Slides to digital: Hi- new guy here. I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if...

cat30

Hi- new guy here.
I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if anyone has projected them on a wall or screen and shooting them with digital camera. Might be faster than s scan them with scanner I would need to buy. Quality of scan less important than maintaining the image.
Thanks
Don

burtola1 Loc: Paragould Arkansas

I set up a portable screen and took a picture of each slide. It took a while but it also brought back some great memories.

There might be a faster way,I don't know some of these guys will.

LB

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

cat30 wrote:

Hi- new guy here.
I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if anyone has projected them on a wall or screen and shooting them with digital camera. Might be faster than s scan them with scanner I would need to buy. Quality of scan less important than maintaining the image.
Thanks
Don

Don, why not just save the projector with a spare bulb? Easier and it meets your objective of maintaining the image?
A white wall is better than a beaded screen.
Welcome to UHH

ghill42 Loc: Colorado

I've done that with 8mm film and satisfied with the results but never tried it with slides. Should be about the same result.

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

cat30 wrote:

Hi- new guy here.
I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if anyone has projected them on a wall or screen and shooting them with digital camera. Might be faster than s scan them with scanner I would need to buy. Quality of scan less important than maintaining the image.
Thanks
Don

A friend recently loaned me a small scanner, brand name Wolverine. I don't think it is very new, but it does a decent job. I also have a lot of slides and negatives to preserve, some of them quite old - 40+ years. Degradation has occurred even though I had them stored in boxes and sleeves, and in a low humidity area of the house. For now I am just interested in preservation, but if I decide I would like a better copy for editing and printing, thought I could get those images scanned professionally for the best quality. [I do not have a projector, but I also have many more negatives than slides.]

It is a time-consuming project, but doing it in small chunks chips away at the numbers. I just started recently and have over 300 scanned. Maybe a fancier scanner would do it faster, but the price was right for the one I am using - free!

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

cat30 wrote:

Hi- new guy here.
I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if anyone has projected them on a wall or screen and shooting them with digital camera. Might be faster than s scan them with scanner I would need to buy. Quality of scan less important than maintaining the image.
Thanks
Don

I scan slides and negatives for customers regularly, right now am in the middle of scanning just over 4000 slides for a customer. I use Epson scanners for the work, a V550 and V600 at the moment. Business is good and I hire local high school students to do much of this scanning after school. It's not at all uncommon to get requests in the hundreds or even thousands of negatives or slides as people are realizing they have many decades of memories that need to be saved or shared.
Projecting them works, but the quality of the result is extremely sub par when compared to a good scan with proper color correction.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Costco

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

I'll second the use of an Epson V600 scanner. Not necessarily for the scanner itself but for it's software. I had old transparencies that were taken on bulk movie film that I so cleverly thought was a cost saver but 30 years later they had turned a red hue and I could not make out any of the colors in the slides. The software in the Epson corrected the problem and I was digitally able to recover them all. It will also do an unbelievable job of repairing scratches and dirt on the image weather it be slide or photo. The scanner is not one of the higher end scanners so it's very reasonable in price

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/647187-REG/Epson_B11B198011_Perfection_V600_Photo_Scanner.html.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

This attaches to your lens and you can just photograph each one. The fastest way to get the job done.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=slide%20duplicator&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

cat30

I had a slide duplicator for my old Minolta 102, still got it around somewhere. Thanks

blue-ultra Loc: New Hampshire

I have a bellows attachment with a 50 mm lens, slow process but works. I like see the different suggestions here that sound like a much better solution.

JR45 Loc: Montgomery County, TX

Some years back, I got an Ion Film 2SD at best buy.
Used it for a bunch of my slides. It did an acceptable job.

steve49 Loc: massachusetts

Same boat here.

Ditto the epsom.
Does a nice job... doesnt cost much.
Been chipping away at better slides and throwing out the rest.
Too many photos after 45 yrs.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

cat30 wrote:

Hi- new guy here.
I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if anyone has projected them on a wall or screen and shooting them with digital camera. Might be faster than s scan them with scanner I would need to buy. Quality of scan less important than maintaining the image.
Thanks
Don

I've read about people that make a box with a light in it so that a slide can be placed on top with light shining through the slide. Then a camera setup on a tripod with a closeup lens is used. I've seen some posted results that actually look pretty nice. If you shoot raw, you'll have a lot of leeway.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

cat30 wrote:

Hi- new guy here.
I have thousands of slides from the golden age of film photography of course now I am thinking of updating them to digital format. Wondering if anyone has projected them on a wall or screen and shooting them with digital camera. Might be faster than s scan them with scanner I would need to buy. Quality of scan less important than maintaining the image.
Thanks
Don

Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner.