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For scanners specifically, this can largely be handled by third-party software such as Vuescan or Silverfast. You’ll still potentially have driver support and software support issues to deal with. Next, I’ll be describing the combinations you’ll need to get your device plugged in and (hopefully) working.Īs with all legacy hardware, the physical connection with your computer is only a third of the battle. I’ll first be covering background information on legacy and current connectors/standards and how to identify them. That's probably okay if you only have a few hundred slides (it's brainless work you can do it while working on other stuff once you get the scan settings configured), but not if you have thousands.How to: Connect legacy film scanners to modern computers - EMULSIVE Close Search for:
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If you don't care about auto feed, PIE makes 35mm film scanners that will take individual slides, but you'd have to sit there and babysit each one. Honestly I suspect you could probably make money on the deal, since you'd be buying parts but selling a working turnkey slide-scanning setup. For that price, I'd just buy an old PCI-based G5 Mac, put a SCSI HBA card in it, get an old Nikon with the slide feeder, and then sell the whole kit as a working setup when you're done. The cheapest decent, modern-interface, dedicated slide scanners with auto feed that I'm aware of is the Pacific Image Electronics PowerSlide 5000. Some people have had success with the Ratoc FW-SCSI bridges, but they are no longer made and finding one on the used market can be challenging, and they have some compatibility issues and you have to mess about with the Ratoc firmware in some cases. if you need to scan MF slides) is really what you want.īut if you have an iMac or notebook Mac, you are kinda stuck. That plus one of the Nikons or even an older Minolta (esp. VueScan continues to support many SCSI film scanners, and is an amazing piece of software that you want to use anyway.
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Best answer: I think this is basically something where you can have a modern interface, high quality, or a reasonable price, pick any two.ĭo you have a Mac Pro? If so, there is no reason to fear SCSI you can drop a PCI Express HBA into them and they'll work just fine.
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