Scanning slides to pc

[ny biker]

So, my parents took many slide photos when we were kids. Now my mother would like a scanner that can scan them into her pc so they can be printed and/or stored on DVD.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this, or any recommendations. I'm looking for something that yields good-quality scans and hopefully is not too tedious to use. My price range is under $200.

There are not lots of reviews on the interwebs for these kinds of scanners, compared to other electronics. So far it looks like the Canoscan 8800F is the best choice. I've also found the Canoscan 9000F, the Epson V600 and a couple from companies called Wolverine and Ion.

I'd love to hear any advice! Thanks very much.

[ultraviolet]

I had the Epson Perfection 4490. It gives good quality scans for both slides and negatives, and can be picked up for less that $150 in a lot of places these days. I actually just packaged mine back up to pass on to a friend in need of a scanner.

The actual scanning is easy enough--push a button on the scanner, approve the settings in the software, and wait. It's the rest of the process that is tedious. This is really just a limitation of consumer level technology. You can only scan a few items at a time, and they must all be placed in the carrier by hand.

If she just wants all of her slides in digital format, but doesn't necessarily need or want a scanner for anything else, it might be a better investment to look at scanning services. There are various places online that do it through a mail-in service, and a look in your phone book should turn up some local resources. (I know that chains like Ritz, Wolf, etc. will do bulk scanning for pretty reasonable prices.)

[NbyNW]

I have the CanoScan 8800F and I'm very happy with it.

I wanted the slide scanning capability but oddly enough haven't really gotten around to playing with it. Maybe I'll give it a shot this weekend if I have some time to kill. Since you asked, and I'm curious.

I'm quite happy with this scanner. I was previously using an HP all-in-one that was only so-so. The scan quality is excellent and I can really fine-tune it if I want. The interface software isn't bad, but I often just scan directly from photoshop. There are some one-touch keys that I wasn't necessarily looking for but have come to really appreciate. For example, there's a "copy" key which will send a copy directly to my printer, so I don't need to fool around with a file on my computer if I am just copying a document and don't care about photo quality.