Scanning 35mm Slides To Computer
Oct 17, 2018 01:43:33 #
Planning to batch scan several thousand 35mm slides. Looking at the Pacific Image PowerSlide X Automated Slide Scanner. Does anyone have experience with this device--good, bad or indifferent ? Is there a better choice of batch scanner ? Must be batch scanner for 50-100 slides per session. Don't wan't to hand feed slides one at a time.
Oct 17, 2018 02:19:24 #
jacooper wrote:
Planning to batch scan several thousand 35mm slides. Looking at the Pacific Image PowerSlide X Automated Slide Scanner. Does anyone have experience with this device--good, bad or indifferent ? Is there a better choice of batch scanner ? Must be batch scanner for 50-100 slides per session. Don't wan't to hand feed slides one at a time.
This scanner is extremely slow ... about 3 or 4 minutes per slide in JPG mode; MUCH LONGER if you are scanning to TIFF mode, or to an external HDD or flash drive. Also, if you are scanning to TIFF, the files are extremely large. You said you have several thousand slides to scan. I estimate it will take between 50 and 75 hours to scan each 1,000 slides. I returned the scanner and sent them off to a professional shop.
Oct 17, 2018 05:08:40 #
Foto bridge dot com is a slide scanning service. Their prices for scanning 2000 slides is $798.00
The Scanner you are thinking of buying is $1000.00 on Amazon.
If it were me, I'd get a slide projector (cheap) and cull through them until I had definite keepers and then send them off to be scanned. You might get away with $400.00 worth of scanning instead of $798.00.
Apparently a tray holds 50 slides and takes 2-3 hours per tray. Time is worth something also...you have to decide.
The Scanner you are thinking of buying is $1000.00 on Amazon.
If it were me, I'd get a slide projector (cheap) and cull through them until I had definite keepers and then send them off to be scanned. You might get away with $400.00 worth of scanning instead of $798.00.
Apparently a tray holds 50 slides and takes 2-3 hours per tray. Time is worth something also...you have to decide.
Oct 17, 2018 05:33:30 #
Use a 180 or 200mm Macro lens on a crop sensor body, and a slide projector without lens.
The crop sensor will let you shoot the slides with no borders, or even tighter.
The slide projector will do the slide handling and lighting.
Much faster than any scanner!
The crop sensor will let you shoot the slides with no borders, or even tighter.
The slide projector will do the slide handling and lighting.
Much faster than any scanner!
Oct 17, 2018 10:08:57 #
That looks like a perfect scanner for anyone with a large collection of mounted slides. I wish I had the excuse to buy one!
Oct 17, 2018 11:37:09 #
jacooper wrote:
Planning to batch scan several thousand 35mm slides. Looking at the Pacific Image PowerSlide X Automated Slide Scanner. Does anyone have experience with this device--good, bad or indifferent ? Is there a better choice of batch scanner ? Must be batch scanner for 50-100 slides per session. Don't wan't to hand feed slides one at a time.
It actually does quite good scans. Yes its slow, but similar speed to other high resolution film scanners. The big downside for the price is that it only does SLIDES, not strip film, and only 35mm, no 120 or larger. So if $1000 fits your budget and you will never scan anything but 35mm slides, it will do a very good job.
Oct 18, 2018 06:35:47 #
I was faced with a similar chore several years ago. Purchased a high resolution, quality scanner from B & H, saving the original box and all contents. First all the slides have to be sorted by day month year and checked for orientation - not reversed and rotated to the orientation of the picture - landscape or portrait. Given my plan to make a large screen TV slide-show the highest & best resolution was appropriate. Installed the scanner on my desktop computer that has a fast Intel processor and lots of memory. After several short trial runs that sent the test scans to a specific file folder appropriate for the selected scans I was ready to process. With the slide scanner processing choices configured I loaded the scanner with the max number of slides, started the scans, and went to bed. If you were to sit and watch this process you will quickly loose consciousness and the world will blur over.
Each batch was sent to a specific directory i.e. 1998-09-15 Family at Koy Beach. In the morning moving some slides to a different directory was usually required.
Joy in the morning - except several times a cardboard slide mount jammed the feed. Some post processing might be called for as desired. Placed the processed slides - in scanned order - into containers designed for that purpose, again maintaining approximately chronological order with flags containing a brief description of the year and what is in this group of slides and the number assigned to the scan. Then if a slide had scanned reversing the picture it could be located and re-scanned.
Finished the scans, listed the scanner on eBay, FB Market place for $100 less than original price - it was sold and gone in a week.
Each batch was sent to a specific directory i.e. 1998-09-15 Family at Koy Beach. In the morning moving some slides to a different directory was usually required.
Joy in the morning - except several times a cardboard slide mount jammed the feed. Some post processing might be called for as desired. Placed the processed slides - in scanned order - into containers designed for that purpose, again maintaining approximately chronological order with flags containing a brief description of the year and what is in this group of slides and the number assigned to the scan. Then if a slide had scanned reversing the picture it could be located and re-scanned.
Finished the scans, listed the scanner on eBay, FB Market place for $100 less than original price - it was sold and gone in a week.
Oct 18, 2018 07:56:17 #
The least expensive method, but it does take time.
I used an attachment on the lens of my Digital camera. It took two slides at a time.
See B&H for slide scanner.
Sat in the garage with muted daylight through the open door.
Much of the time was spent organizing, orienting and identifying the slides.
I took awhile but I did over 2000 slides. That was my first retirement chore!
I used an attachment on the lens of my Digital camera. It took two slides at a time.
See B&H for slide scanner.
Sat in the garage with muted daylight through the open door.
Much of the time was spent organizing, orienting and identifying the slides.
I took awhile but I did over 2000 slides. That was my first retirement chore!
Oct 18, 2018 07:59:41 #
jacooper wrote:
Planning to batch scan several thousand 35mm slides. Looking at the Pacific Image PowerSlide X Automated Slide Scanner. Does anyone have experience with this device--good, bad or indifferent ? Is there a better choice of batch scanner ? Must be batch scanner for 50-100 slides per session. Don't wan't to hand feed slides one at a time.
Consider copying with a macro lens to raw files on a digital camera. It’s MUCH faster, even if you have to clean your slides and spot a few images in post-production.
Oct 18, 2018 08:09:09 #
This works great. It is fast and quality is excellent.
Oct 18, 2018 08:13:29 #
Dik wrote:
Use a 180 or 200mm Macro lens on a crop sensor body, and a slide projector without lens.
The crop sensor will let you shoot the slides with no borders, or even tighter.
The slide projector will do the slide handling and lighting.
Much faster than any scanner!
The crop sensor will let you shoot the slides with no borders, or even tighter.
The slide projector will do the slide handling and lighting.
Much faster than any scanner!
I must try that. I have a 200 macro and a slide projector.
Oct 18, 2018 08:14:10 #
Pablo8
Loc: Nottingham UK.
I did a whole batch of 35mm and 2 1/4 sq. slides using my Magnum copier. (Like a Bowens Ilumitran, but with tungsten illumination, and dial-in filtration. Once WB was set to neutral, the slides were copied to a digital camera. I have a Canon flat bed scanner which does up to 5 x 4 film, or A4 print size, but much slower than the digital camera method. Wish I had a £ for every slide that was copied on the Bowens Ilumitran, when I was in business, and or sending 'Dupes' to overseas Exhibition / Competitions.
Oct 18, 2018 11:35:34 #
Hi Brent,
Your setup looks like what I would like to try. I tried to print a picture of your setup with no luck. In down load the pic is cut off making it unusable. Is this some kind of copyright issue. Will you send me copies of the two photos so I can duplicate your setup? Maybe with dimensions. My camera is a Canon T5i with the kit lenses 18-55 and 55-250. I also have a 50mm f/1.4 prime and a 85mm f/1.8 prime. In addition I have a set of Kenko extension tubes. Hopefully I will be able to copy some of the many slides I took forty some years ago.
Thanks in advance,
Flash Gordon
aka Paul Weakley
pwseapa45@gmail.com
Your setup looks like what I would like to try. I tried to print a picture of your setup with no luck. In down load the pic is cut off making it unusable. Is this some kind of copyright issue. Will you send me copies of the two photos so I can duplicate your setup? Maybe with dimensions. My camera is a Canon T5i with the kit lenses 18-55 and 55-250. I also have a 50mm f/1.4 prime and a 85mm f/1.8 prime. In addition I have a set of Kenko extension tubes. Hopefully I will be able to copy some of the many slides I took forty some years ago.
Thanks in advance,
Flash Gordon
aka Paul Weakley
pwseapa45@gmail.com
Oct 18, 2018 11:59:27 #
Flash Gordon wrote:
Hi Brent, br Your setup looks like what I would li... (show quote)
I'm afraid none of those lenses will produce a sharp-all-over image of your slides. What is important is that the lens have a "flat field of focus", meaning everything in one plane is in focus at the same focus setting. True macro lenses do this, but general purpose lenses do not. A used 50, 60, or 90mm Macro would not be expensive, and could be resold if you don't find yourself wanting it for other uses.
Because you have sooo many slides to digitize, handling time becomes all important. And because you will probably only print a tiny fraction of that number, you can deal with dust on just the "keepers".
A Carrousel projector holds 140 slides in trays or around 40 in the stack loader. The lens comes right out and once you set everything up, the autofocus macro lens, working at f/11 or so and the camera at base ISO, you can let the camera pick the shutter speed for each slide, and AEB too, if Rebels do that.
Oct 18, 2018 12:09:40 #
I used an older Spiratone slide duplicator to digitize the ones I wanted to. I pointed the unit towards a blank sky and let the camera set the exposure...That said, I do also have an Epson V500 Photo scanner I could have used but it took too long.
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