SVP PS9700(with 4GB) Digital Film/Slide/Photo Scanner w/ 2.4" Build-in LCD

by SVP

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B002UQPPTI
• Item model number: SVP-PS9700-4GB
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 28, 2009

Product Description

SVP 3-in-1 PhotoScanner PS-9700 is a innovative standalone film scanner that instantly converts 35mm film negatives, slides and photo prints into digital images without the need for a computer or application software. Now you can preserve all their photo memories by turning the millions of photographs now stored on slides and negatives into digital images to preserve them forever. We have created a very simple-to-use device that works right out of the box and produces a five-megapixel digital image in five seconds at a push of a button. The device features a 5.1mpix scanning chip producing the images large enough to be printed on a A4 page! Unlike similar devices currently on the market, the SVP 3-in-1 PhotoScanner PS-9700 does not require a computer or learning a new software program, and it takes very little space to operate, store or transport.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Affordable Option for Slide & Negative Scanning, March 28, 2010

By 

B. Ross (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: SVP PS9700(with 4GB) Digital Film/Slide/Photo Scanner w/ 2.4" Build-in LCD (Electronics)

For the price, this scanner does an admirable job. We've scanned negatives and slides and the quality is really very good. We did an enlarged print of one of the slides we scanned and it is good enough for framing. I guess a professional scanner would do better but who can afford one? This one does the intended job -- converting our old slides and negatives to digital format for convenience and for safe-keeping should anything ever happen to the originals. The instructions are a bit lacking but the unit is fairly simple to figure out and we haven't had any problems. I would recommend this scanner.

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad..., January 21, 2011

A Kid's Review

This review is from: SVP PS9700(with 4GB) Digital Film/Slide/Photo Scanner w/ 2.4" Build-in LCD (Electronics)

First off, kudos to Slim Sharp as I received the order in less than one week (std. shipping) and in perfect condition.

I'll admit that I took advantage of the complaints that many here have had regarding quality, breakage of slide/film transport, bad focus, etc. When I opened that package I could tell the frailty of the unit immediately, so I handled it gingerly. The manual, as most have said, was very bad...it was written in 'Chinglish' and they obviously used a software language translator. I'm used to that though, and found that if you just pick out the nouns and verbs in the sentences, you'll get the gist of...what it to the user starting to be saying (sorry, couldn't resist).

I powered up the unit with the 5V/USB adapter and just started pushing buttons (I'm an engineer, so don't try that at home LOL). Anyway, the buttons and switches all seemed to be of acceptable quality. Each gave a positive feedback (a click) and none required any excessive force. While playing with the buttons I began to get a feel for how the menus were layed out, so I put the manual back in the box never to be seen again.

Many of the complaints have to do with poor focus. These units use a fixed-focus 5MP camera chip, so if they went out of focus (or were never in focus), it most likely is a mechanical problem. The distance between the camera chip and the film carrier has been knocked out of kelter. This could be caused by faulty assembly or damage during handling. If your unit has sharp focus to begin with(luckily mine did), then it should stay that way unless the unit gets a hard knock or dropped or the film carrier gets forced out of position. This leads to the next complaint...the detents on the carriers break off. This seemed to me to be quite possible, as the whole carrier/slot deal is frail. After reading those types of complaints I knew to handle the carrier and the carrier insertion process as if I were dealing with a baby chick. Be sure to insert the carrier in the correct direction (refer to the arrows), use just slight pressure, and don't rush anything. I'm positive that I can make mine last years by handling it that way. Granted, it would be nice if it were as rugged as Apple hardware, but personally I can't afford an 'iSlideCopier', so I'll just go easy with what I can get.

Next...quality of scan. There are two resolution settings, 5M and 10M. I don't know what an "M" is (megapixel?), but I know that 10M results in a larger JPG than 5M. If 10M means a 10 megapixel photo, then there is some software creation of pixels going on because the camera is only 5(.1)Mpixels. That could be good or bad, depending on the algorithym they used. So far I've scanned everything at 10M because 10M is more than 5M, so it should be better...right? How's that for stupid logic?

While previewing a slide (on the TINY LCD screen) before scanning, you can adjust the "EV" or Exposure Value of the camera chip. I don't know if the EV numbers correspond to real EV numbers (standard aperature & shutter speed relationships) but changing the EV on the scanner results in a noticeable change in contrast and brightness on the screen. I haven't experimented yet with what the actual effects are on the final JPG image. So far I've just kept it at neutral, and kick it down a number for bright slides or up a number for darker slides. If the slide looks good, leave the EV alone. Yes the screen is tiny, so if you're picky about the contrast you may have to scan the image to see how it looks and then go back and adjust, rinse and repeat.

Oh yeah, the 4GB SD card that comes with it is a very nice feature. When installed, it is automatically written to first so you don't have to direct where the scans go. Just remove the SD card from the scanner and put it in your computer's SD card reader and you have access to everything you've scanned onto it.

I do know that the scanned images I have pulled up in Photoshop are as good quality as photos I've taken with my old 5Mpixel digital camera, so overall I'm very satisfied. I gave it 4 stars because it is flimsy and fragile, but it is not junk. Now I must go. I have zillions of ancient slides to recover.

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars bad instructions, July 13, 2010

By 

rblaw (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: SVP PS9700(with 4GB) Digital Film/Slide/Photo Scanner w/ 2.4" Build-in LCD (Electronics)

I would give this product 5 stars if it came with decent instructions. It would help if the instruction writer had English as the first language. It took me several hours to figure out that slides must be scanned in the film settings and that there was a setting to select slides as the type of film. The film type selection instruction was on page 24 among the playback instructions. The device was delivered quickly and did a nice job once I determined how to scan slides. I have yet to try it with prints or negatives.