Robert Brumbaugh

My local library has a scanner for slides and negatives. 35 MM, 120, and 620 slides and/or their negatives. One one-hour class is needed to learn all the techniques. Take detailed notes. I can schedule scanning time from their website which fits my schedule. They have a Canon scanner with 3200 DPI. It does a fantastic job but only 4 slides at a time. It takes about 90 seconds per group of 4 slides, not counting the loading and unloading of the scanner. While scanning the slides, I used the dust brush and blower as mentioned in the previous reply. I export them to a flash drive which I import to my computer. I edit the images for under/over exposure on the computer and crop them to my desired size. Check out your local library or get a card from a larger city's library with a scanner. Sure it is time-consuming, but the end results are worth the time.

radiojohn

Note that the term "scanner" is often grossly misused. Many flatbed scanners have illuminated lids and can do high quality work.

Cheap box-like "scanners" are really 5MP copy cameras from China. Not nearly the quality as a real scanner.

And there are -or were- pro units that also looked box like, but really scanned.

No matter which way you do it, pre-undusting, etc. is a lot of work.

And don't throw out the "keepers!" Those slides my outlast any digital media we have today!

ashriverguy Loc: Rural Minnesota

This is the fastest and cheapest way I have found to scan, sort and 'save to digital’ your favorite slides. If you have a copy stand that property will work too). Actually they come out pretty nice. Just take a photo of a blank white sheet of paper to use as your iPad light source to display on your iPad. Note that you need some distance (the box) between the iPad surface and slide to eliminate (unfocus) the grain from the iPad. The pink remote in front works well as it maintains the alignment, eliminates any shake and speeds up the operation considerably. The negatives were over 50 years old and, once I did this, I had some of the slides professionally scanned and printed 11 x 14 metal. They turned out very nice.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Here is a perfect light table JPEG. It was made in Photoshop by creating a canvas of RGB values 255, 255, 255. So it will be as white as your monitor is accurate.

(Download)

billmck Loc: Central KY

I have the Canoscan 9000, and it only does four slides at a time. Am I missing something?

Bill

jarhtmd

Thanks to EVERYONE for all the information, advice and recommendations. I know I have a huge task ahead, but had no idea that I would get so many replies. My first job will be reviewing via a projector (or a light table for slides that are not in carousels). That's a long delayed task that I've put off for years . . . complicated by the fact that way back in the beginning, I kept almost everything. One thing that IMHO I did right was to number and label every slide. Even after culling the junk, I might even abandon the idea of digitizing (at least for now). If I'm really harsh maybe I can get down to a 'reasonable' number of slides.
Then I'll need to cull my digital images. I've also kept way too many of them.
Thanks again guys & gals.

BebuLamar

I used an Ektagraphic projector, modified so I have a better diffused light source than the original. I use my camera with an enlarging lens and a bellow shooting the slide directly without the projector lens. I have to advance the slide then press the cable release on the camera for every shot but I can shoot quite fast doing it that way. I use the 80 slide tray to avoid jaming.
I have many programmable controllers used in factory automation which I could use to automate the task but I don't feel is needed.

jarhtmd

BebuLamar,
There's gotta be instructions available describing such a setup? That sounds like something I could probably set up. I have a Kodak 4400 projector. I just did a quick YouTube search & got lots of hits. Using the right search terms is probably the key. It might require kissing a lot of frogs before finding the prince.

BebuLamar

Check this guy out. He replaced the light bulb and power supply.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPCpwcn2Q6w

Old Coot

Sorry, should have been more specific. My Canoscan is Model 9950F which definitely does 12 slides at once

Fencehog

One of the old Nikon Coolscan models (forgot which) has an attachment, which allows automatic scanning of multiple slides. It dates back to Window XP. Nikon does not have drivers for newer Windows, but Vuescan can make it work very well, or get an old laptop and run Windows XP on it. The relevant Coolscan and the adapter show up in eBay regularly/ Prices are high. I am no expert, but have read that this Coolscan is still one of the best slide scanners ever made.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

There are lots of ways to convert slides to digital images. I did it a few years ago with a slide holder that screwed onto a lens. I attached a light to it so I had uniform repeatable lighting with a halogen bulb. A lot of the slides were 70 years old and so postprocessing was necessary to try to mitigate fading of colors. The two biggest problems were (1) dust on the slides (and water or other damage); (2) documentation. It is not enough to present an image. Most images by themselves do not present enough words to fully describe them. You need who, what, why, when, where. This is particularly true with family photos. If you took the photos you most likely remember who appears in the image, but you are going to preserve them for the family, and 50 years or more down the road, your kids will not know everyone in the photos. I have hundreds of slides that my grandparents took on their trips. I haven't a clue where they were taken. Some of the slides have photos of my grandparents with other people. I don't know whether they are friends or relatives.

Documenting digital images can be done, but it takes work. Adding Documentation to Family Photos has a few suggestions.

Robert Brumbaugh

Not photography related. I kissed a lot of frogs dating. (kissing only) But I found the right girl. 55 years later we are still happily married. Sometimes at first, if you don't succeed keep trying. Edison found over 1000 solutions to light bulbs that didn't work, but his final solution for the light bulb went on to make him famous.