Practical help for choosing a 35mm slide scanner with lists of 35mm film scanners: Polaroid SprintScan 4000, Nikon CoolScan, Minolta, Microtek, Olympus, (35mm slide scanner) manufacturers, makes, models including scanners with Digital ICE.

For desktop publishing we do not recommend any 35mm slide scanner below 2700 dpi, thus models at lower dpi are not included in our list of 35mm film scanners when a manufacturer has other models at the standard 2700 dpi.

Picture at left: Nikon CoolScan of 35mm slide, mushroom photographed in Peten, Guatemala, Leica R3, Kodachrome film.

The Leaf 35mm slide scanner was discontinued many years ago. Avoid the Leaf Lumina scanner; you do not want the poorly designed and vastly overpriced Lumina at all, not even at a discounted price.

"Software enhanced" dpi is not what you want. If the true optical dpi is 1950, that is all the actual dpi that will show true detail. The rest is wishful thinking.

The Nikon LS-4500 scans 35mm slides at 3000 dpi. This is a 3-pass scanner, which has always evoked comment. It scans 4x5 transparencies only at 1000 dpi, so you would be better off with a Linotype-Hell Saphir Ultra 2 which scans several 4x5 transparencies at a time each at 1200 dpi (especially if you place them in the scanner's sweet spot, down the middle).

The Nikon LS-4500 is based on technology which is several years old, yet it still sells for $6,500. The Polaroid SprintScan 4000, at a reasonable $1995 is, despite its supposedly higher dpi, still not as good as the Nikon 2000 in the dark (shadow) portions of your image. For 4x5 size transparencies you get far superior price point with the Linotype-Hell Saphir Ultra2 (and LinoColor Elite is rated as a superior scanner color management software than what you get with a Nikon). An Imacon is in the high-end price range, but is a professional pre-press film scanning system that is also suitable for desktop publishing and in-house publishing. If you are a power user and prefer the best of the best, consider a Creo EverSmart flatbed scanner.

If you need good quality (professional quality) then you want to scan your 35mm slides either with an Imacon vertical scanner, a Creo EverSmart or a Fuji C-550 Lanovia flatbed scanner (true optical 5000 dpi). The Imacon has an advantage in that SilverFast scanner software is available. The learning curve for SilverFast is a lot softer than the software that is used for prepress. The Imacon, however, is not a drum scanner, a somewhat misleading designation simply because some Imacon models are upright in position, the same position as real drum scanners. But a true drum scanner uses PMT technology; all other scanners, including all Imacon models, use the more economical CCD technology.

Where is a reliable place to buy a 35mm slide scanner? Calumet Photographic is one of many places that sells 35mm slide scanners.