I purchased this scanner a week ago and I have digitized well over 500 35mm slides so far. In summary, this is a great scanner for scanning 35mm slides. It’s easy to use and the image quality is good.
The scanner comes with a 5V, 1A USB wall adapter, but if your end goal is to upload images to a PC you can leave the scanner connected to your PC’s USB port. I typically capture a batch of images to the scanner’s memory, upload to the PC, delete the images stored in the scanner and start again. I installed a 32GB SD card since the scanner’s 128MB internal memory only holds about 50 images. Captured images are named “PICTxxxx.JPG” so if you want to keep images organized by event, date, etc. you’ll need to work in batches. I wish there was an option to capture directly to the PC, where captured images could be renamed or tagged on the fly.
The 35mm slide adapter makes easy work of continuously feeding and capturing slides. I found that the best way is to have three slides in the adapter – one infeed, one outfeed and the middle slide being scanned. Pushing on the infeed and outfeed slides allows you to shift the middle slide back and forth to ensure it is perfectly centered before hitting the “Capture” button.
If your goal is to scan negatives, watch out! I tried scanning some 35mm negatives, but the film catches on the adapter outfeed slot and does not feed through. The plastic adapter has a slight step at the outfeed slot that catches the film. This is likely a molding defect, but it completely kills this feature.
The images on the built-in 5in LCD screen look good, but to really see detail I suggest connecting a PC monitor via the HDMI port. The addition detail visible on an external monitor allows you to ensure the slide is centered and you’re not capturing the edge of the slide frame. Even so, be prepared to do a lot of digital cropping to get rid of the occasional edge artifact.
On an external monitor the image sensor gaussian noise is noticeable. I was disappointed to see this, but it is not really a problem, just an opportunity for improvement.
The resolution spec. is misleading. The sensor is a 16Mp sensor (4920x3280). The scanner is spec’d at 24Mp, but this is achieved with interpolation. Pixel interpolation does not necessarily mean better image quality, but it guarantees a larger file size. I’ll let the marketeers debate image quality, but I did not see any significant difference, so I set the resolution to 16Mp (about 3Mp per JPG image) and left it there.
Once I established how to orient the slides, I did not need to use the vertical or horizontal flip buttons. The most common adjustment I needed to make was the brightness, and this is easy to do with just a few button clicks. Brightness adjustment just ensures no part of the image is saturating. After that, any remaining adjustments (tint, contrast, etc.) require image editing software on a PC.
The cleaning tool works brilliantly. Thankfully my slides are relatively clean, but it was very easy to clean the occasional bit of dust that landed on the scanner’s illumination pane.
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Overall, this scanner is easy to use and works exactly as described. I am happy with this purchase.
| Manufacturer | Magnasonic |
|---|---|
| Place of Business | Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada |
| Model | FS71 |
| Part Number | FS71 |
| Tuner Technology | dab |
| Scanner Resolution | 24MP |
| Special features | FS71 Film Scanner, Slide Adapter, Negative Film Adapter, 110 Slide Insert, 110 Film Insert, Super 8 Insert, Mini USB-to-USB Cable (40.5â€), Cleaning Brush, Instruction Manual, Lifetime Customer Support, 1 Year Manufacturer’s Direct Warranty |
| Output Wattage | 50 Watts |
| Power source type | USB |
| Batteries included | No |
| Batteries Required | No |
| Media Type | Negatives, Slide, Photo |
| Does it contain liquid? | No |
| Manufacturer | Magnasonic |
| Item model number | FS71 |
| Product Dimensions | 13.79 x 11.28 x 12.47 cm; 381.02 g |
| ASIN | B086DX4253 |
