I’ve just retired and I’ve got a lot of old slides and negatives I want to digitize,” this frequent request starts. “What scanner do you recommend?” Frankly, we don’t recommend a scanner at all.

Film is having another moment. Thrift stores are lighter on old SLRs than they used to be; teenagers are loading rolls their grandparents forgot about; family closets keep surrendering shoeboxes that ...

If you spend any time in film forums, you’ll see a familiar pattern: someone buys an Epson V600, scans a roll they’re really excited about, and immediately decides the scanner is trash. The images ...