35mm color negatives are a serious problem for most scanners.

Scanners are made to handle transparencies (color positives). Scanning color negatives, whether 35mm or medium format, has proven to be a nightmare for many people.

EverSmart Supreme flatbed scanner for scanning 35mm color slides and 35mm negatives.

I must admit that in my photo archive of over 40,000 color images there are virtually no color negatives. Thus I have been spared the headache of scanning color negatives.

I would suggest that the first step is not to curse your scanner, but to curse your software. Try out Silver Fast from Laser Soft Imaging. Since I do not have many color negatives I have not tried Silver Fast on an actual color negative, but this is one of the best scanner software products available, silverfast.com.

Why can't you scan your slides on an Epson, HP, Microtek, Agfa, or Umax flatbed scanner?

Batch scanning 35mm color slides on EverSmart Supreme flatbed scanner.

Because you need at least 2500 dpi on a flatbed (or 2700 dpi in a dedicated scanner such as a Nikon). Your average flatbed can produce only 600 dpi, 1000 dpi, or 1200 dpi. Nowhere near enough. Also, unless you have SilverFast scanner software, the software with cheap scanners is not adequate to produce good scans.

Interpolated dpi is useless so be careful not to mis-read the aspects. I saw one misleading ad that claimed a cheap scanner scanned 99,000 dpi or something equally impossible.

With a Nikon or Polaroid slide scanner you have to handle each slide one by one.

What scanner can you use if you have to scan thousands of negatives or slides?

With a tabloid-sized flatbed scanner you can scan 40 slides at a time in frame holders, or 48 slides if you put the slides directly on the glass (as you see above). The scanner shown above is in the FLAAR office, a $54,000 Creo EverSmart Supreme, the best flatbed scanner available today (best also in its software capabilities).

If you need a Creo tabloid sized EverSmart flatbed scanner to handle an entire archive of slides, then let us know and we can provide you contact information. Keep in mind that a professional slide scanner costs between $10,000 and $54,000 (look at it this way, it is less than a drums scanner which cost between $75,000 and $120,000).

Creo scanner software has special color tables which automatically convert the various common kinds of color negative film into actual full-color positive color images (all that ugly layer or orange disappears. At the far left, the form that comes with the Creo scanner to handle negative strips, either color negs or black-and-white negatives. If you prefer to arrange your negatives in another manner the Creo scanner includes blank masks that you can cut yourself with an eXacto blade. If you cut your own mask you can batch scan 72 negs at a time (two entire rolls of 36 exposures). Don't worry if each negative has different colors or a distinct exposure. The software handles each individual negative one at a time for the pre-scan (where you can set all the parameters individually). Then for the actual final scan just press the GO button and go have a cup of coffee. When you come back all 72 slides will be scanned, at whatever dpi you select, even different dpi for different negatives.