Best Slide Scanners 2012

Most photo scanners are equipped to scan slides and 35mm film, so why buy a slide converter?

Well, the answer is primarily speed and simplicity.

A traditional scanner will be hooked up to your computer and scan to the associated software. Each scan will take a few seconds to complete. If you have a big box of old slides from family vacations to get through, scanning them all will seem like a monumental task.

Slide and film converters were created for push-button scanning without a computer. The slides are quickly converted to a digital image which is then stored on an SD card for later retrieval. This makes the process of archiving a huge pile of slides much quicker. But it is important to point out that these aren't scans, these are photos of your slides so the image quality will not be as good as if you used a real slide scanner.

A 35mm film converter is also much smaller than a traditional scanner. If your only need for a scanner is for scanning slides, you may not be happy with the amount of space that will be taken up by a flatbed photo scanner on your desk. Since most slide converter scan to an SD card, they do not need to be tethered to your computer and can be used and stored anywhere.

If you need quality scans of your 35mm film or slides or also want to scan photo prints, then you need to take a look at the best slide scanners available currently. But if you simply want to convert a bunch of slides or negatives to digital images for preserving, investing in a film converter will be quicker and easier.