Best Scanner for Slides and Film (Transparencies)

Scanning transparencies (slides and film) is more demanding than any other kind of scanning. Transparencies are the only originals that benefit from more than 24 bits of color depth, a measure of how many shades the scanner can distinguish. Not enough bits, and you'll lose detail in bright areas, dark areas, or both. For best results, you need 36-bits or more, a level that most scanners claim, but few deliver. For 35-mm transparencies you'll want to view and print the images at much larger than the original size, which means you'll also need a high optical resolution -- at least 4800 pixels per inch.

Keep in mind too that if you want to scan more than a few 35mm slides or frames of film in any given session, the scanner should handle at least 12, and preferably 16, slides, or at least 6 strips of film, at a time. And if the collection of film you need to scan includes sizes larger than 35-mm -- like the once popular 220 format -- you'll need a scanner that can handle at least medium format film.

Here's a list of scanners that can scan transparencies well. All live up to their promise of offering sufficiently high bit depths for transparencies, and all are flatbed scanners, which means they do an excellent job scanning prints as well as film.