PBase

I'm looking for a Christmas present for my parents, who have 40+ years of 35mm negatives in a big trunk at their house. I would like to find a practical, non-commercial (meaning less than 500 bucks) scanner that is easy enough for someone who is not a computer person.

It seems like everything I find that is well reviewed is not in production anymore, only the junk (according to the reviews) that some companies put out.

Even a regular scanner with some sort of adapter to put through several negative strips at a time (like this one
Sample design) would be great.

Anyone have any leads? I'm not looking for a professional quality output, but something that my parents could be happy with.

Any leads or thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks!

Actually the newest Canon, Epson and HP are pretty good. They have an extra pass of dust removal that actually works.

Here is a page explaining how it works:
http://www.canon-europe.com/scanner_technology/fare.asp

The top end canon holds a lot of slides

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contr ... elid=15561

Epson calls it Digital ICE (and does better resolution)

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/cons ... d=63070478

HP Does 3d stuff at the same time

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp ... catLevel=2

All are in the same price range and similar features.. I have a slightly older Canon (with the same tech) and it works really well.

Thanks!

I guess I was a little hesitant because they never seem to show the film-negative holders in the promotional displays.

I've seen the HP recommended elsewhere as a good scanner for non-professionals. Its good to see it mentioned more than once. Do you have a recommendation between them? The Epson tour was pretty impressive and the loading of 10 film-negatives at a time is pretty attractive.

Thanks again!

Personally I own a Canon (last years model). It works fine. A friend of mine has an Epson and it worked for him also.

I think they are very similar in features but the extra resoluiton of the Epson may be an advantage, epecially if you had some old APS stuff to scan in.

I bought the Canon for it's ability to hold larger stock since I have some old 4x5 stock.

They've done a good job of keeping all their negatives, which is part of what makes the negative scanning ability so attractive (not to mention most of the photos are in albums).

The Espon looks like the route I'll go.

Thank you for your help!