Video Slide Scanners & Viewers

If you have old photographs that you still like to view and don’t have a way to digitize the images, it can be difficult to maintain integrity of the old prints. Aside from this hassle, you probably have old slides for which using a slide viewer is necessary to reminisce. However, there are other options, including the purchase of a slide scanner, which can allow you to save and perhaps even restore some of those old photographs as detailed digital images.

A 35mm slide scanner is built to take 35mm negatives, which are returned with old standard photo prints, and scan them in as images by sliding them through a reader, using specialized software to create a digital file. A 35 mm slide scanner can more clearly read the images than a typical scanner, developing the image electronically for viewing purposes. As opposed to a 35mm slide viewer, this method doesn’t require fiddling with movable parts that can easily be damaged every time you wish to view the photo, and the digital image will remain preserved. It also means that, by using the negatives, you don’t have to remove slides from their protective housing or worry about damaging your original prints.

Checking out a slide scanner review or two and assessing a slide scanner comparison will give you a better idea of the best slide scanner available, allowing you to develop your slides into true images. Another tool you might want to consider is a video scanner, which is a flatbed device that works like a fax machine, sliding images through and reading them frame by frame. In turn, these images are saved to a file as a video that can be viewed on your PC at any time, using a video viewer. Most such scanners come with their own viewers that can be installed on just about any computer, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you can find a free video viewer tool online that you can download and use instead.

There has long been a need for tools that can preserve images from negatives and motion picture film without having to go through a process of restoration or counting on a service to transfer from one media type to another. With slide scanners, you can do this sort of work all on your own, digitizing your collection so that wear and tear won’t deny future generations from enjoying these files.