Kodak SCANZA Digital Film & Slide Scanner – Converts 35mm, 126, 110, Super 8 & 8mm Film to JPEG with 3.5" LCD, Easy-Load Inserts & Adapters

When I purchased the scanner, I needed a way to convert slides left from my father-in-law to a digital format so that they could be shared between all of his kids. Also, I was looking for a way to convert my own slides to a digital format. The Kodak scanner is great and easy to use. The setup is quick and the conversion is quick. The scanner can either be powered from a USB port on a computer or with the included power supply. The USB port also allows for scanned items to be moved from the SD card(not included) to a computer. The scanner is lite and can be handled easily. So far I've only used the adapter for 35mm slides. The adapter works smoothly and allows for slides to be inserted one after another without having to take it out and load the next set of slides. There are other adapters, which I may use at some point in time. This scanner is not the cheapest unit, but I say I get what I pay for. I would definitely recommend this Kodak scanner for those who need to convert slides and negatives to a digital format.

I inherited my father's voluminous collection of color 35mm slides which sat in the basement for 70 years. Reaching back to the early 1950's only a few years after my father returned from the war, he took up photography in the Army as part of the Signal Corps and then continued informally when he returned home. The problem? I have no slide projector to see any of these, and never really relished the idea of purchasing one (I do all my photography in digital). Thus, these pictures, with all the memories they hold, have stayed in the dark without anyone seeing them.That's where this handy little device comes in. I wanted to easily digitize these slides so at the very least I could look them over, and possibly even find some gems that I could print and share. The thought of the work involved in doing such a task kept me off from doing it for two decades until I ran into this little Kodak device. Yes, it still takes time, and will indeed take time, but once you learn how to do it, you can rip through slide digitization at a pretty good clip.You plug the device in, hinge the screen so it is at the correct angle for viewing, and pop in an SDXC card into the back slot. Turn it on, set a couple of quick settings to tell the machine what type of media you are using (35mm slides, film negatives, etc.) and you are ready to go. The unit comes with a number of plastic holders that you slip into the side of the unit and then you simply slide your slides or negatives into the device. When the image shows up on the screen correctly centered, you press one button and either a 14 or 22mp screen capture (depending on your settings) is made and automatically stored on the SDXC card. You just continue this process until you are finished or are ready for a break, etc.The image scan is pretty good and while I would not pretend to say this is a high-end professional scanner, it does a more than adequate job for tasks like I've described above. There are adjustments for color, sharpness, etc. if you wish to make them. The real benefit to this unit is the ease in which it allows you to conduct the conversion process, turning an unpleasant and lengthy task into something much easier. When you are done, you simply eject the SDXC card and insert it into your computer and copy off the scans. From there you can use any photo editing software to adjust the image (images are saved as jpg files).The quality of the device itself seems good and sturdy, and I don't expect to see any problems with its use over time. The unit makes no noise and does not seem to get warm during use (probably uses an LCD-based light for scanning) and looks nice enough that you can leave it off on the back of a shelf without it looking obnoxious.I'm glad I found the device and can easily give it five stars!Note: If you are in a situation like me, your slides or negatives will be dusty and dirty from years of sitting around. Do some online research on the correct way to clean slides and negatives because you will want to clean these before you scan. If you scan the slides in a dirty condition, all the dirt and dust will show up on your photos.

I purchased this about two months ago. I own two other high end film scanners that I use to get quality scans of some of my slides for various projects. I have always wanted to scan all of my slides and negatives, but the scanners I own take two (2) to four (4) minutes to scan each slide, in addition to the time it takes to clean the slides prior to scanning. This scanner takes about four (4) seconds per scan. I read a lot of the reviews about this scanner with interest. I was concerned with reviews expressing concerns about:1) Image quality.2) Ease of use.I decided I would try this scanner and in the worst case scenario it would let me quickly see the approximately 4000 slides in my collection that I have not seen in 40 plus years and allow me to determine which of my slides I would need to re-scan with one of my high end scanners if any.This review only address how this scanner handles slides. The one thing I liked most about it is that the lens in the camera offers a good depth of field and the images are sharp corner to corner even if the film is warped. If your slides are well exposed it produces good scans and the scanner allows coarse exposure and color corrections for poorly exposed slides. Many reviewers complained that these adjustments were too coarse, I found that they allowed rough corrections for old faded and discolored film which makes further adjustments in software editing packages easier. I found that I was able to scan most rolls of film without tinkering with these adjustments once I had corrected my first slide on that roll of film. You will need a can of compressed air or a little blower to keep the flat light source free of dust which if not cleaned will make spots on your scans. An anti-static brush is also helpful.Below I will address the three areas of concerns I was worried about:1) Image quality.The one area that I wish Kodak would change is the file compression setting that the scanner uses on it’s files. This unit uses a 14 mega-pixel camera with the option to up sample to 22 MB Using the 14 MB setting the image files are only about 1.5 MB, using the 22 MB setting produces files about 4.3 MB. This indicates a very high degree of compression! I wish they offered options to adjust it. This is too much compression! I was fairly certain that my images would need some post-scan color correction. After a short period of testing I felt I saw a slight improvement in image quality from the 22 MB images vs the 14 MB images after post-scan color correction. I set the unit to the 22MB setting and I have ran all of my files through a batch file color correction in Photoshop Elements. To get files from this scanner to approach the output from my high end scanners I have to spend time in Photoshop manually correcting the output from this scanner. But 4 minutes vs 4 seconds and in the end I will most likely only need to re-scan maybe 1% to 2% of my slides, so yes this scanner offers a lot of bang for the buck!2) Ease of use.It comes with two slide adapters. One for thick plastic mounts and one for the thin cardboard mounts. Both of these adapters are designed so you can quickly push the slides through the scanner. I used the adapter for the thick on just a few of my slides, it work good for plastic mounted slides. The adapter for the thin cardboard mounts has a problem in that if the slide mounts are bent they will catch on the plastic frame on the discharge side of the slide exposure opening where the light passes through the slides so they can be scanned. To fix this I took a small jewelers file and tapered the top and bottom edges of the plastic frame on that side of adapter enabling me to push many of my bent slides through the adapter without catching. I had to bevel a little less than 1/16" of the plastic to get it to work and I still had a just few slides that hung up on this edge. However it is fairly easy to slide the adapter out of the scanner and then push the offending slide mount up or down while pushing the next side into the adapter which will push the offending slide past the catch point. Once the offending slide is no longer caught on the frame you can re-insert the adapter into the scanner and finish pushing your slides through the scanner. Thankfully the adapter is plastic and filing it down was easy.