SCANNERS AGAIN
Posted 13/11/2011 - 22:15 - Helpful Comment
Link
I hope this makes your mind up
1. I bought one of these from Maplin and was very disappointed with the results and even more so with the complete lack of support from the manufacturers and software suppliers. The software does not operate as implied by the poor manual and the quality of the scans from slides is very low, almost all being over exposed to the extent that they cannot be corrected by photo editing software. Negatives are not too bad although low in contrast.
2. This is a basic scanner, which with a little bit of work will produce decent but not professional results.
The instructions are sketchy, and for the software installation I found them misleading and ended up calling their helpline - standard rate and very helpful.
The scanning process involves inserting the negatives or slides into carriers; pushing the carrier manually through the scanner, when sometimes some quite fine ajustment is needed to line up the shot; taking a snapshot of the picture, then transferring the picture to the PC, which process includes "development" for negatives.
The Arcsoft software is not particularly user friendly, not providing any indication of the progress of transfers, and freezing if you try to use the viewer mode before exiting from the capture and transfer mode.
The instructions give little help in choosing the quality options. I found that choosing normal quality resulted in 1mb files, High, 2mb and Highest 10mb, approximately, High seeming to offer a good compromise. I find that a 36 shot film takes about 30 minutes overall to convert.
Overall basic, fiddly and flawed (and cheap), but you can get decent results with some experimentation and patience.
These are Reviews from just 2 out of 15 and 10 say its crap
1. I bought one of these from Maplin and was very disappointed with the results and even more so with the complete lack of support from the manufacturers and software suppliers. The software does not operate as implied by the poor manual and the quality of the scans from slides is very low, almost all being over exposed to the extent that they cannot be corrected by photo editing software. Negatives are not too bad although low in contrast.
2. This is a basic scanner, which with a little bit of work will produce decent but not professional results.
The instructions are sketchy, and for the software installation I found them misleading and ended up calling their helpline - standard rate and very helpful.
The scanning process involves inserting the negatives or slides into carriers; pushing the carrier manually through the scanner, when sometimes some quite fine ajustment is needed to line up the shot; taking a snapshot of the picture, then transferring the picture to the PC, which process includes "development" for negatives.
The Arcsoft software is not particularly user friendly, not providing any indication of the progress of transfers, and freezing if you try to use the viewer mode before exiting from the capture and transfer mode.
The instructions give little help in choosing the quality options. I found that choosing normal quality resulted in 1mb files, High, 2mb and Highest 10mb, approximately, High seeming to offer a good compromise. I find that a 36 shot film takes about 30 minutes overall to convert.
Overall basic, fiddly and flawed (and cheap), but you can get decent results with some experimentation and patience.
These are Reviews from just 2 out of 15 and 10 say its crap
PPG link
Posted 13/11/2011 - 22:33
Link
puma wrote:
I hope this makes your mind up
1. I bought one of these from Maplin and was very disappointed with the results and even more so with the complete lack of support from the manufacturers and software suppliers. The software does not operate as implied by the poor manual and the quality of the scans from slides is very low, almost all being over exposed to the extent that they cannot be corrected by photo editing software. Negatives are not too bad although low in contrast.
2. This is a basic scanner, which with a little bit of work will produce decent but not professional results.
The instructions are sketchy, and for the software installation I found them misleading and ended up calling their helpline - standard rate and very helpful.
The scanning process involves inserting the negatives or slides into carriers; pushing the carrier manually through the scanner, when sometimes some quite fine ajustment is needed to line up the shot; taking a snapshot of the picture, then transferring the picture to the PC, which process includes "development" for negatives.
The Arcsoft software is not particularly user friendly, not providing any indication of the progress of transfers, and freezing if you try to use the viewer mode before exiting from the capture and transfer mode.
The instructions give little help in choosing the quality options. I found that choosing normal quality resulted in 1mb files, High, 2mb and Highest 10mb, approximately, High seeming to offer a good compromise. I find that a 36 shot film takes about 30 minutes overall to convert.
Overall basic, fiddly and flawed (and cheap), but you can get decent results with some experimentation and patience.
These are Reviews from just 2 out of 15 and 10 say its crap
Cheers PumaI hope this makes your mind up
1. I bought one of these from Maplin and was very disappointed with the results and even more so with the complete lack of support from the manufacturers and software suppliers. The software does not operate as implied by the poor manual and the quality of the scans from slides is very low, almost all being over exposed to the extent that they cannot be corrected by photo editing software. Negatives are not too bad although low in contrast.
2. This is a basic scanner, which with a little bit of work will produce decent but not professional results.
The instructions are sketchy, and for the software installation I found them misleading and ended up calling their helpline - standard rate and very helpful.
The scanning process involves inserting the negatives or slides into carriers; pushing the carrier manually through the scanner, when sometimes some quite fine ajustment is needed to line up the shot; taking a snapshot of the picture, then transferring the picture to the PC, which process includes "development" for negatives.
The Arcsoft software is not particularly user friendly, not providing any indication of the progress of transfers, and freezing if you try to use the viewer mode before exiting from the capture and transfer mode.
The instructions give little help in choosing the quality options. I found that choosing normal quality resulted in 1mb files, High, 2mb and Highest 10mb, approximately, High seeming to offer a good compromise. I find that a 36 shot film takes about 30 minutes overall to convert.
Overall basic, fiddly and flawed (and cheap), but you can get decent results with some experimentation and patience.
These are Reviews from just 2 out of 15 and 10 say its crap
Mind made up.
THANKS DAVE
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258 posts
14 years
WIRRAL
This could get boring, but as any body tried the ION MULTIFORMAT scanner.
CHEERS
DAVE