Test report: Reflecta DigitDia 5000 slide scanner

In December 2006 reflecta placed the magazine-scanner DigitDia 5000 on the market. It is the latest model after the Reflecta DigitDia 4000, which was two years present on the market. The DigitDia 5000 is already the third generation of magazine slide- scanners which are available since 2003.

When in December 2004 the first DigitDia 3600 was substituted by the second generation DigitDia 4000, the difference between these two was huge: the DigitDia 4000 had the automatic dust- and scratch removal-system ICE integrated, which already was at that time standard in the field of higher-quality filmscanners. This DigitDia 4000 has proved itself very good in the past two years; Millions of slides all over the globe were digitized with such equipment. The DigitDia 5000 is now the next generation of this well-functioning model. The changes compared to the previous model are basically a faster and more reliable USB 2.0 interface, the removed firewire-interface and a faster scanning-speed.

With the transition from the DigitDia 3600 to the DigitDia 4000 a drastically improved picture quality was achieved, thanks to the ICE dust- and scratchcorrection. With the changes made between the DigitDia 4000 and the DigitDia 5000, the scan-speed got increased. The first change was revolutionary and many users purchased the new device to re-scan their pictures with far higher quality. The speed-increase in the DigitDia 5000 is "nice to have", which means the scanning procedure is faster, but it doesn't change anything in the result. Perhaps that's also a reason why Reflecta doesn't call it a new development - rather a consequent improval of a reliable slidescanner.

The Reflecta DigitDia 5000 is not available any more since December 2013. Its successor is the Reflecta DigitDia 6000.

Equipment, accessories and technical facts

Those who already had a DigitDia 3600 or DigitDia 4000 in their hands and then unpack the DigitDia 5000 from its box, won't notice any difference - except the different label on the outside. The cover stayed practically identical. What the first model, the DigitDia 3600 was missing, got added: an infrared-beam to make hardware based dust- and scratchremoval (ICE, iSRD) possible. Compared to the DigitDia 4000 the scanspeed has somewhat improved, but also no changes on the outside appearance. But wait!!! I feel like something's missing on the back of the new DigitDia 5000 - I remember this differently - haven't there been more interface slots? Yes, now the Firewire IEEE-1394 interface is missing. The DigitDia 4000 could be connected through USB as well as through Firewire to the computer; now there's just the USB port. Most users won't mind that too much, because due to USB 2.0 a Firewire port became less popular. Those who (like me) have a FireWire port on their computer, would always happily connect it there, because that keeps one of the scarce USB ports available.

A beginner who unpacks his DigitDia5000 first believes he would hold a regular slide projector; the design and the buttons seem familiar, but such a projector would have to have a lens at the front, which is exactly what a scanner lacks. It's soon obvious that the DigitDia 5000 is actually nothing else but a slide-projector, which has a CCD-sensor mounted instead of a lens. The pictures are simply being projected against the chip instead against the wall. I recognize the whole structure and mechanics of this device - it's indeed like a projector. The slide projector technique is many years old and is offered ever since from Reflecta. Therefore one can expect, that there won't be any problems while using this device - especially regarding the transportation of different magazines.

While a power connection is sufficient for a slide-projector, a slide-scanner has to be additionally connected to a computer. This is done through the USB interface. A suitable connection-cable comes included with the scanner package. The scanner has a USB 2.0 port on its back. Of course the scanner can also be attached to an USB 1.1 interface, but during slide-scanning enormous volumes of data are being transferred over the USB cable, so substantial speed losses must be expected if the connection becomes the bottleneck. I personally mourn the missing Firewire interface somewhat, although I get along with USB just as well. There is also one advantage in this reduction of connectivity: the earlier models used to have a switch for changing between USB- and Firewire mode. For many users a wrong switch-position resulted in a total failure of the scanner, where a simple turn of the switch would sometimes end a hour-long error tracing. With the DigitDia 5000 those times belong to the past.

The delivery-box also contains a 100's cs-magazine. The user who already stores his slides properly in cs- or universal magazines certainly won't need this. But users who keep their slides in archive envelopes absolutely need a magazine for the slides. An universal magazine however would be more useful. Besides this, there should be at least two magazines, so one can be filled while the other is beeing processed in the scanner. Slide magazines nowadays belong to low-priced accessories, and sorting into universal magazines is quickly done.

Reflecta delivers its own scan software CyberView and the good picture-software Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements in the old version 3; the update to the current version must be purchased separately. In just one box one receives everything - the slide-scanner itself, all connection cables, and the picture-processing with archiving software. This way it's perfect for immediate use. There's also a instruction manual for CyberView; but it's written so briefly, that it's rather to be considered as an introduction sheet. The scanner itself comes without a dedicated manual, but although there isn't much to explain, one would at least expect this when buying such an expensive device.

Most film scanners present at the market cover an enormous portfolio of scannable film material: framed 35mm slides and film strips are the standard program; some devices can also digitize whole filmrolls, APS films, loose 35mm negatives or even medium format images. The Reflecta DigitDia 5000 is a pure slide scanner and can only digitize framed 35mm slides. Of course framed 35mm negatives or black-and-white pictures can also be scanned, if they are in conventional slide frames, however not when mixed with positives. Contrary to most universal film scanners, the Reflecta DigitDia is therefore a really specialized device. A good many of photographers will still need a second film scanner in order to convert their negative filmstrips, (dated before the slide era) into digital format. Those, who besides framed 35mm-slides still own larger quantities of film strips, must either frame them, get a filmstrip scanner or contact a commercial scanning service.

According to Reflecta, the DigitDia 5000 can practically process any slide magazine: considering CS magazines, LKM magazines, Paximat magazines and universal magazines (DIN 108) this takes care of well over 90% of the market. How this works out with the individual magazine types in practice, will be discussed further down in this test report. If one inserts a completely stuffed, long CS magazine or a 100's Paximat round magazine into the DigitDia 5000, then the slide scanner will processes those 100 slides in the batch mode - giving plenty time to take an extensive walk or watch a good movie.

The slidescanner offers an optical resolution of 3600 dpi (according to the manufacturer) with a color-depth of 48 bits. This corresponds to 65,536 colours per channel (red, green, blue). This figure only means, that the scan software is able to store 48 bit files. How many colorshades there actually will be present, is a completely different story. As maximum density Reflecta indicates a value of 3,8. That's a high value which promises good shadings. Just like with all other scanners: it's not to be expected that all the theoretical data is actually reached in practice (check out my other test-reports).

It's possible to scan a slide with a maximum image size of 37,5 x 37,5 mm. A 35mm picture has the size 36mm x 24mm. During batch scanning portrait format pictures are recognized automatically and turned accordingly. With this maximum image size it's also possible to nearly completely scan square formats with 40x40 mm (full formats). Almost all universal scanners fail at such a task; in this regard the DigitDia 5000 is unique at this time and receives a huge plus from me. The DigitDia 5000 can also process half or mini formats, if they are in a regular 5x5 cm slide frame. To scan such special formats simply the scan range has to be set accordingly smaller and the automatic format recognition has to be turned off.

Installation and starting

The installation of the DigitDia 5000 is similar to all other scanners: first the software has to be installed, meaning insert CD, confirm several times and finally re-start the computer. Then the scanner can be connected to the computer and switched on. Most users buy their DigitDia with the scanning software SilverFast; in this case the installation happens directly from the SilverFast CD:

Whoever buys his DigitDia 5000 with the SilverFast scanning software, doesn't need to install the CyberView software first. The sole installation of SilverFast is absolutely enough before connecting the scanner to the computer. SilverFast is just like CyberView driver-software and scan-software at the same time.

Now it's theoretically possible to start; at least the scan software. But first it's necessary to find out how to insert a slide magazin into the scanner. It is totally simple: the transportation slider, which might come into your direction when opening the box, has to be pushed completely into the device. Then the magazine has to be inserted from the left side, following the slider. That's it. With round magazines it's somewhat more complicated, so there is some more tactile feeling needed, but who already inserted his round magazines into regular slide-projectors shouldn't have any problems with the DigitDia 5000 either.

Before making the first scans, it's best to first check the transportation technique by pushing the back- and forth buttons on the front of the scanner a few times. With each magazine I have the habit to first move a few pictures forward and then go back again, to make sure the slide scanner works properly with my type of magazine and frames.

After the successful installation I recommend everyone to start a detailed test phase and training phase before beginning with the serial scans. Everyone should first become familiar with the possibilities of the scan software and then find and store the optimal configuration for oneself. Many users make the mistake to buy this equipment and to start immediately with scanning. This way one may be pleased about the great progress after having the first 300 slides already scanned on the first day, but often after 20 magazines or so comes the realization, that by activating one or another function of the software, a far better result regarding the image quality could have been reached. Then the entire scanning has to be re-done. So it's clearly better to first try some experiments with the scanner and the software, by using a few selected pictures in the first days or weeks, before starting with the big, serial work.

Scanning of 35mm slides with different types of magazines

As already mentioned above, the Reflecta DigitDia 5000 is a pure slide scanner, it's a special device which cannot process other formats except framed small picture slides. In the area of 35mm slides the Reflecta however accepts a broad variety of magazine types and associated slide frames:

• Reflecta CS-magazines for 40 or 100 CS-frames
• Universal magazines according to DIN 108 for 36 or 50 small picture slides
• Paximat 36/36S, 50/50S and round magazines 100/100S
• Paximat multimag compact magazine 50
• LKM magazines

Reflecta's DigitDia 5000 covers well over 90% of the market and actually everyone should be able to digitize his slide collection with this device. The transportation of the slide magazines takes place like in a slide-projector: the transportation slider inserts a slide frame into the scanner and the counterpart of the slider pulls it out again; at the same time, with each back- and forth, it moves the inserted magazine one picture further.

Whom does it surprise that the transport works best with the own CS magazines? Indeed the DigitDia5000 can batch-scan an entire CS magazine with 100 pictures. However I managed only once to run a whole magazine through without problems. On the average I had one interruption with a CS magazine, so that I always had to scan a 100's magazine in two attempts. I'm aware that the number of CS magazines which I've scanned is too small in order to show a statistic statement with small variance. Everyone can live however with only one interruption in 100 pictures. Annoying is such an interruption only then, when the scanner is left unattended to work for five hours and then you have to figure out that the interruption occured already at the fifth picture, so it's best to check back once in a while to make sure the scanner is still working.

I believe nobody will be surprised if I say now, that I had more transportation problems with other magazine types. While I got along with LKM magazines pretty nicely, the universal magazines caused more trouble. But this had actually not much to do with the magazine itself, rather with the kind of slides. For example the problems occured by heterogenic slide mixes, where the cardboard-frame is very thin and the glass of the slide is very thick, as well as with full-glass slides. That's where the scanner got stuck more often.

With LKM magazines I also didn't like to leave the Reflecta DigitDia alone for a longer time. I had to check back approximately every fifteen minutes. My tests with Paximat roundmagazines went amazingly well. With those parts I had expected some interruptions and problems actually, but the transportation slider handled my round magazines better than universal magazines and LKM magazines. Perhaps it is because of the fact, that in Paximat round magazines the slides are kept safe between broad plastic walls. I had a loss ratio with round magazines which was about the same as with CS-magazines.

By the way - a great feature of the Reflecta DigitDia is the slide-elevator: through an eject button the currently loaded slide is pushed upwards, so it can be made sure that the right slide is being scanned. The slide-elevator serves however in the first place to load individual slides into the scanner, because the elevated slide can be removed easily and can be replaced by another. Of course the empty slide-holder can be taken out to insert a single slide. Even specially framed slides, like cardboard-framed slides, can be as well inserted into the scanner using the slide-elevator.

The digitization of CS magazines works very well, just like the processing of Paximat round magazines. With universal magazines a smooth operation depends on the content. Now, where are the limits of a Reflecta DigitDia 5000? Naturally there are slide-frames and slide-collections, which do not follow any system or standard. But whoever got cardboard-framed slides will too reach the limits of this device. Who photographed much with Kodachrome, should not even think about the DigitDia 5000. With Kodachromes also the normal ICE procedure fails. Feel free to look at our website about Kodachromes slides.

Also those, who own fully-glass-framed slides, shouldn't bother daring their luck with the Reflecta DigitDia 5000, above all if the entire slideframe is made of glass, thus the slide has a thickness of approx. 3 mm. Generally it can be said, that the Reflecta has trouble if the slides are very thick or very thin. This equipment works best with a frame strength between 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm.

In summary I would like to say that, the DigitDia 5000 does scan whole magazines mostly by itself, but the scanning of a slide-collection in good quality is not a job to be done in a few weeks along the way. Getting used to the scan software, the error tracing and permanent supervising of the scan status consumes a whole lot of time, and one is not supposed to get discouraged fastly if the transportation gets stuck from time to time.

Finally another nice small feature of the Reflecta DigitDia should be mentioned: at the device-front there's a slide-viewer in which a single slide can be inserted to be looked at. Not exactly a substantial function, but it's sometimes useful - especially since the equipment is already standing around on the desk.

Image quality

One important information upfront: the image quality of the DigitDia 5000 hasn't changed at all in regard to its predecessor model. All DigitDia 4000 owners can be relieved: a change of model will yield just a faster, but not a better scan-result.

The Reflecta DigitDia 5000 is mechanically perfected, as the tests with different magazine types in earlier chapters have shown. But that's something to be expected from a company, which produces and sells slide-projectors for so many years. If now even the imagequality is fine, a good device to digitize larger slide-collections will be in front of us. So we begin the evaluation of the image quality of the DigitDia 5000, starting with a resolution test with a USAF test chart.

Resolution test (identical to DigitDia 4000)

The picture to the left side shows a clipped part from the scan of the USAF-1951 test target, the main groups 2,3,4,5,6 and some more which are not clearly recognizable. If we look at the horizontal bars first, then we still can distinguish the three black bars on element 6.1. According to our resolution table this corresponds to a resolution of 3250 dpi. The vertical bars already end with element 5.6; this corresponds to a resolution of approximately 2900 dpi. If we average those two values, we get an approximate resolution of 3100 dpi.

The nominal values of the DigitDia 5000 promise an optical resolution of 3600 dpi. A measured resolution of 3100 dpi means the DigitDia in practice reaches 86% of its nominal resolution. That's a good value, although no peak value. The best film scanners reach 95% - 100% of their nominal resolution; flatbed scanners do often not even reach 50%. In practice 3100 dpi resolution means that the scan of a 35mm slide after cutting out the actual picture produces an image-file with approximately 4400 x 2900 pixels. That are approximately 13 million pixels, which is enough for high-quality prints on DIN A4 and bigger. Professionals will not be content with this resolution, particularly since other film scanners produce 20 megapixels and more, but for the majority of the hobby photographers this resolution is completely satisfying.

Scanning color-slides using CyberView

A scanner with an effective resolution of 3100 dpi, a maximum nominal density of 3,8 and ICE dust- and scratch correction system should provide pretty good scans. However I still remember all too well which problems the pre-predecessor model DigitDia 3600 had - particularly in the initial phase, when the firmware and the software weren't completely developed. The DigitDia 5000 is now the third generation, and in the course of the years many improvements made it into the scan software.

One notices this when scanning with the manufacturers own CyberView scan software. While the image quality of the DigitDia 3600 was modest in the beginning, it is acceptable with the DigitDia 5000 - although I strongly doubt Reflecta's indicated maximum density of 3.8 because in dark, shady portions the missing tonal value steps are noticeable. Something similar applies (although not so intense) in very bright picture portions. Anybody who however digitizes a high-contrast daylight picture, receives a good image, especially if afterwards applying a tonal correction in Photoshop^®.

This already points to the main deficiency of the CyberView software. CyberView offers one or another feature for the treatment of pictures, however they help little in the batch processing, so you can't avoid the complex Photoshop^® rework. Even with normal, high-contrast images mostly some processing is necessary, in order to receive a satisfying result. While scanning works comfortably and automatically, the following treatment of the pictures is rather complex and time-consuming.

Still CyberView does at least one substantial job: it recognizes very well whether pictures are inserted across or upright inside the magazine, so it's neither necessary to turn the pictures before scanning in the magazine, nor to rotate them after scanning. That's a considerable feature, particularly since also large sized 36x36 slides are recognized.

Scanning B&W-pictures and negatives using CyberView

99% of all DigitDia buyers are scanning large quantities of slides in the magazines with the device. The DigitDia handles not only positives well, but also negatives and black-and-white pictures - supposed they're framed in conventional slideframes. Whoever would like to digitize his negatives with the DigitDia 5000 simply has to cut his film strips and frame them the regular way.

But I don't recommend it to anybody to do this, because even CyberView is able to scan black-and-white pictures as well as negatives, results are rather poor. The strong, accentuated film grain can be reduced with the film grain smoothing procedure, but the picture becomes blurred through that, so that again an "unsharpen mask" in Photoshop^® has to be applied. But the bad colors of the negative are even more disturbing, this comes from the default, generic color-adjustment-profile and in black-and-white pictures from the way too low tonal range.

Only with a very complex follow-up picture treatment, somehow acceptable results can be achieved from the bad scans. But the film strips are therefore cut and cannot be any longer comfortably re-scanned with a regular scanner (this desire arises quickly).

Scanning with SilverFast software

If I wrote above, that scanning with the manufacturers own CyberView software results in an increased postprocessing of each picture, then this points strongly on a missing color management system. I can only repeat over and over again that the absolute basic requirement for the estimation of colors of a scan is a calibrated screen (please see the page on screen calibration). That's to ensure that the rework, which one does, using a picture workover program, corrects the picture and not an incorrectly adjusted monitor.

Everybody, who buy the DigitDia 5000 with the SilverFast software, receives an IT-8 calibration slide. That's a standardized color slide with numerous colour fields, which has to be simply scanned. Since SilverFast knows (based on a reference table) which colors must be present in what place of the picture, it can make a comparison with the scanned colors and generate from this an individual color profile for the attached scanner. This ICC profile also corrects color defects of the scanner in every future scan. Since each scanner has other color defects, it makes no sense to let someone else make such a profile for you; the correction has to be done with your own scanner. The characteristics of a scanner change in the course of time, so this IT-8 calibration should be repeated once every week or month. It takes only five minutes.

If the DigitDia 5000 is IT-8 calibrated, a correction file (a so-called ICC profile) is stored on the harddisk. Each time SilverFast produces a scan file, the original scan is taken and revised based on the correction file. Stored will be then an already corrected picture, which is also shown this way, if the screen is calibrated rightly.

The small amount of time that the color calibration takes, will be saved many times in all following scans. Anybody who loads a IT-8 calibrated scan into Photoshop^® and perfroms an automatic tonal correction in most won't notice anything happen. This means Photoshop^® does not have anything to do; the colors are simply correct from the beginning. This saves a lot of time through the fact, that it isn't necessary to do work on each picture. Post-processing won't be required for every picture in order to correct the scanner errors, actually only in order to adjust higher-contrast exposures or to add contrast to pictures with weak colors.

But not only thanks to the IT-8 color calibration, but also due to better image-processing algorithms, SilverFast yields much better scans than CyberView. It's noticeable that professional software is in use. SilverFast also handles b/w-images and negatives much better than CyberView. While I received very unsatisfactory results with CyberView, to some extend acceptable results could be obtained with SilverFast, thanks to the Negafix-dialogue. I still can't recommend the DigitDia 5000 for negatives and b/w pictures, since there are really better alternatives on the market. Particularly since it is am extremely demanding job to cut and frame film strips. I also like to advise against digitization of Kodachromes, because first of all the colors do not match accurately and second: ICE doesn't work really fine with them.

Summary on image quality

Such a large difference in the image quality due to usage of SilverFast instead od the manufacturers own product, is hard to find in any other scanner. Especially in the case of huge batch scans, which are the ones most commonly done with the DigitDia 5000, the IT-8 calibration pays off because there is way less picture treatment needed after scanning.

Of course here I have to praise the ICE dust- and scratch-correction which the DigitDia 5000 has. ICE fulfills its tasks outstandingly and the Scans, releaved from dust and scratches, look simply much better. While in CyberView ICE can be only switched on and off, SilverFast offers the same function with several adjustment options under the name iSRD (own correction algorithms). This takes some trial-and-error until the optimum adjusrment is found. ICE and/or iSRD aren't however a magic tool against rough dust: fine dust particles and tiny hairs are being effectively removed, but against heavy dust even ICE has no chance. I can only recommend to free the magazine from dust particles and flakes by using anti-dust-spray before inserting it. Simply spray sideways through the gaps of the magazine before scanning it, then rough dust and dirt will be blown away. It's important to know that the automatic dust- and scratchremoval ICE and/or iSRD work only with color-pictures. Whoever has mixed in some black-and-white images into his slides will receive catastrophic results.

The DigitDia 5000 also supports the automatic picture correction procedures GEM and ROC. GEM accomplishes a film grain smoothing, ROC does an automatic color restoration. Both algorithms are effective and powerful; however a once made adjustment doesn't always fit all pictures in a magazine. With those functions careful handling is advised and perhaps it's better to scan some slides separately - with individual adjustments.

As result I can note that the Reflecta DigitDia 5000 provides a good image quality when used with the SilverFast scan software. However I limit this statement to color-positives and rather advise against B/W- and negative-scans.

Scanning speed

Reflecta's DigitDia 5000 is a magazine scanner, which is supposed to scan large series of framed small picture slides in batch-processing. With such a device in my opinion the scanning time is not of the same importance like with a film scanner, which digitizes frames or small film strips, because anybody who starts scanning a 100's magazine, has to use his time anyway for other activities while this job is in progress. Of course it nevertheless does make a difference whether a magazine with 100 slides is done in 3 hours, 5 hours or 10 hours.

I determined the following timings for batch processing with normal framed CS slides. The DigitDia 5000 was attached through the USB-2.0 interface to a computer with a dual core 2.13 GHz processor and 2 gigabyte RAM.

The preview for an individual slide is done in a half a minute. Comparing this time with that of the predecessor model DigitDia 4000, indeed a speed increase around 20% is visible. Usually slides are being scanned with the DigitDia5000 dust- and scratchremoval procedure enabled. Such a scan takes approximately 3 minutes - just as the table shows. Without ICE it's about 40s faster, but this speed improvement is bought with vast cuts in the image quality.

If one compares the duration of 182 seconds for a slide to the predecessor model DigitDia 4000 (225 s), a speed increase of rather exactly 20% is found here too. Even though the scanning time for a single slide is just reduced by approximately 40s, this difference will save more than one hour time when scanning a magazine loaded with 100 CS-frames.

Still, the DigitDia 5000 can't be called a sprinter; there are clearly faster film scanners on the market. Especially if additional software filters are used, e.g. the automatic filmgrain-smoothing GEM or the automatic color restoration ROC, then the scanning time increases significantly and the duration for a scan can easily reach 5 to 10 minutes per picture. This way a magazine with 100 pictures could take a whole day's work.

Much more important than the speed is the question, how many pictures run through without disturbance. In practice one starts the DigitDia with a full magazine, observes the first 10 minutes whether everything works well and if the image quality is as desired; then hourly checks whether the scanner still runs or if it got stuck. If the latter is the case, it's of course annoying, if the scanner stopped after just 3 pictures.

The provided software

Reflecta equips the DigitDia 5000 with a good software set, that can be installed on a PC - but as well as on a Mac:

• CyberView scanning software (including the scanner driver)
• Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements 3

Today there's practically not film scanner, which isn't delivered without Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements. Actually it's rather with extremely expensive devices, where this software is missing (whoever buys such devices, is probably already possessing a picture-processing software). For a starter in the field of slide-scanning and picture-processing, Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements is the perfect program. The program is already so extensive that one can hardly believe that there's the 10 times more expensive full version of Photoshop^®. However included is only the version 3 of Photoshop^® Elements, the update to the latest version must be purchased separately. This means included is a software, which in development has already progressed several versions further, but at least it's part of the standard-delivery-pack.

Photoshop^® Elements is used to image adjustments after scanning. This can be a simple rotation or flip, a change in brightness, a detailed tonal value correction or also complex filtering with effects - enabling one to manipulate the picture nearly up to unrecognizability.

CyberView is a simple scan software, however it isn't 100% intuitive. A beginner can quickly get along with it, but the software offers too few adjustment-possibilities and doesn't yield the scanner's maximum image quality. The post-processing required for CyberView scans is considerable.

Optionally one can get the Reflecta DigitDia 5000 with SilverFast scan software. I summarized SilverFast's advantages compared to a normal scan software on a dedicated SilverFast page. With SilverFast one not just gets a better image quality, but also much better adjustment possibilities for scanning. Batch processing is particularly praiseworthy: for example one can instruct the software to scan the current magazine from image 73 to 87 and store the pictures as Florida_0073.jpg to Florida_0087.jpg

However, even SilverFast still has a small flaw: the automatic format detection doesn't always work perfectly. Either you'll have to re-scan the few wrongly recognized pictures later, or always use the landscape format and manually rotate the upright pictures inside the magazine before scanning. SilverFast is also quite extensive and requires more training time than CyberView. There is an excellent book by Taz Tally, please see the corresponding recommendation on our literature page.

Summary, result

The Reflecta DigitDia 5000 is a magazine scanner, which was created for large quantities of framed 35mm slides in magazines. With the purchase of such a device one should be aware of two things: first of all, it will take some weeks of training to be able to work smoothly with the device and its software; secondly: interruptions while scanning will happen - particularly if thin cardboard-frames or thick glass-frames are to be scanned. Thus automatic, fully autonomous scanning of a whole magazine will only work under ideal circumstances.

One will only receive a very good, acceptable image quality, if the scanner is used with SilverFast AI scan software and IT-8 color calibration. The DigitDia 5000 is less suitable for negatives, kodachromes and b/w pictures. The scan speed has increased by 20% in relation to the predecessor model, however this is a less important aspect for a magazine scanner.

Buying a film scanner

Please, feel free to visit our online shop - it's the only shop on the Internet which is fully specialized on film scanners and accessories! We can provide you with any film scanner at an extremely attractive price and we also can supply you with accessories such as film holders or optional adapters.

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