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More than a year ago
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Reviews (1)
12 March 2013
This scanner does in seconds what used to take weeks in the studio darkroom
3 of 3 found this helpful Being of an age which means I have drawers full of mounted slides and folders full of old negs, I needed to get them all onto the computer as getting a projector and screen set up seemed hardly worth the time and effort.
I read up several reviews on slide and neg scanners, and didn't find many which impressed me a great deal.
I have bought Veho gear in the past, and found it to be very good, so I decided to buy the Smartfix 8.
What I did like straight away, is that the slide carrier takes mounted slides, both card and plastic, so no need to take the slides apart for scanning.
Operating the Smartfix 8 is simple and straightforward, and the results were impressive. The small preview screen is adequate, showing negs as positive photographs and direct connection to the destination computer means the slides and scanned negs were transferred, named and numbered in seconds.
The only minor problem I found with this gadget is that it occasionally needed to be switched off and back on again as it just locked up for no good reason.
I had some really old black and white negs in poor condition, but the scanner dealt with them and the resulting pics on the computer were finally enhanced to near original quality with photo editing software.
I also managed to get some old 2 inch square colour negs on to the glass, and was able to get usable images on to the computer, and stitched the scans together.
The 35 mm slide carrier only takes strips of six negs at a time, so old longer strips had to be cut to length to avoid damaging them.
Like most people, I expect, I transferred hundreds of negs and slides in one mad session, but then the hard work of sorting and enhancing them begins, and it seems endless. Better, I think, to do small batches at a time, and keep track of the pics as they are edited.
This little scanner is excellent, and does exactly what it says on the box. It is simple and easy to use, and the battery charges via the USB cable to the computer.
The software which comes with the scanner, ArcSoft MediaImpression is quite good, but I prefer the enhancement software I am used to. Having said that, I suppose if you have not used programmes like this before, and got used to the ArcSoft system, it does the job very well.
When you think about it, this little scanner does in seconds what used to take a week or two at the chemists or photographic studio, and what's more, it does it exceptionally well.