Slides to computer or other digital storage
Sep 20, 2015 19:01:33 #
I am contemplating converting my vast slide collection to some digital format. I have looked at a unit called "slides to USB" for $99. It sounds like a painless process. I'm sure some, if not many, of us who grew up with good 'ol Kodachrome 64 have done something like this. If this has been previously discussed, I apologize. Would someone kindly share their experience?
Sep 20, 2015 19:18:28 #
Most of the low cost slide scanners are actually cameras attached to a slide viewer. I tried 1 a couple of years ago & returned it. Wasn't happy with the results. Purchased a Plustek 8200ai from B&H. It wasn't cheap & it isn't fast but, I've been very happy with the results.
Sep 20, 2015 19:20:08 #
Not familiar with slides to USB, but face the same situation -- a big stack of moving boxes of slides (my Dad's included). I have been doing some experimenting and plan to post a variety of methods, samples, and time required for each method in the course of the next week. I will also post something on negatives after I'm done with slides.
Sep 20, 2015 20:10:23 #
interested in this as well. i've got some old slides of my grandfather's lying around and i'm not sure what scanner is best.
Sep 20, 2015 20:49:18 #
I used one of the "camera" slide scanners ($100? at Costco years ago). I didn't need the 7200 dpi scanner. It worked for what I needed.
Sep 20, 2015 21:11:39 #
I assume you have decent digital camera then you can use it to copy your slide. Unlike negative film copying slides with a camera is quite easy.
Sep 20, 2015 22:54:32 #
I have scanned and converted a total of about 50 35mm slides and 60 year old 120 B&W film negatives, and a roll of new 120 film slides at high resolution using my Canoscan 88800F flatbed scanner with the negative and slide holder. The results are good but time consuming, especially if I want to remove dust and lint particles from the digital images. Due to static electricity there is almost no way to avoid tiny dust and lint particles while scanning, that show up in the scanned images. I have come to the conclusion that it's just too big of a job to convert the many hundreds of negatives and slides to digital, and there's no way to do it that can take less than a few minutes per image. The other consideration is that no one I know would want to view most of them anyway, if they were digitized.
Bob
Bob
Sep 21, 2015 07:08:32 #
My brother went to a local photography store, they converted 120 images for $35.00 onto a CD. He did buy a viewer to sort through over 300 potentials.
Beemerboy wrote:
I am contemplating converting my vast slide collection to some digital format. I have looked at a unit called "slides to USB" for $99. It sounds like a painless process. I'm sure some, if not many, of us who grew up with good 'ol Kodachrome 64 have done something like this. If this has been previously discussed, I apologize. Would someone kindly share their experience?
Sep 21, 2015 07:36:21 #
I made my own device for copying slides. I didn't want to pay out for a gadget that would be surplus soon after purchase.
Basically I had some matt black art board, made a square tube around 8 inches long, blanked off both ends after cutting a round hole at one end, which allowed my macro lens to fit inside. The other end I cut a square hole big enough to allow light through the transparency regardless of which orientation the slide was inserted. I had a single slide holder, so I made brackets, using art board, to allow the holder to be lifted out and re-inserted after changing slides.
Outside of this I taped a translucent white piece of plastic, which acted as a diffuser. This whole gadget was placed near a window. The camera was on a tripod, carefully getting it squared up with the slide., using daylight I rattled of approx. 1,000+ slides in a couple of days.
P.S. I used a remote shutter release to avoid any camera shake.
Basically I had some matt black art board, made a square tube around 8 inches long, blanked off both ends after cutting a round hole at one end, which allowed my macro lens to fit inside. The other end I cut a square hole big enough to allow light through the transparency regardless of which orientation the slide was inserted. I had a single slide holder, so I made brackets, using art board, to allow the holder to be lifted out and re-inserted after changing slides.
Outside of this I taped a translucent white piece of plastic, which acted as a diffuser. This whole gadget was placed near a window. The camera was on a tripod, carefully getting it squared up with the slide., using daylight I rattled of approx. 1,000+ slides in a couple of days.
P.S. I used a remote shutter release to avoid any camera shake.
Sep 21, 2015 08:14:47 #
I projected my slides as you normally would. With camera on a tripod I knocked off hundreds of slides in an evening. Eventually got all copied, worked well.
Sep 21, 2015 08:17:20 #
Beemerboy wrote:
I am contemplating converting my vast slide collection to some digital format. I have looked at a unit called "slides to USB" for $99. It sounds like a painless process. I'm sure some, if not many, of us who grew up with good 'ol Kodachrome 64 have done something like this. If this has been previously discussed, I apologize. Would someone kindly share their experience?
I posted a link about this product from an online article a few days ago. It sounds like a good idea, but read reviews, if possible.
http://www.amazon.com/Jumbl-Scanner-Speed-Load-Adapters-Negative/dp/B00LU0XO3O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442837747&sr=8-1&keywords=slide+converter
I had ScanCafe convert a few hundred of mine, and they are excellent, but pricey - about $0.30 per slide.
Sep 21, 2015 08:34:19 #
Beemerboy wrote:
I am contemplating converting my vast slide collection to some digital format. I have looked at a unit called "slides to USB" for $99. It sounds like a painless process. I'm sure some, if not many, of us who grew up with good 'ol Kodachrome 64 have done something like this. If this has been previously discussed, I apologize. Would someone kindly share their experience?
I have an Epson 750Pro scanner and I did roughly 3000 35mm slides and 1000 6x6 slides. Some of the slides were quite old, but scanning was OK. Also I had some slides with very dark patches that didn't scan well, even though the scanner has a D4.0 rating. The only scanners that are near perfect are the Nikon for 35mm slides ($$$) and the Hasselblad for 6x6 slides ($$$$$$$$). So find a good compromise!
Sep 21, 2015 08:51:47 #
Bugfan
Loc: Toronto, Canada
Early on I got a document scanner that included a slide adaptor. The scanner did an ok job with paper and scanning prints but when it came to doing slides it really sucked. I tried a few other offerings that were equally abysmal. I had about 25,000 slides to scan and I wasn't going to start that process until I finally had a technology that worked effectively.
This eventually led me to the Nikon scanners. Their middle model, the Super Coolscan 5000ED which is no longer available was expensive like hell but did superlative work. It also allowed me to load a batch of slides for scanning so that I didn't have to constantly feed individual slides.
Much later I also bought an Epson V750 Pro scanner. This was a flat bed instead of a film scanner but it too was designed for slides and 35mm film. What was really nice was that it also did negatives of different sizes, something I realized later I had needed too. The only down side of this scanner was that you couldn't do batch scanning. They did have a holder for a dozen or so slides but you had to place them into the frame and then dig them out later and you had to then separate each image in the scanned result. That is a pain if you have lots of slides to do.
Between these two machines all my scanning problems went away. I had control over my scanning quality and my film collections eventually went digital.
I went this route due to volume. There are a lot of services that will do the scanning for you for a price and if you're only doing a few hundred slides or negatives it's cheaper to use the services. But if you have a lot to scan it ends up a lot cheaper using the scanners instead.
Before and after acquiring these two machines I've seen other offerings for the consumer. From what I could tell most of them were toys. They would do a scan and some rather easily, but the quality always sucked. They lack the sophisticated software too and many have low resolution.
That's not to say there aren't other good scanners but make sure you go through reviews before you take a chance on one of them.
I should also add that both scanners have a driver that looks like an airplane cockpit. The Epson however, to its credit, has three views. One is fully automatic and simple, then there is one that gives you some control and it's mostly in English, and the third view is the airplane cockpit for total control. I rather like that design too.
This eventually led me to the Nikon scanners. Their middle model, the Super Coolscan 5000ED which is no longer available was expensive like hell but did superlative work. It also allowed me to load a batch of slides for scanning so that I didn't have to constantly feed individual slides.
Much later I also bought an Epson V750 Pro scanner. This was a flat bed instead of a film scanner but it too was designed for slides and 35mm film. What was really nice was that it also did negatives of different sizes, something I realized later I had needed too. The only down side of this scanner was that you couldn't do batch scanning. They did have a holder for a dozen or so slides but you had to place them into the frame and then dig them out later and you had to then separate each image in the scanned result. That is a pain if you have lots of slides to do.
Between these two machines all my scanning problems went away. I had control over my scanning quality and my film collections eventually went digital.
I went this route due to volume. There are a lot of services that will do the scanning for you for a price and if you're only doing a few hundred slides or negatives it's cheaper to use the services. But if you have a lot to scan it ends up a lot cheaper using the scanners instead.
Before and after acquiring these two machines I've seen other offerings for the consumer. From what I could tell most of them were toys. They would do a scan and some rather easily, but the quality always sucked. They lack the sophisticated software too and many have low resolution.
That's not to say there aren't other good scanners but make sure you go through reviews before you take a chance on one of them.
I should also add that both scanners have a driver that looks like an airplane cockpit. The Epson however, to its credit, has three views. One is fully automatic and simple, then there is one that gives you some control and it's mostly in English, and the third view is the airplane cockpit for total control. I rather like that design too.
Sep 21, 2015 09:08:31 #
Past Pro,
I did exactly the same...projected the slides on a screen,,,,set up my D810 on a tripod....and got excellent resuls. I did about 400 slides in two evenings.
I did exactly the same...projected the slides on a screen,,,,set up my D810 on a tripod....and got excellent resuls. I did about 400 slides in two evenings.
Sep 21, 2015 09:13:11 #
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.