Customer Reviews

Powerslide 3650

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Our family has slides. My parents have over 6,000 slides, I have reels and reels of slides that my grandfather took, my brother has a few thousand, and I have probably a few thousand myself. This device is a lifesaver! Yes, it sometimes jams. Yes, the software has it's problems. Yes, it's slower than slow. However, in the end it does a good job and best of all it does the scanning mostly without any help. We got this in Fall 2007 and my parents have finished their 6,000, and I'm working through mine and my grandfather's.

This scanner comes with a straight tray that holds 50 slides. We wanted the ability to pack one tray while the other is running so we bought two circular ones from the manufacturer that each hold 100 slides. We highly recommend doing this -- the circular ones jam much less than the included straight one. The scanner does about 9 or 10 slides per hour.

We're using this scanner on Mac OS X using Firewire -- haven't tried it with a PC or using the USB connection. We've used it on both Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) -- make sure that you download the Leopard update from the manufacturer's website if you're on Leopard. The software itself is quirky, and it has a very unintuitive interface that I suppose shows it's Windows origins.

The typical process for setting it up
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1. Close all unnecessary apps (My mom needs to do this on her system with 1GB of RAM. I have 3GB and don't have to do this.)
2. Turn on scanner (takes a minute or two)
3. Start CyberView X software
4. Load tray into scanner. Use arrows on scanner to line up with notch on circular reel showing #1 slide.
5. From Scan menu, select Scan, then select Multi-Scan to File
6. Enter the number of slides in this batch.
7. Select where you want to write the scan files.
8. Select file type (TIF or JPG), and if JPG, also select output quality (Good, Better, Best).
9. Click Ok

There's two types of jams: 1) the slide didn't make it into the scanner, so the scan is of nothing! 2) more serious jams when it can't move the slide. In this case, it just shuts down. We have yet to have a slide damaged by this machine.

When we finish a batch, we check for any duds -- scans that turned out like white frames because of a jam -- then we rescan just those duds. The scanner has the capability to let you feed individual slides in manually, and we have to do that on rare occasions.

Tips to reduce jamming
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1) Put 'em in straight. Take care to put the slides straight into the slot in the tray.
2) Unbend. Make sure the slides aren't warped or tweaked. If they are try making them straight again. We had some 40-50 year old cardboard mounts that had been in Honeywell trays for about that long that were bent.
3) Trim the mounts. We had some old cardboard mounts that weren't mounted correctly -- the two halves didn't quite match. This made the mount a bit larger than it should be so we used scissors to carefully trim the extra edges. This made the slides fit better into the tray without bending or going in crooked.

As for the image -- we've seen some banding, and the colors don't seem as rich as the original slides, but that can be fixed with post processing. See the examples I uploaded.

Summary
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This scanner takes some getting used to as it whirrs, grinds, and make other noises, and you'll probably need to rescan some that got jammed, but over all it's a great time saver!

I have scanned nearly 3,000 slides since buying the scanner in November. I have not had any major problems to speak of - 2 or 3 jams out of 3K slides is not bad. The images come out clear and crisp, Colors look good as well. The software that comes with the scanner is not that easy to use and I had a hard time getting good results so I spent an extra $79 and bought VueScan from Hamrick Software - this made all the difference! I also bought a Braun Paximat carousel from B&H so I can load 100 slides, come back in 9 or 10 hours and see the results.

After some experimenting with settings I am getting great results every time. I have great results with the ICE but not so much with the ROC and GEM settings. I have ICE set to the lowest setting and all the dust and scratches are gone.

If you are looking into scanning many thousands of slides this is the way to go. Also go ahead and buy VueScan, a couple of the Braun carousels and a external backup drive. Make sure you have a computer you can dedicate to scanning - does not need to be new or fast but should have at least 1 or 2Gb RAM and a large (100GB+) hard drive. Also make sure you backup the files daily.

This product looks an awful lot like (and has identical specs to) the Braun slide scanner that sells for nearly twice the cost. I debated whether to go with the trusted name or the lower price product - No regrets on going with the cheaper product - the performance has been stellar.

I would have given the product 5 stars if it had come with good software.

=== Update December 2010 ===
Scanner still turning out great images over 9,000 slides later! Only issue I have run into is that it tends to jam a lot lately, but I found that if you put a short pencil or some legos on the dark emergency slide release on the top then stack some heavy books on top and weigh down the release (not the button but the part where the slide actually would come up) then it will run without a single jam unless the cardboard was really mangled to begin with.

This scanner produces excellent scans, but has a few problems. Here is a list of them along with workarounds I've discovered through trial and error:

1. Included software is antiquated and difficult to use: The CyberView scanning software included with the scanner is of arcane design and has crashed my Vista (SP1) machine several times (it runs without crashing on my Mac running Snow Leopard). I recommend using a third-party scanning package such as VueScan (which I use) or SilverFast. When using such a package, you will still have to load the scanner driver, but the scanning experience will be much better.

2. Misfeeding and jamming: I've had numerous slides (both plastic and cardboard mounts) jam the machine. If you have these problems, try these workarounds: (1) apply a SMALL AMOUNT of silicone lubricant to the slide tracks and metal parts throughout the feed mechanism, (2) place a stack of heavy books on top of the scanner (apparently the top on my sample is slightly distorted upward, which skews the scanning bay into a parallelogram - the weight apparently corrects this), (3) Pacific Image sells something called a Universal Slide Tray that has wider slots for the slides and is therefore much longer than the tray that comes with the scanner. Pacific Image says that this tray works much better for cardboard mounts and that the tray that comes with the scanner is really made for plastic mounts. See [...] to order this tray. Frankly, that is the tray that should be included with the scanner! I've got one on order.

Now that Nikon has discontinued the Coolscan 5000 with its automated slide scanning adapter, this is the only scanner still on the market - of which I'm aware - that can batch scan 35mm slides.

Although limited to only 35mm slides, this scanner does what it was designed to do beautifully. I've scanned about 1000 40 year old cardboard slides so far, and haven't had a jam. It's slow (like most other slide scanners), and it takes about 5 hours for 50 slides, but with the batch capability, I can set a batch going in the morning and another when I go to bed at night. The scan quality is better than most I've seen handling both over and underexposed slides well. The software it comes with is pretty good, but I've switched to SilverFast AI Studio with it's multi-scan technology to help remove noise from dark images.

I purchased this product with some reluctance after reading all of the mixed reviews. I cannot speak to any variations in manufacturing but I can state without reservation that the Powerslide I received has done a magnificent job. Installation was simple and software updates were readily available on line. The documentation was minimal but adequate. Based upon overwhelming recommendations from all users (and from Pacific Image) I purchased both the 50 slide universal tray (available from Pacific Image) and a Braun Round 100 Slide Tray available through amazon. Over a period of about 10 days, I scanned more than 3,500 slides. During this mammoth project, I had two jams (easily cleared) and 3 miss scans (picture quality suffered possibly due to an improper calibration). The slides dated from the early 1950's all the way through 2008. I used ROC and GEM on all slides and scanned at 2700 dpi (yielding about 9 megapixel digital pictures). Most of my slides were Kodachrome so I did not use ICE (highly variable results with Kodachrome film). My average scan took between 2 min and 2 minutes 15 seconds using a 2.0 Ghz PC running windows XP with 2 gigabytes of memory. The only problem I had was that after 104 slides, the scanner would stall for an unknown reason. I was using both the 50 slide universal tray and the 100 slide carousel which made it very easy to restart the scanner application and the scanner after every 100 slides. Doing this, eliminated the stalling and cost me only an additional 3 minutes every hundred slides. If you have a large number of slides to scan, I would highly recommend this product.

The Powerslide 3650 is a flimsy unit that jams on every batch, eats slides when jammed, misguides 50% of the scans it attempts (meaning only half the image appears in the entire frame of the photo because the slide didn't go all the way in), has no idea what frame its on, so has no problem scanning the last frame 50 times before you stop it, and on and on.

The software that comes with it is a joke.

My unit did not work under USB (windows XP reported a malfunctioning unit), but it did work with firewire.

I wouldn't mind that it was slow as it was, if it was one of those set-it-and-forget-it sorts of things, but it's literally requiring my attention several times every hour. And I've only got through three batches (only 50% came out because of this strange loading problem it has).

Scanning quality seems to be ok, no problems there.

I do not recommend this to anyone.

I purchased this scanner to scan about 1500 old slides I found in my parents musty basement. Most of the slides were mildewed and swollen. With the provided tray many of the slides jammed when left alone. It was frustrating. Once I purchased the Braun 100 slide rotary tray the system became excellent. Only the most bent and warped slides stopped the feeder. For the most part I was able to let the machine run thru the tray with no involvement. The software provided did a great job of cleaning up all of the mildew trails and spots. I made a number of posters for a family memorial service and they came out great. No one could believe the pictures were scanned from our old family slides. I finished the sides in just a couple of weeks and will probably put the machine on the internet and try to recover the majority of the investment. There is no way I could have used a slower system to scan that number of slides. An aboslute awesome tool and the hundreds of recovered slides were great for the family.

It does a fine job of scanning and correcting 35mm slides. The weakness is in the feeder mechanism.

1. It is fragile. Do not force it.
3. Dump he tray that came with it. Won't even feed plastic slides well, Get their Universal Slide Tray (or any DIN 108 tray). I have scanned over 300 cardboard mounted slides with minimal problems using their DIN 108 tray.
4. Occasionally a slide will hang up on insertion. The bottom corner catches. If you are quick you can tap the corner that is sticking up and it will feed ok.
5. The Mac software us obviously ported (poorly) from the PC version. It lacks the sophistication and ease of use we Mac users have come to expect. But, it does work.
6. Their phone help is very fast and is good.
7. Unfortunately it is not ""fire and forget." You need to keep an eye on it to catch potential jams.
8. Don't save the images as TIFF. They can be huge - up to 90MB.

All in all I am happy with the unit. I still have hundreds of slides to go.

Once you figure out how to use it this is a handy machine to have. To figure out how best to use it, follow reviewer Dale's instructions. With his instructions the machine has only destroyed one of my slides. There was a crunch sound, the slide never came out, I have never seen it again, but the machine continued to work.
The included documentation does not include tech supports' number. I found it through other means. After repeated phone calls and emails they finally got back to me - and lied, saying they had emailed me multiple times.
They will not offer you any advice or help with the circular trays.
They will not help you in any way.
It is a useful machine but a pain to learn how to use - unless you follow Dale's instructions.
I am glad it has a year warranty because it just broke, a few months shy of the year.

I am fussy but not a perfectionist. My slides are family pictures - some going back to the 40's. The PS3650 in combination with VueScan does work well. I am running windows 7, I7, 64bit, 8gig ram.
The CyberView software that comes with the PS3650 did ok sometimes but other times gave marginal results. I made the investment ($40) in VueScan and am pleased with the results. There is a 5-10 hour learning curve with VueScan and the batch-list/frame numbering process is quirky especially if you have to restart in the middle of the scan process because of a jam. I scanned my slides at 3600bpi since file space was not an issue (1800 bpi takes the same time). At first I tried to fix the color/contrast etc. as each slide scan was completed but that took forever and I had 8000 plus 4000 for family and friends) slides to go so I finally decided to scan them all in first and then fix the ones I really wanted in good shape. I did not scan directly into Photoshop but rather to a file which I later imported into Photoshop. Each file was identified to a slide tray and a number in the tray just in case I had to go back a find a slide (which occasionally happened).

I used the Braun Round Tray 100S carousel for 2.2mm cardboard slides. At first I thought the 100S caused jams if the slide was not perfectly flat but later found out the PS3650 eject mechanism caused the jams. I also had big problems with cardboard slides that were thicker than the normal slide. If a jam does occur, the jam can be fixed without damage to the slide. Some of my slides had a curve to them after being in trays for 40 years. To prevent jams (had plenty at first), I physically bent the slide in the opposite direction to straighten it. The scan process will sometimes skip slides for some reason so check the number of scanned slides to the number that was to be scanned. The Braun Round Tray 100(no S) (3.2) for Multimag does not work with 2mm cardboard slides. It constantly jams or does not feed the slide. The 1-50 slide holder that come with the PS3650 should not be used with cardboard slides because it frequently jams (not the PS3650 issue) and there is no way to fix the jam without damaging the slide. In correspondence with Pacific Image Electronics (PIE), their position is that the only slide tray to use is the Braun 100 (3.2) or the universal tray both of which I had and I did not have success with cardboard slides.

To save time, I did a preview save-to-file (3 1/2 to 4 hours for 100 slides) rather than a preview first and fix then scan save-to-file (save time by having preview bpi same as scan bpi - since this configuration does not cause a rescan). I also set the color to White Balance and Kodachrome for all my slides even for Ektachrome or off-brands again to save time. I am fussy not a perfectionist. The "Perf " menu item "image memory(MB)" was set to 0 because I was doing a preview save-to-file. If you are doing a scan save-to file you could run out of memory (1000 mb is default) when doing 100 slides and VueScan stops in middle of scan (causing a reboot and losing all previous scans) - set the default "image memory(MB)" to a larger size (8000mb) to accommodate all the preview scans.

I encountered 6 different styles of slides where the film was super small square, square, rectangle, super large square, etc. all of which causes a lot of individual manual processing. Also had plastic, cardboard, supper thin, thick slides some of which required manual processing. It is a labor of love to get through it all. I did complete all 12,000 slides.

To use the software and the scanner you must be somewhat technically proficient, be patient, have time and not expect perfection.