet.