Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just received this unit today. Ran some old (‘74, ‘76, ‘89) Kodachrome 35mm slides through just to see how well it works. After reading the reviews here, I expected the worst, but was pleasantly surprised at the results. I am a photographer by hobby, and like my pictures to be perfect. As others have mentioned, this unit is really a camera, inside a cleverly made box. What’s good, is it takes about 3 seconds to take a picture and store it, either in it’s own internal memory, or on an additional SD/SDHC memory card inserted in a slot on the back (additional memory card is not included). You can use this small unit stand-alone. It comes with a USB cable which draws power from either your computer, or a small plug-in power block. My main goal is to scan tens of thousands of slides to share with family members. For that, I think it will work well. Details: - Focus is OK for viewing on a computer screen. Just don’t plan to zoom in or crop. If you want to do that, get a high end scanner and take the time (3-6 minutes or longer per slide). - 35mm slides work OK, but super 8 film is so small it results in grainy pictures. - Using the default setting, contrast is a bit too high, and some fine details get blown out. - Colors are not quite true, but they are not too far off either (perhaps different units are different). - It’s difficult to use the adjustments, because you cannot see in real time what the adjustments do. You need to set it, then flip back to the preview. I tried a half stop of increased green, but it was too much. You’ll need to adjust colors in Photoshop or a similar program if you want them more correct. But the default setting is probably good enough for family members flipping through old slides. - The built-in preview screen (2.4 inch) is very low resolution and pixelated, so not a lot of help other than making sure you get the slide in the right spot. - The camera crops 11% off the ends (608 pixels) and a slight bit top and bottom. I suppose this is so the frame doesn’t need to be cropped off later, but I don’t like my pictures cropped. - Every picture gets time stamped with the same date (Jun 1, 2013). The hour is incremented one minute each photo. Photo naming is 2013-06-01 01.0x.00.jpg where x is the next picture. So dates need to be reset manually later, which is OK, since the slide was taken long ago anyway. - Each 35 mm slide comes out at 5472x3648 pixels, resolution 4064 ppi, 2.6-2.7 MB in file size, and JPEG. - You shove the slides through one at a time. You need to be careful that the slides don’t jam or ride over each other. Recommended: use compressed air to blow dust and hair off slides before scanning. It’ll make the scans look better, keep flecks of dirt on slides to a minimum, plus you’ll keep dirt out of the scanner box. Will this device archive your precious slide collection? That depends on how picky you are, but I’d say no. Slides have a color depth that’s hard to beat. If you want perfect pictures, you need to carefully clean each slide first, and use a top end scanner, or a professional service. Keep your original slides. Will this device allow you to scan thousands of slides quickly? YES! And it’s good enough quality to share your pictures with friends and family without feeling ashamed. Will it give you professional quality? No. This unit is what I would call a handy way to scan a lot of slides quickly at good enough quality to share with others. For the price of this unit, I am very pleased with the results. I gave it five stars because I feel you get a good result for your money. If you want professional quality, go pro, spend the big bucks and the time. I look forward to scanning many slides to share with family and friends.