jonathanhulme

Any suggestions on the most efficient and highest resolution methods to digitize 50-year old 35 mm slides?

bw79st Loc: New York City

For practical purposes, the best resolution you will get, at home, is with a dedicated slide/film strip scanner. I use a Canon FS4000US which I have to run with Vuescan software as there is no Canon driver for any modern computer. I just recently tried scanning film strips on my Epson V700 which is a very good scanner, but found the focus was not as good as when done on the FS4000.

cascoly Loc: seattle

I've used a variety of scanners, but best value has been sending to scancafe which costs$.20-$.40 / slide (and you can rejec images you aren't satisfied with)

there are also several other recent threads on this topic you might want to check

Jim1938

I have bounced the light from a desk lamp off a sheet of typing paper and through a pane of glass on which the slides are mounted. The pane of glass was situated at a 45 degree angle. Finally, I used a DSLR with a macro lens to take a digital photo of each slide. Obviously, the pane of glass has to be propped up by some means. I used books or some other heavy objects to keep it in place.

This worked well for me and I was able to convert dozens of slides in a short time. You may want better quality, but I felt my copies were more than adequate.

Dwiggy Loc: Dunedin, FL

Scandigital.com. Great company. I had over 2500 slides digitized at different resolutions due to usage and quality. Very personal service. Same person did all my slides and kept in touch along the way. I was satisfied.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

There are also accessories that you mount on the front of your camera and shoot one slide at a time with your DSLR. If you have the time to do it, that seems the most economical way to go.
It's pretty quick if you have a lot of slides to do.

bweber Loc: Newton, MA

Kodak has a service that will digitize your slides. Check with the about the cost. I think it is reasonable. I looked into it briefly, but the do not handle 6 x 7 slides.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Epson V850.
Very high resolution. Actually more than you will want on an old slide.
Additionally it removes any little dust and best of all restores color as you scan.
12 slides at a time and very efficient. Have done 1,000s with the predecessor the 750. All are as sharp as the original slide. You will likely be surprised to find how many slides are not as sharp as you thought when you actually examine the slide under a loupe.

Dwiggy Loc: Dunedin, FL

If you have it done professionally or by someone else, you should want to pay more per slide so that it is done well! I’m just saying don’t skimp on your photos that are “your babies.”

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Professional drum scanning or wet gate scanning... but that is very expensive service. Scanners to do it start at $25,000 (Hasselblad Flextight).

You can buy a consumer desktop scanner for about $200 (Epson V600). It scans slides, prints, negatives. It has Digital ICE software and hardware that remove surface scratches and dust from the scanned image. (It does not work on Kodachrome emulsions, so you have to flop the slides when scanning and flop the image in post-production. That way, at least it works on the base...)

Unfortunately, no desktop scanner I'm aware of is as sharp as a dedicated film scanner or a simple macro photography copy rig.

Dedicated film scanners are mostly gone now. Minolta and Canon and Nikon made the best ones. You might find a used one, but beware the interface requirements — SCSI is an obsolete cable technology.

Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE Film Scanner is a $400 film scanner with the equivalent of Digital ICE software available in SilverFast SE software. Unfortunately, this scanner is Windows only. Mac users need another solution.

Macro copy rigs are available that "take pictures of your pictures." You can build your own, or buy one. Basically, from one end to the other (or top to bottom), they consist of:

Camera (dSLR or MILC) Mounted on a movable rail system
Dedicated macro lens capable of 1:1 reproduction on the sensor
Light shroud or baffle with black interior to keep out extraneous light
Film holders or slide holders or roll film transport mechanism
Diffusion system for even illumination
Color correct, full spectrum light source

Of course, with that, you need software to assist with the post-processing. I copy my slides in raw, then adjust them in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC.

Working with black-and-white negatives is easy this way, but color negatives are challenging. I forget the name of it, but there is software available that does the inversion to positive for you, and gets you most of the way to correcting the color.

As for speed, well, it's slow scanning vs. slow post-processing clean up of macro photographed slides. It is a slow process if you are a perfectionist.

sabfish

I have also used Scan Cafe with good results. If you have a large number of slides it will be painfully slow to do it with a flat bed scanner at home. I am very happy that I chose to send them to Scan Cafe.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Be sure to inspect them for mildew. I didn’t do that with mine and wish I had. There are ways to clean them but I think it’s a bit risky. I had to do a lot of spot removal and cloning with mine in PP to clean them up. Also, scan at a high resolution. It’s slower but the amount of data is worth it. I didn’t do that either and regret it.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I use an Epson V750 scanner. Depending on how many you have, may look into buying a used one. Also, many on-line services offer "shoe box" scanning packages.

AZNikon Loc: Mesa, AZ

cascoly Loc: seattle

I looked at this briefly, too, but it costs about $1 per slide compared to $.20-.40 for scancafe