While the book has some helpful information, it is all in all disappointing for readers who already own scanners and seek help in using them to best effect. Specifically, over 50 pages of the 230 in the book seem aimed at helping the reader decide WHETHER to digitize slides and negatives in the first place. I would have liked a clearer and more comprehensive explanation of whether, why, and how one can use the multitude of settings and tools on the better scanners. The writing, editing, and use of illustrations are passable but not as good as I had hoped and not nearly of the quality found, for example, in the Ben Willmore books on Photoshop. The Steinhoff book includes a DVD containing little of readily apparent value; the promised software turns out to be limited trial versions easily found on the web, should you want them.

I'm an amateur photographer who is learning how to scan film. When I see this book I'm very excited and expect it can improve my skill in getting a better output. To be frank I'm totally disappointed when I read the book. The book gives you a very good introduction about scanners, basic scanning principle and terminology, and popular scanning software like Nikon Scan, Vuescan and Silverfast........and it ends here.

If you expect it teaches you how to tweak options in these software? Look elsewhere. If you expect it teaches you how to extract every details from a film using a particular software? Look elsewhere. If you expect it teaches you how to handle a problematic film? Look elsewhere. If you expect it teaches you varies in-depth workflows in scanning film? Look elsewhere.

Even the pictures in the book are bad. e.g. How you can illustrate the sharpness effect of a curl film in scanning if your picture is not sharp in the first place?

Bottom line: If you know nothing about scanning, this maybe a good book for you to get "just" started. If you've been using your scanner already, skip this book and use the money to buy more film.

This is a well written book that will guide someone new to scanning slides and negatives through the learning process. The author uses plain English and a lot of good examples to show how to optimize your scan settings in NikonScan, VueScan, and SilverFast. If you're interested in learning to scan negatives and slides, this book will help you learn what you need to know to choose a film scanner and how to use it.

There are probably other books out there that are more detailed than this one, but as far as introducing you to the world of scanning and getting you started on learning how to maximize your scans, this is a great book.