I am looking to archive large quantities of slides and negatives from both my family members and my wife's family. While we're at it, we're going to freelance archive photos for other people in our area.
I have an Epson FF-680W for scanning the prints, I just need a scanner for slides and negatives. Doing a lot of research, I've come to the conclusion I have 3 main options:
- A several thousand dollar scanner that specializes in slides or film and stack loads.
- a few hundred dollar scanner like the PlusTek scanners that specializes in slides and film but is very, very manual.
- A roughly $1,000 flatbed scanner like the Epson V850 that happens to have slide and film plates, which is faster than a cheaper manual scanner, but probably lower quality results.
There may very well be something I'm missing. I'm not looking to charge an arm and a leg for these scans - I'd like a very competitive and appealing price per slide. So I'm leaning towards the V850 until I can afford the several thousand dollar scanners down the line. Is this a bad move? I've had people tell me "We archived all our slides with that scanner," and "I'm archiving important academic photos with that scanner." But I've also had people tell me, "Definitely not worth it, get something that specializes in film." So I'd like some input.