ION Film 2 SD 35mm Slide and Negative Scanner

For $100, it's not bad. This device holds 3 slides in a bracket. The bracket is kinda fussy. Although the actual scan takes only a second or two, my steady stream average was 20 seconds per slide, mostly due to loading and unloading the bracket. Still, it's easy to do watching TV. No file-naming or computer fiddling is necessary during scanning. The SD card is dumped later onto a computer in one easy step, so that's good. The scans themselves are OK quality. Those old slides have really killer resolution and color, and you lose that. But for vacation shots from the 70s you want to view and share on your computer, this will do just fine.

This review is for the Slide 2 SD version only. The speed and transfer options are different from other versions of the Ion slide scanner.

Pros: fast, user friendly, ultra portable.

Cons: glass needs frequent cleaning to avoid dust particles from becoming part of the scanned image.

This device is great for storing, or restoring, your old family memories. The scanning itself is fast if you don't count the time it takes you to load the slides unto the tray (four at a time). Even that, however, gets faster after you've got the rhythm. My task was scanning 430 slides, and over 500 other images in negative strips and rolls. All combined, I had almost 1,000 photos to turn to digital. What I thought would be an endless pain proved to be the exact opposite. It only took about two days of my time, with a few hours work each day. Just think of it as a fun week-end project.

The photos come out at 2400x1600 pixels. The image quality is as good as the slide or negative allows. Please keep in mind that slides and negatives deteriorate over time, especially if stored in extreme temperatures or humidity, or in too much light. You can't expect a 30 or 40 year old slide to come out the same as a contemporary digitally taken photo, no matter what scanner you use. Additional processing can be done once the scanned photos are downloaded on the computer.

The device is really easy to use. Load the tray with the desired media (slides, negative strip or roll), insert it into the slot, press the OK button twice, push the tray for the next image, etc. The images are stored on the 1 GB SD card that comes with the scanner. You can then insert the card into your computer to copy the photos on your hard drive. The scanner has no processing options other than flipping or rotating the image.

The only complaint I have so far is that the glass where the image is projected gets dirty fairly easily, which will spoil your photos if not regularly cleaned. The glass is where the image is scanned from, so if it accumulates dust particles, they become a part of your photo. It's really like looking at the scenery through a dirty window. So you want to keep the glass clean, which is not that easy. The only access you have to do so is the slot where you insert the slide/negative trays. It's wide enough for a Q-tip to do the job, provided that the Q-tip doesn't leave behind some cotton thread of its own. Other than that, the scanner really did what I expected it to do. It turned my family's slides from the 70's and 80's, as well as negatives from the 90's, into digital photos.

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The bottom line is that one could expect scans from original film to be better quality than scans from paper copy. Unfortunately, when it comes to this scanner, it is just opposite. Therefore purchasing it doe not make much sense. Allegedly, it is a 5 MB scanner. It should give you plenty of dpi (about 3600?). Unfortunately, scans produced by this contraption are much less that your screen resolution. waste of money and time.

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This is really a great little piece. I scanned slides with it faster than I have with anything eles. The images its produces are of good quality. If you need to mainpulate the image and clean it up you need a photo program, this is a scanner and works very well at that. Now that I said that I am waiting for a replacement to arrive. I started with the base model, it was dead on arrival, returned it and upgraded to the SD, and as I said it works, worked great. I notice from the start that I was having problems powering the unit up. What happens is you push the power button it should turmn on the LED lighting and the program boots in the window. Well, the light would flash the screen would come on and nothing, let it sit and try a few times it would finally boot up and away we go. Well, this just did not seem right so I e-mailed customer support with what it was doing and two days later received an e-mail back saying that it appeared I had a defective unit and to please return it to the store that I had purchased it at, which I did. They had no more, and had to order a replacement from the warehouse, waiting on a new unit. Like I said, scanning slides with it is a breeze.Yes the instructions are not all that great, but it basically is push button and it works, so what more do you need. This will be the test however, if this one does not work I will down grade my rating. But I really do love using it.

Received the upgraded version, works like a charm. Copied over 300 slides over the weekend. To be truthful, I have been trying to find a way of copying my slides for quit awhile to include purchasing a multipurpose printer that scans, copies, prints all media and this device is by far the simplest and fastest device I have come across to date, and the price is not bad either. By the way it works really sharp on negatives too, so if you have sheets of old negatives, this device will turn your negatives back into useful picturesand does it very well.

Now understand, it's not going to fix your slides, they need to be clean and you need a photo program to enhance the color and sharpen the slides. Basically, it's going to copy what it sees, and not fix age nor photographer errors. I would recommend this device to a friend or family member that wanted to make digital copies of the family slides.

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This is a great product. I have tried scanners in the past and they did not provide even "good" quality images this one gives "excellent" quality. The color rendition and luminance is very accurate compared to the originals, with very high resolution. For the price this is a fantastic value.

I like the included display, that allows one to set up the picture without having to be hooked up to the PC. In fact with the built in memory, you can do many photos without bothering with the PC, then very easily transfer to the PC or Mac as in my case. No fussing with software it works right of the box.

I see that others have not reviewed this as highly I suspect that the poor instruction manual might have something to do with it. To scan positives, it is necessary to get the unit set up to do this, and the instructions are not helpful. I suggest that users try different combinations to get to the right setting.

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