A friend has recorded some of these segments and I thought they might be of interest here.

I'm going to be scanning slides for my sister and had planned to save the images to an external hard drive. I just starting shopping for them and I think I've found a problem. She uses a Mac; I use Windows 7.

Her husband has a Windows (7 or 8, not sure which) laptop but I don't think they have any way to network the two computers or transfer stuff directly from one to the other.

Does this mean that if I get a hard drive that works on my computer she cannot access it on her Mac?

If it will not work, I'll have to figure out how to transfer several thousand images some other way.

After a discussion a while back about various photos scanners I evaluated what I might need if I could upgrade. Well, my sister wants several thousand slides scanned so I told her if she bought me a better scanner I'd do the job for her.

Currently I have an Epson Perfection V500. It works fine but I have a number of old negatives that are too large for the Epson film holders and software. I bought VueScan to overcome the software limitations and devised a method of holding the negatives in the scanner (acetate transparency sheets work very nicely to hold slightly curled negatives flat) but for the larger negatives I still have to stitch multiple scans together and that takes a lot of time that could be spent scanning.

One member here recommended wet mounting which would require purchasing a pro level scanner. I've looked at the technique and with the limited number of negatives that might benefit and with my setup (which lacks good ventilation) I don't want to hassle with it.

This leaves me with the choice between an Epson Perfection V700 Photo - Refurbished - for $415 from the Epson store with free shipping or the new model Epson Perfection V800 Photo currently on Amazon for $666.99 from Epson with free shipping. For $150 difference I can get the newest version - it's very tempting! Both come with LaserSoft Silverfast. The V700 comes with Adobe PhotoShop Elements, but I own a copy of that and I have the full PhotoShop CS6 so I don't need it.

The V750 is still available - for more money. And the V850 is out, again for much more money and the only advantage it seems to have is two of each of the film holders - not worth the big increase in price in my opinion.

Any comments or suggestions from anyone?