$99 Dedicated Film Scanners at Walmart

David Murphy

David Murphy

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Does anyone know anything about the dedicated slide/film scanners that are being sold at Walmart in volume? I saw several shelves full of them at two Walmarts. The box they come says they scan slides and film. They are very compact, and cost $99 (they only have PC software support - not Mac).

(also, can we stay on topic and not let this become another political Walmart-bashing thread)
 
National Geographic has been selling them for a while now. I'm a Mac guy so they aren't for me anyway. I think they're basically a 3-5 MP digicam with a fancy holder attached to the business end.

That's my brief impression anyway.
 
Did you know the manufacturer and what type of connector is used? Those two details would help to determine the possibilities of the gadget.

I'm not seeing anything at walmart.com...

William
 
I suspect that this is the same hardware and software that is being marketed by a number of different companies, including Nat. Geographic. I have seen it under a number of different brandnames, including VuPoint, Veho, Broadstone, Ion and I am sure many others. I don't know who the manufacturer is.

We bought one of these "scanners" and put a review of this VuPoint / Veho / Ion / etc. scanner on our website.

In brief, this "scanner" isn't worth buying.

--Steve
 
I've also seen these advertised in SkyMall on airplanes, and wondered if it was any good. Sounds like it's worth skipping. Oh well.
 
Walmart must have raised the price on the scanner. The store near me had a large stack of them going unsold for $63. I was waiting for them to drop to clearance prices to try one. They had mixed reviews for reliability.
 
Haven't seen any of these at the local Wal-mart. Could be interesting, though. The Holga of the scanner market. ;)

I call the local Wal-mart "the center of cultural despair." It seems to be frequented by pregnant, barefoot, 15-year-olds and single mothers with eight kids, who inevitably end up in front of me in the checkout and take 20 minutes to sort out what they can and can't get with the food stamp cards.
 
Pompiere said:
Walmart must have raised the price on the scanner. The store near me had a large stack of them going unsold for $63. I was waiting for them to drop to clearance prices to try one. They had mixed reviews for reliability.
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this is an old thread...started up again.
 
Pickett Wilson said:
Haven't seen any of these at the local Wal-mart. Could be interesting, though. The Holga of the scanner market. ;)

I call the local Wal-mart "the center of cultural despair." It seems to be frequented by pregnant, barefoot, 15-year-olds and single mothers with eight kids, who inevitably end up in front of me in the checkout and take 20 minutes to sort out what they can and can't get with the food stamp cards.
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Well they have to shop somewhere and feed their kids somehow. I don't know where you live exactly, but most of the Walmart's I've been to are frequented by neatly dressed working class families, living on a budget. They are, to a large extent, what the democrats like to call "working families" - and good for them. It turns out that vast numbers of Americans cannot afford to shop at the mall, Nordstroms, Macy's, JC Penny's, Whole Foods Market, etc. (or even Target). I don't mind rubbing elbows with them. To me they are good people.
 
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David, I just picked up my latest Kodachrome roll from wal-mart yesterday.

And guess what, they actually called me a few hours prior to let me know that my slides had came in and apologized for being a bit late than usual.

I call it good customer service.
 
Pickett Wilson said:
I call the local Wal-mart "the center of cultural despair." It seems to be frequented by pregnant, barefoot, 15-year-olds and single mothers with eight kids, who inevitably end up in front of me in the checkout and take 20 minutes to sort out what they can and can't get with the food stamp cards.
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You just described the world nowadays. Where have you been? Mars? :eek:
 
If we'd only stop buying 90% of our goods Made in China and buy American (or therabouts) there'd be a whole lot more Americans employed with living wage jobs. As it is, the people who shop Wal*Mart and other low end retailers for goods made in low wage countries are cutting off their noses...
 
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I recently stopped in a Wally's while carrying my cased Leica over my shoulder, not wanting to leave it in the car. The "greeter" said to me 'now you know you can't take pictures inside the store'. I wasn't looking for one of their film scanners or wanting to take any photos, but it's hard to beat their prices!
 
My lady friend dragged me into the local WallyWorld last week to buy some kitchen stuff. She then found some mens' athletic shoes ("You NEED some new sneakers Dear. The ones you're wearing look as bad as your Leica cameras!") on clearance for $10 a pair. The girl at the check-out remarked that I should buy a couple of more pair at this price. It seems that they don't bother changing the price tags on final clearance items but the scanner read the tag as $3. It was the only pair they had in my size.

I had my Bessa L with the 15mm Heliar and shot some pix in the store, as I usually do, no problem. Maybe a cased (Luigi?) Leica is too upscale for Walmart.

Now that $99 scanner would be worth buying at $9.99 no matter how crummy the output. They have a great return policy too, just in case.
 
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shadowfox said:
David, I just picked up my latest Kodachrome roll from wal-mart yesterday.

And guess what, they actually called me a few hours prior to let me know that my slides had came in and apologized for being a bit late than usual.

I call it good customer service.
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Yeah they do the same for me. They call me at home and they are always super polite and service oriented. It's a surprisingly "old-school" experience.
 
visiondr said:
If we'd only stop buying 90% of our goods Made in China and buy American (or therabouts) there'd be a whole lot more Americans employed with living wage jobs. As it is, the people who shop Wal*Mart and other low end retailers for goods made in low wage countries are cutting off their noses...
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I understand your sentiments completely, but trade works both ways and the US is a globally engaged nation (and always has been). The Chinese (and other emerging markets) take our money and buy our T-bills, Boeing jets, Apple computers, agricultural products, and lately real-estate. Protectionism and the collapse of world trade is one factor that led to the Great Depression. The idea behind free trade and free markets is that it elevates everyone and makes the world a better place (eventually).
 
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The "idea" is understood and appreciated. In practice, it's killing the US economy to bolster overseas economies. While Americans can now enjoy low-priced foreign-made products, when home-based industries close or move off-shore and take their jobs with them, everyone suffers. The unemployed worker suffers due to financial pressures, the overseas manufacturer whose market shrinks suffers due to decreased demand and the government's revenues suffer due to loss of taxes. Protectionism may have led to the Great Depression of the 20th Century but free trade as it is being practiced today is doing a number on the economy of the 21st Century.
 
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