Slide Scanner Guide

A film slide scanner is a great tool if you’re still using a camera that takes film. Many people do this, so you shouldn’t feel like you’re getting “behind” in any way, shape, or form. Many photographers believe that using film rather than digital media is a more “pure” way of photography. We agree to an extent, considering that many things such as HDR processing, while cool looking, is hardly a real representation of the subject that you’re shooting. It does very little to represent the actual perspective seen by the human eye in most cases; it’s usually over-styled and a little gaudy in my opinion. But, I digress. We’re talking about film slide scanners here, afterall.

So, the question remains: Is a dedicated film slide scanner better than a generic flatbed scanner that also allows you to use film? I think that question deserves a little bit of discussion. What do you think of this matter? If you have some good thoughts about this feel free to jump in and comment below this post; we’re always interested in seeing what our readership has to say about the topics we discuss.

I’ll start: I do feel that most scanners that are highly specialized tend to be a little bit better than the kind that do just about everything. Scanners such as the highly-touted Nikon CoolScan V ED are absolutely dedicated; they do nothing but process film to turn them into digital images. Others, like many of the HP, Sony, etc. scanners tend to be able to do anything from document scanning to film scanning. If we had to make a decision here, when considering photography alone, we have to give our vote to the dedicated scanners. The CoolScan and others like it are absolutely some of the best investments you can make for increasing your photographic portfolio.

If you ask those who do have both, they’d most likely tell you exactly the same: Go for the kind that are specialized. Let’s use another example: Would you rather fly on an airliner with a pilot who flies just the 737 at that point in time, or one who’s going from different airplane to different airplane each day? Me personally, I go for the former. And so should you when it comes to buying a film slide scanner. Most would agree with me here: Go for what’s best, even if you have to spend a little bit more money in the process.