Olympus ES-10

Review Date
January 11, 2010

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Reviewed by
haydencookdonna , Intermediate

Price Paid
$15.00 at E-bay

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Outdoor

Summary
Absolutely fab scanner, with no real problems to speak of. Can be used with Win XP, but prefers 98. Quality of scans on 126 and 35mm slides fab up to 8x12 print size. My dad had nearly 1,000 slides over 40 years old from his South Pacific travels. I wanted to bring him into the modern age, so after a lot of searching found a bargain on E-Bay. I've not looked back. Yes scan times on the paralell version are up to 5 minutes each, and as others have said, forget dark slides. But these are minor points, compared to the smile on my dad's face, when I showed him the first 60 scanned slides. I use photo deluxe, or gimp for final retouching/colour balancing, but the supplied ES-10 software is a breeze to use. Sure there are better scanners out there, after all it is now 12 years old. But the likes of the Nikon come with a prohibitive price tag. The hardest thing was setting up a pc to use Win 98 effectively, as drivers for the motherboard were hard to find. ALL in all can't fault it. FAB!! Just looking to acquire the APS film gate, to add to it's versatility.

Strengths
Ease of use, Scanning quality, Build quality.

Weaknesses
Suffers with dark positive slides, ( to be expected given the amount of light needed to pass through the slide. Also scanning times, 5mins for high res. Although I have nothing to compare with on this.

Customer Service
Web support is fantastic, from a dedicated Yahoo Group, and a specialist website. Never contacted Olympus direct, as I figured it's 12 years old, and they wouldn't want to know.

Review Date
January 3, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
Kim Bakke , Professional , from Goodyear, AZ, USA

Price Paid
$350.00 at online

Photography Experience
21+ years , Other

Summary
Great product.

Strengths
Scanning slides and APS film.

Weaknesses
No driver to support any Windows operating system higher than 98. It runs great on a dinosaur!

Customer Service
Terrible and incompetent.

Review Date
October 27, 2002

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
Pam Logan , Expert , from Pasadena, CA

Price Paid
$0.00

Photography Experience
11-20 years , Outdoor

Summary
Someone donated this scanner to my company, and so I have been using it, but I have become progressively more dissatisfied. The bulb was getting dimmer and dimmer, leading to scans that were unacceptably dark. I sent it in to be fixed and they send it back to me without fixing anything! I sent it in again, and they changed the bulb - or something - but it's still rather dark. The quality of the scans is mediocre and if a slide is too dark, then forget it. Lately it has developed some electronic problem and my PC can't identify the scanner, so I can't use it at all. The installation software is rather opaque - there doesn't seem to be a proper driver for the thing, and there are no diagnostic tools supplied. No software updates have been issued in the 3 years I've owned this scanner. I think Olympus is giving up on it, just wants it to go away. Don't buy it!

Strengths
um, can't really think of any

Weaknesses
see my main review

Customer Service
see my main review.

Review Date
April 12, 2001

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Reviewed by
Brian Coiley , Intermediate , from UK

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Outdoor

Summary
Judging by the other reviews, maybe mine has a fault. It's very slow and frustrating to use, TWAIN compatibility with popular software is suspect, and the results are not that good anyway. It will take many lifetimes to do all the scans I want with this machine!

Strengths
Quick preview. Cheap.

Weaknesses
Awful software. The curve-based corrections are very difficult to use. Poor negative film profiles. Transparency scans all have a magenta cast. Sharp diagonal lines separate into green/magenta bars at all but highest resolution. No ICM profile. Hopeless with saturated yellows.

Similar Products Used
None

Customer Service
OK for simple queries. Had a problem with TWAIN compatibility which they never came back on. UK telecom carrier always cuts off the call before they answer, so e-mail only!

Review Date
February 16, 2001

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Reviewed by
Paul Capes , Intermediate , from USA

Price Paid
$385.00 at Necx

Photography Experience
21+ years , People

Summary
Very upset with Olympus for not supporting this product with Windows ME. Including the APS adapter I just spent over $500 for this product that they have no intensions of supporting with the new operating systems.

Strengths
Easy to use, has adapter for APS film
Good quality

Weaknesses
Will not work on Windows ME

Similar Products Used
None