Ugly Hedgehog Newsletter

I would like to digitize my old kodachrome slides.
I have a lot. How can I do it inexpensivley (cheaply) ?

Bart

mccheever

Hi Bart, There are numerous Ways but Its Probably Easiest to buy a stand alone scanner for this purpose. There are products which are dedicated to SLIDES only. I would do some product research of course. After you have used it you can resell it on Ebay or Somewhere . Probably At a Loss at About what you would Expect to Pay for "Cheap". Hope this helps

Canon Canoscan @ Amazon.com

Vincent Loc: St. Petersburg, FL

Bart: The ProShow (Photodex.com) has a beautiful system for that. I did all my old slide and friends enjoy the way I set them up for the TV.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

If you have a lot, you may want to get a commercial provider to do it for you. They have expensive equipment, can do it fast, can do cleanup and color correction. There are dedicated slide scanners for your computer, but the good ones are pretty pricey. Flatbed scanners can scan slides, but only a handful at a time, and you may find yourself spending huge amounts of time trying to restore color and balance.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Yes. ProShow is a great program for making slide shows.
I just moved up to ProShow Producer.
Bart is asking about scanning slides.
Slide shows are the next step.

I have two Nikon LS 4000 scanners at work. They will do a batch of 40 at a time...if they don't jam. (but they almost always do) There is always a bit of post-processing after they are scanned.
If I need a scan fast and effortless, I just use our Epson flat bed scanner. We have a V700. I can use the scans from the Epson straight out of the scanner in a lot of cases. They aren't quite as high a resolution as the Nikon but are still usable.

RMM's suggestion of sending them off is a good one. I haven't used them for this, but I think Costco will do it inexpensively. Not sure of the quality though. Might be worth a try. You can get a great hot dog or brat & a drink while you wait.

ziggykor Loc: East Texas

Many will laugh at what I'm about to write, but here goes anyway! Get an inexpensive lightbox like we used to sort slides on. Next use the scanner you already have that's called a DSLR mounted on a tripod. Get the focal plane and the lens plane aligned to the slide face and you're off to the races.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

I'm not laughing at all, but you will need a macro lens.
I use to copy slides to black & white film with one of these and a macro lens back in the film days:
http://www.adorama.com/NKES1.html?gclid=CKrfjpC817ICFeiPPAodh24AFQ

VINNIE_B Loc: Ukiah, Ca.

I also think they had a slide holder that mounted to your macro lens, I beleive I had somethiing of that sort but it's been a few 100 yrs ago