veho Smartfix Slide and Negative to SD Card Scanner
B&H # VESMARTFIX MFR # VFS-008
Instructions compiled by Todd Ellison
page 1: from online reviews viewed 3/6/2015
page 2: from hands-on experience; updated 2/3/2016
See also the manufacturer’s user manual online
Bought from B&H Photo in NYC on 3/6/2015 for $79.95 incl. s/h (as of 2/3/16 the price dropped to $74.99)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=invoice&A=details&Q=&sku=917726&is=REG
Overview of this little scanner:
Using this tool, a quality slide becomes a quality digital image; those less so can be corrected
with the software that comes with the converter or with Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Converting slides is as simple as pie! Just put three slides in the slide holder, slide the holder
into the converter, look at the screen to center the slide and push "OK".
Charge the battery before use. Plug the unit into your computer with the USB cable to charge
it. The LED light does not reflect the true status of battery charging. The battery is charging
even though the LED indicates that it isn't.
Of the four round buttons, use the upper right button to set the type (i.e., to scan slides, as
opposed to scanning negatives).
Select the file formats (tiff or jpg) using the provided software installed on your PC or Mac.
The slide holder takes only 3 at a time so is a little tedious to use, but it does a great job
scanning the slides. Scans (or actually takes picture) in 1-2 seconds. Loading the tray takes
longer than the actual scanning.
To adjust the brightness, scan the negative, then press the button above EV/(trash can
symbol) and then the adjuster will appear. You then use the up and down arrows to control
the brightness. No need to bring it into a 3rd party software, unless you want to fine tune it.
~~ And, you can now adjust the brightness of the photo before scanning, although the manual
doesn't reflect the change.
Files are numbered sequentially on the SD card (you’ll find them on the DCIM folder
/100Media/. Once all files have been deleted, the numbers begin again from 0001.
The SD card has a tiny slide on the left side of the card (viewed with the notch upper right).
Slide this to remove the write-protection, to allow writing and deleting image files.
Operating instructions for scanning slides:
-Press the power button (the little rectangular one that’s by itself at the front of the inside top
of the unit that you see once you’ve flipped the lid up) and the light next to the OK button
should change from red to blue (or simply turn blue if it was completely shut down).
-This will prompt an option to upload photos from the SD card to your computer. To skip this
option and scan slides instead, select No by clicking the OK button (while the No option is
highlighted).
-Load your first 3 slides into the proper-size plastic slide/film holder. Turn portrait-oriented
slides sideways to capture all the film. Place the date-stamped side of the slide toward you
(glossy side of the film up) so any text on the image won’t be reversed. Insert the loaded
holder into the opening on either side at the base of the scanner; slide it in until you’ve
centered the first picture in the viewer, and then click the round OK button. This saves the
image. Once the timer icon disappears, slide the next picture into view and repeat until you’re
finished scanning all three slides. Repeat the process until you’ve scanned all the slides you
want to scan today (because it auto-numbers them sequentially and starts back up at
PICT0001.JPG and you don’t want to save over scans you’ve already created).
-After you’ve digitized all of your pictures, first make sure you’ve opened the Media
Impressions 2 program on your computer, then click the little power button to turn the
scanner off and back on again so it will again display the prompt to upload your photos to the
computer. Press the up arrow that’s to the on the upper left of the OK button to move the
box in the display window from No to Yes, and then click the OK button.
-Your photos should appear in the Media Impression viewer. Select the proper destination
folder. To avoid losing scans you already created, choose a subfolder if you already have files
in your destination folder that have the same automatically assigned file name but are
different images. If you want to add the same metadata to all of them, click to Attach a tag
and use the dropdown menu to find a category that suits these. Finally, click ‘Import’ (on the
lower left of the ArcSoft Media Impression window that opened) to save them.
-After it is done importing it will give you an option to ‘delete original files’. This erases the
images from the SD card in the scanner, saving space, and also prevents you from re-uploading
images that’ve already been downloaded during the next transfer. If you’re not sure
everything has been successfully downloaded onto your computer, wait to ‘delete original
files’ –but remember to go back and delete them after you’ve successfully saved them off of
the SD card.
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