The Best Slide Scanner of 2023

10 Best Slide Scanner

What is a slide scanner?

A slide scanner is a special scanner in compact design with which framed slides and, if necessary, negative films can be digitized. Depending on the manufacturer, there are also models that can scan paper prints via an automatic feeder. This way, you can save and save old photos for eternity.

Most slide scanners for the home or semi-professional sector are designed for the traditional 35mm format. Ambitious photographers will also find models for the medium format sector. Optically, some models are reminiscent of a slide projector, with the difference that the device lacks a lens for projection. Some slide scanners have a small color LCD screen instead, which provides a preview of the scan result.

Depending on the design of a slide scanner, they can scan several slides one by one or via an adapter in so-called batch mode. The digital scan results can then be saved in various output formats such as JPG, TIFF or RAW.

Slide scanners have their own mains power connection and can also be used in standalone operation. A USB and / or Firewire connection is usually available for connection to a PC or notebook.

Together with the scanner manufacturers, some software companies have developed intelligent scanning software that produces impressive image results. As a rule, the light version of such software is supplied free of charge with a slide scanner. If you want even more features, you have to use the paid full version.

How does a slide scanner work?

Slide scanners are also called film scanners and are so-called transmitted light scanners. They digitize a slide positive in a photographic way. Due to the small size of a framed slide, these scanners must have the highest possible resolution.This is the only way to ensure that the image can be post-processed on a PC in sufficient size and resolution.

Normally, slide scanners offer a resolution of 1,600 to 7,200 dpi. This is very high compared to a conventional flatbed scanner for document scanning. Only professional drum scanners offer even higher resolutions.

A resolution of 1,600 dpi or more is sufficient for scanning holiday photos. Slide scanners have a hardware error correction to eliminate possible image errors. These can usually occur as a result of dust, hairs or dirt particles. But also fingerprints on the glass panes of framed slides are minimized. In a slide scanner test, test persons also attached great importance to the technical data These include for example

• the resolution density in dpi,
• the color depth between 24 and 48 bits and
• certain bug fixes.

Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the scanning times can also take a little longer at high resolution. Finally, the testers have to take into account that there are still scanners that prefer the slower USB 1.0 port. USB-2.0 or Firewire is faster.

Depending on the construction method, slide scanners can process only single slides or several slides one after the other.

Afterwards and installation of a slide scanner

First of all, the supplied scanning software is installed on the PC or notebook.
This allows the scanned images to be managed and sometimes even post-processed. Scanners are also available on the market that can create image files directly on a connected USB memory stick. The files can then be transferred to a PC and edited with any image processing software.

In this case, test persons have installed the software and connected the scanner to the power supply. Now the connection to the computer via USB or Firewire cable was missing. After a short warm-up period the slide scanner was ready for use.
can only be used for beginners.

Advantages & applications of slide scanners

Maybe you have a complete slide collection of your parents or grandparents. Lots of precious memories lie dormant here that can hardly be seen without a slide projector and screen. Extensive collections in magazine boxes also take up quite a lot of space. Usually the slides survive longer than the slide projector. In order to preserve the great souvenir photos for posterity or at least not to withhold them from your own children, we recommend that you digitize the slides.

We will discuss other ways of digitizing your old slides later on. As already mentioned above, we can process not only slides with a slide scanner, but also conventional negative films. As a rule, the roll films used to be cut into smaller strips of five to six images by the development studio. It does not matter whether it is a 35mm film in the size 24 mm × 36 mm or an APS film.

These small film strips can be read in by means of appropriate holders similar to a slide framing from a slide scanner. Software-wise, these negative strips become black and white or color images again. Afterwards, we can save these recordings in a desired output format and thus digitize them.

Some slide scanners also have an integrated feed scanner for paper photos. They work similar to a flatbed scanner and digitize conventional photographs. However, this feature is only to be found with very few slide scanners.

If you want to digitize large slide collections comfortably and with the best possible quality, you can’t do without a good slide scanner. In this respect, we would also like to draw attention to our comparative winners.

What types of slide scanners are there?

The market offers a wide variety of scanning solutions for digitizing slides and film negatives. In the following we would like to introduce the different types of construction a little closer.

The portable slide scanners

Portable slide scanners usually include handy table-top devices, which are available at a reasonable price and enjoy great popularity with home users. Depending on the model, slides, negatives and photos can be digitized.
For space reasons, mobile slide scanners do not have a complex transparency unit, but rather digitize using a CMOS sensor. For this reason, strictly speaking, it is not possible to speak of a scanner. These compact models are more like a simple digital camera.

Nevertheless, many of these compact scanners offer interesting features such as a color LCD display as a preview, an AV and HDMI connection, a USB port and a memory card slot for SD, SDHC and MMC. With the aid of an integrated memory of around 24 MB or more, the slides and negative strips can be scanned and buffered even without a connected PC.

The scope of delivery usually includes a small slide that can accommodate framed slides and negative strips. These are then pushed in front of the image sensor. With more expensive models this happens automatically.

For scanning, these compact models use an image sensor with a resolution of between 5 and 10 MP. Many slide scanners use several white LEDs for transmitted light. A scan quality of approximately 2,400 dpi is achieved. The scanning method itself is referred to as a single pass, so that scanning is performed in one pass. This enables faster scanning times to be achieved. For example, four images can be scanned in about 20 seconds.

advantages:

• compact dimensions,
• easy to operate,
• Very fast single-pass scanning process thanks to CMOS sensor
• storage on memory card possible and
• partly equipped with preview display

The disadvantages:

• scanning quality
• Combination equipment for scanning slides, negatives and paper photos is rarely found.
• Preview display very small

Medium class slide scanners

Significantly higher quality results can be achieved with the mid-range slide scanners. They offer a resolution of up to 7,200 dpi and are in the price range around 300 Dollars. These devices are usually recognisable by an elongated, rectangular housing. Most models must be connected to a PC or notebook for operation.

The equipment includes a slide for the recording of negatives or framed slides. Surprisingly, only very few of them have an automatic feed to the next scan image. High resolution scanning delivers very large, uncompressed image files of approximately 210 MB in size. For such a quality, the scanning process also takes much longer. Here, scanning times of about 5 to 8 minutes per image have to be planned.

Many models have an integrated infrared channel that detects scratches and dust on the surfaces of the image carriers. These are then removed directly without additional image post-processing. Professional scanning and image processing software is also included.

Many manufacturers rely here on the program Silverfast in the current version. It offers the Multi-Exposure function, which supports the scanner in capturing the largest possible dynamic range. The document is scanned several times in succession. As a result, there is hardly any image noise and better colour brilliance. This procedure is also the reason why the scanning time is so high.

Advantages:

• good scanning quality
• easy to use
• professional scanning and image processing software as well as
• different scan resolutions

Disadvantages:

• must usually be connected to a PC,
• large image files
• long scanning times and
• Models for scanning paper photos are rare

The professional slide scanner

The professional devices among the slide scanners are very similar to the former slide projectors. These models are able to scan directly from a magazine. The process is completely automatic. The resolution is between 3,600 and 5,000 dpi, which is surprisingly lower than with the above-mentioned middle class models.

For scanning, these devices rely on a powerful CMOS sensor and a power-saving LED unit as transmitted light. First of all, we can state that with these slide scanners only slides can be scanned from magazines. The standard magazine formats of Paximat, CS, LKM and Universal are supported. Even round magazines with 100 slides can be processed without any problems.

These slide scanners must be connected to a PC. Forward and backward operation for individual scanning as well as a display preview are located directly on the device. Advantageous is that most models offer a dust and dirt correction and also a color correction. The scope of delivery usually includes high-quality scan and image processing programs. For a high-resolution scan, these models take between 6 and 8 minutes.

Advantages:

• good scanning quality
• Paximat, CS, LKM and universal magazines, also round magazines
• automatic scanning possible
• very good scanning and image processing software and
• Picture preview

The disadvantages:

• quite expensive
• must be operated via a PC
• long scanning times and
• only slides can be scanned

Slide Scanner Bestselling, Newest and Best Offers