Thanks for the info Ian:

I have checked the web also for reviews on the Epson 2400 and except for a very few, it got glowing reviews!

I am going to pop out to Best Buy after work tonight and pick one up and give it a try. They have a 14 day return policy, even if it has been installed and used.

Best Buy is where I bought the HP scanner for $99.00 (CDN) and the Epson is $199.00 (CDN). But if it works, then it will be well worth the extra money. Also, the HP would only scan 1 slide at a time and it looks like the 2400 will scann 4! Bonus, as it will cut down my work considerably. And the Epson comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. The extras seem to keep coming and coming...

Just as an aside, I read a review on the Canon Ide 80 (I think that was the model). It supposedly did a fine job on scanning slides and negatives. The problem with slides was you had to remove them from their frames!!!

Anyway, I will let you know how things work out later.

Thanks again...
Al

Flatbed scanners like the Epson Perfection 2400 are like Swiss Army knives, basically the jack of all trades. However, when scanning 35mm slides, the "Pros" would use a dedicated film scanner. Unlike flatbeds, there is actually a lens in a film scanner so you can focus on film and get much sharper results. BUT ... film scanners are more expensive than most flatbeds and can only scan sildes and negatives. So you have to ask yourself, how much scanning are you going to do? If you have lots (hundreds? thousands?) of sildes and negatives to scan, I would get a good film scanner. However, if you just need to scan a few slides and aren't concerned with tip top quality, a flatbed is a much smarter purchase.

Here is a selection of film scanners (sorry, prices in USD):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=search&Q=&ci=1151

Thanks discdude...

You are right about dedicated slide scanners being much more expensive and from what I have read, they really do a much, much better job. I also read that you would not want to go any lower than 2400 dpi horizontal resolution. Some of the scanners in the link you gave go up to 5400 dpi (sweet).

However, most of what I scan is photographs and this is the first request I have had for slides (around 4-500). I didn't realize that it would be this much of an issue to scan slides.

Oh well, live and learn... ;-)

Al

I agree with discdude, but I'd just make the point that if you're going to view your pictures on a pc, or make snapshot size prints, you probably won't see much difference.

Ian G.

From the sounds of it, a film scanner is probably overkill. Go with the Epson, their scanners are usually nice. The Epson Perfection 1650 I use at work is much better the (admittedly old) HP scanner we used to use.

I have been using an Epson 1660 photo scanner for about 1-1/2 yrs... no complaints.