Preserving precious memories is important, and digitizing them is the best way to protect physical slides. Slide-to-digital image converters can help convert your slides into a digital format, ensuring they are safe even if something happens to the physical copies. By converting your slides into digital images, you can display them in photo frames and give them a new life instead of letting them collect dust in your attic.
Digitizing your images allows you to try giving them a fresh look with one of the best photo editing software. This means you could even reveal details that might not have been visible until now.
Excitingly, some image converters even enable you to edit and enhance the image on the slide or negative straightaway using the touchscreen. This means you don't have to wait until you've uploaded the image to your home computer.
The best slide to digital image converters we recommend
Why you can trust Top Ten Reviews Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Top Ten Reviews is on a mission to review everything we feature in our buyer's guides. Still, while we work hard to make this a reality—or where this isn't possible—some of our guides still feature rankings based on our team's considerable expertise and research.
While we haven't been able to test any of the units in this guide in person, we've instead honed in on top-rated brands and used our knowledge of the best features to help you make the right decision for your home, all for the best price.
The best slide to digital image converter overall
This machine scored full marks in our testing process thanks to its easy-to-use interface and ability to handle multiple formats. It also packs a generously large 4.3-inch screen, which makes it easy to check the scan quality of images and do some basic tweaking. On top of this, the Titan has one of the highest-quality sensors we found (20MP), which equates to better-quality digital images. Despite these features, this is still a compact and lightweight machine, available at a reasonable price.
Most of the image converters we tested are compatible with 35mm slides and film negatives, but the Wolverine Titan also supports 110 slides and film, 126 slides and film, and even Super 8 film. This versatility makes it ideal if you need to convert various media formats.
However, this converter can’t digitize physical photo prints. In our tests, the scanning process was straightforward, thanks to the included plastic frame holders and labeled slots at the device's base. It is a stand-alone scanner, so it works without a connection to a computer, though you can connect the Titan to a TV for an improved viewing experience.
The slide to digital converter with the biggest storage capacity
The Kodak Scanza is a powerful and capable slide-to-digital image converter. It combines great ease of use, extensive film format compatibility, and storage capacity.
This scanner has received an average rating of 4.2 out of 5, with over 10,000 global ratings on Amazon. Positive reviews mention that the scanner is "good value for the dollar" with "fast, sharp images." However, the "color balance needs work," and there's "too much compression."
The device has a sleek, small design that makes it easy to use and store. It has a plastic design and feels lightweight yet sturdy.
The only thing we didn’t like about its physical design was the incredibly short cord, which may restrict how much you can move it around. It does, however, ship with three plug types, which is handy should you decide to travel with it or ship it to an international friend overseas.
The included plastic frame trays are easy to open up and maneuver. In our tests, they never got stuck and always moved smoothly. Once an image is lined up within the scanner, you can flip it horizontally and vertically if needed.
The buttons atop the device are clearly labeled and intuitive, and you can set the interface to run in one of eight languages as needed. In our tests, images seen before scanning appeared well-lit by the Scanza, with blues, reds, and greens showing up nicely and accurately. The resultant digitized photos looked extremely impressive.
- Read our full Kodak Scanza review
The best portable slide to digital converter
Weighing in at just 0.6 pounds, the Sharper Image Slide & Negative Converter is a great portable image converter. The on-screen interface in seven languages is a useful tool for any workspace. The device’s small stature does not mean it has decreased functionality compared to the other image converters we tested.
However, despite its compatibility with standard 35mm film and slides, the Sharper Image digitizer lacks compatibility with any other type of film or slides. And like many other converters, it cannot process physical photo prints.
The Sharper Image converter uses a 14MP sensor to scan and digitize your photos and even offers manual and automatic exposure adjustment to ensure they look great. It is moderately easy to use, with a basic interface and a few clearly labeled buttons. The converter comes with a cleaning brush, a user manual, and well-made plastic frame trays, which securely hold your slides and film during conversion. The biggest downside is that the converter has no internal storage or an SD card.
The converter does not work without an inserted SD card, which means you must buy one on top of the cost of the device. It’s worth considering because of its ease of use and sleek, portable form factor.
The best slide to digital image converter for features versus price
This slide-to-digital image converter from Magnasonic has a bounty of great features, including the ability to convert your slides and negatives into 24MP JPEGs in just five seconds.
With an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 with over 1,900 global ratings on Amazon, there are clearly plenty of things to love about this converter. Positive reviews mention that this converter is "cheap, efficient, and worth it" and that there is a "very minimal learning curve." However, some negative reviews aren't happy with the quality of the scanned images.
This scanner can also convert a huge range of sizes, including 35mm/ 110/ 126/ Super 8 film and 125/ 126/ 110 slides. While there's a respectably sized 5-inch LCD screen that you can view your scanned images on, you're also able to view them directly on a TV or monitor using one of the best HDMI cables.
This Magnasonic converter can also edit your images, which means you can cut out the middleman of your computer. The Magnasonic can adjust brightness, color and can also flip images too. There are also seven film format options to help make sure that the scanning process is as precise as possible.
With 128MB of built-in memory, you can store up to 50 images on your scanner until you can download them onto your computer with a USB cable. However, you can scan and save up to 20,000 images using an SD card. If purchasing through Amazon, you should have the option to add on three negative film holder trays, three slide film holder trays, or a 32GB SD card.
The best for digitizing photos
If you're here looking for photo scanners and not just slide converters, then the Plustek Z300 is for you.
This is a well-rated product with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 on Amazon with over 7,000 reviews. Positive reviews mention the speed it performs, saying, "this scanner operates remarkably fast even in the 600 dpi mode". However, some users have experienced issues with the Plustek software.
It's a compact, simple photo scanner that will happily scan and digitize an old 6x4 photo in about 2-3 seconds. It connects directly to a PC or Mac and instantly sends the digital file to your hard drive. From there, you can use the scanner's built-in editor to crop and resize images or do closer image work with specialized photo editing software.
What we love about this device is the speed at which it scans and how easily it'll chew through large batches of images. It'll even protect your pictures with smooth rollers that feed the photo through the machine itself.
The downside here is that it'll only do photos. And while it's fast, you can get similar results with most modern printers, which cost less than the $200 this regularly retails for. We recommend this if you've got a lot of old photos and want to get them digitized quickly. If you're working with photos, film, and 35mm slides... you'll need to combine this with another device on this list.
The best slide to digital converter for ease of use
If you have slides or negatives in color or black and white, then the Kodak Slide N Scan is a good option on your shortlist of potential converters.
This Kodak scanner has received an average rating of 4.1 out of 5, with 130 global ratings on Amazon. Positive reviews are particularly happy with the "quick, easy, and economical" nature of the scanning. However, this goes hand-in-hand with users saying that the quality of the scans is average and "acceptable" rather than being particularly impressive.
A big sell is that large 5-inch color LCD, but it's also backed by onboard editing software making for quick outputs without needing a computer. It's worth noting that this is automated, allowing you to scan in and enhance images with a single press of the "Scan" button. A continuous feed makes this a great option for flying through many negatives at speed.
There are very few downsides to speak of here, although the fact you have to update the time and date every time you power back on isn't ideal.
Usefully, there is an SD card slot so you can immediately output photo files on a solid-state media format. You also have various film and negative adapters, including 135, 110, and 126 films.
How to choose the best slide to digital image converter
Format
You need to buy the right converter to suit the format of media you want to be made digital. As such, you'll need to decide from the outset on what type you need, be it 35mm slides, film, physical prints, or Super 8. A few options will cover off-film, slides, and prints in one model, but not Super 8. So grab the one you need for the bulk of jobs, and you could, potentially, send the rest off to a specialist service for conversion.
Price
As with most gadget buys, you may have the price as a limiting factor. The range of models reviewed here is between $150 and $350, so there should be something for most needs. But you can splash out over $1,000 if you want a truly professional finish or want to bulk scan. The more affordable models should be enough for most needs, though.
Speed
If you are going for an option that means you need to scan a negative or a slide at a time, it's important to think about time being consumed. You will spend about a minute per slide to get converted at decent quality. If you want to go faster or do bulk conversions, it might be worth using a professional service or splashing out on a top-end machine.
Resolution
Quality is, of course, of great importance as you'll likely want to have the best result from the starting format. While resolution here means more pixels on the image, that is simply detail, so going for the highest MP number won't necessarily enhance the image – it just means you can blow up the shot larger, for prints perhaps, without losing quality.
Color and exposure
Another area to consider when it comes to quality is color and exposure. Some machines let you adjust these details as you input the slide or negative for conversion. While many automate this process for ease, some give you greater control over levels of individual colors of green, red, and blue and brightness so you can get it exactly as you want.
Design
Most converters come with screens, but these are only about 2.5 inches, so this lack of clarity is worth keeping in mind with all the above editing features. In fact, it's usually best to edit on your computer, where the clarity is better. With that in mind, going for a smaller machine to save space is an option, although most roughly average the size of a football. Some come with SD card readers and scanners, so that's a design feature worth looking out for if you want to scan from negative direct to a memory card without a computer.
Standalone
On the subject of standalone converters, are these best, or should you go for one that needs a computer? As mentioned above, a computer-based device is best if you want to edit the images. But if you want to get the negatives or slides onto a memory stick, you could save money and time by going for a standalone device that cuts out the computer middleman.
Support
While most converters are made to be user-friendly, many resources are available to offer help and support. From online guides and FAQs to community support forums, plenty is available from many manufacturers. The best companies also give you a point of contact, so should you have any specific issues, you can contact staff to get help directly.
How we tested the best slide to digital image converters
We've spent over 60 hours testing and researching the best slide-to-digital image converters, gathering information about older media formats, and noting the most popular sizes for converting slides. We're also conducting hands-on testing with the best products on the market to find out what you can’t learn from a spec sheet. We ran various media formats through the machines to test their user-friendliness, features, performance, efficacy, and results.
