On Friday 16 May 2003 03:37, Marshall Heartley wrote:

On Fri, 2003-05-16 at 03:22, Martijn van den Burg wrote:

...

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a slides scanner to digitize my (24x36) slides. Is there anyone on the list who can recommend a brand/model that is available in western Europe?

Not sure if it is available in Europe (I live in the US) but my Epson 1250 photo scanner can do slides.

...

I have a feeling that getting a scanner to work is still often a PITA and that many models are not supported (by SANE), also computer/photographics shops usually have a limited range of models on stock, making it difficult to find something appropriate.

This model can be set up by Yast and will work. But you will need to use a program called iscan to gain use of the TPU (Transparency Unit) and you will need to modify the sane.d file. I was able with the above scanner and iscan to scan in negatives and develop them via computer.

Listen closely!!! I'll put in my recommendation for Epson also (even though I'm in the US). I would assume that they have European models as well. I had a new HP scanner before I recently switched over to linux. Could not get it to work at all in linux. Contacted HP support, and went round and round with tech support, and supervisors in tech support, marketing, and engineering departments. They were so UNWILLING to answer ANY questions, or offer ANY assistance. So I returned the scanner to the place of purchase (Office Depot), four months after purchase, and they gave me a full refund (in your eye, HP)! I then bought the Epson Perfection 2400 Photo. Before I made the Epson purchase, I looked at SuSE supported hardware, Sane, and Epson websites. All pointed me to purchase from Epson. It is highly supported. Epspon is VERY linux friendly. Even to the point of creating their own Sane front-end, IScan, instead of having the linux programming community try to figure out the best way to make it work. Installation of the scanner hardware and software was a breeze. You can use Epson's IScan, KDE's Kooka, or XScanImage, to produce scanned images. IScan and Kooka have the ability to utilize the Transparency Unit on the Epson with great results. I have not used it for slides yet, but have successfully scanned b&w, and sepia negatives and photographs from the late 1800's and early 1900's, as well as more recent color images, and produced wonderful results by tweaking them in Gimp for scratches, tears, and contrast / brightness. ***** EPSON is the choice of champions!!! ***** By the way, I am not affiliated in any way with Epson. I'm just a very satisfied and impressed consumer. Bernd -- "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Antoine de St. Exupery

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The Epson scanners are best supported, but others will work, although they may take a bit more work to get setup. IScan that Marshall mentions is Epson's own front end for sane and works very nicely. I believe you might find either xsane or kooka working with slides and negatives now also though.

Mine doesn't use the TPU if SuSE sets it up in Yast. I've tried. Always had to use Iscan. I will see about modifying the file and see if then Kooka will work correctly. -- Marshall "Nothing is impossible, we just do not have all the anwsers to make the impossible, possible."