Scottty Loc: Portland,Oregon

Happy New Year to all you hoggers. I'm looking to scan a bunch of slides and would welcome any recommendations/reviews from any who have used these services in the past. Thanks in advance.
Scotty

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Want to do it yourself or send them out to someone?

Scottty Loc: Portland,Oregon

Considering both options. Also have a bunch of color negs that I assume would be better to do myself.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

The two favorites on UHH are one of the Epson flatbed scanners or a macro lens in front of a self made slide holder.

photostephen

I have a Nikon ES-2 slide holder (needs a Nikon 60mm macro lens) and I have an Epson flatbed scanner.

I ran a test (which I did post on this forum a while ago).

Summary of my results.
Image quality of using the slide holder and the flatbed scanner were very similar. Took a lot of pixel peeping to see the difference.

The big difference is that with that with the ES-2 slide holder on my Nikon D850, it took about 20 seconds per slide (put the slide in the holder, gain focus, shoot and remove the slide). With the flatbed, it took about 5 to 10 minute per slide (put the slide on the scanner, scan ... scan ... scan ... scan, take the slide out of the holder. Your scan time with vary depending on scan resolution, scanner model etc; however, flatbed scanners will always be slower than the slide holder in front of the camera.

Depending on what you already own, there are cost differences, I already owned the Epson flatbed scanner, the D850 and the 60mm lens, so I just needed to purchase the ES-2 slide holder.

FYI -- the ES-2 slide holder will work with any macro/micro lens with a 62 mm filter thread. It can be used with brands other than Nikon. Basically the ES-2 slide holder is just like using a U/V filter, it is not camera specific, and there are no electronics in the device. It just holds a slide flat without light leaks.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some reading material -

https://www.diyphotography.net/old-slides-want-scan-cheap-easy-way-home/
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/slide-copy-adapters/es-1-slide-copying-adapter-for-52mm-thread.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-448681-1.html#7548235
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-457230-1.html#7687881
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos.scanner&hl=en
http://opteka.com/slidecopier.aspx
https://smile.amazon.com/Wolverine-Super-20MP-Digital-Converter/dp/B00GIDADP0/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g2609328962?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&ie=UTF8
http://www.scancafe.com/services/slide-scanning

I've used ScanCafe, and they do an excellent job. You can download the results while you're waiting for the CD/DVD to arrive.

Bigmike1 Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.

Why waste money on scanning services? Order yourself an Epson V600 Photo Scanner and do it yourself. They are a little over $200.00. I am well pleased with mine. I actually have two.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Scotty, if this is a one-time thing, regardless of the number of slides/negatives you have, it would be better to find a reasonable, good quality service. Otherwise, you'll have the expense of a film scanner that you'll only use for this one project.
--Bob

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Epson V600. $230. When you finish you still have a very nice scanner. You can do slides and negatives, and you will have control over the results.

rwww80a Loc: Hampton, NH

Try a couple of copying services compare results and see what you like. There are several out there and some give you the option of higher resolution options.
You need to remember that slides, when mounted, are curved around the edges, just look at your slides. When you use a holder in front of a lens to copy, the lens may not photograph the edges in sharp focus. If you are into high quality slide reproduction you need to remove the slides from the carboard holders and use a flatfield lens (or reversed normal) to reproduce the original as it was originally produced. Remember the focus plane of the original film cameras?!

CurleyB Loc: MAITLAND FL

OK, buy the scanner for $200, do your slides and post it here and eBay for $180 and your net cost is $20 after you sell it.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I used to work for a company called Scan Digital. You might check out their site. They offer various resolutions.

You can check eBay for a Nikon slide scanner to see if there are any deals if you want to do it yourself.

If you send out, check on how they scan the slide first. I owned a photo lab and I found many systems to scan slides.

There is a Powerslide scanner that worked well. A little pricy but you can scan slides and maybe sell it if you won't use it again.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Nikon makes a slide copy attachment for their 35mm film cameras. The one in the like seems to be made for the AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm ƒ/2.8 lens, but if you search you may find one of the older PS-5 Slide Copying Adapters. There is also a PS-6 Slide Copying Adapter listed on eBay. You will need a bellows for the latter two (I think).

Using this mode you will have the ability to save a RAW file that will give you maximum flexibility while editing and restoring.

You might find an old NIKON Slide scanner, a free standing unit, but to use that you'll need something like Silver Fast to control it as the scanner is no longer supported by Nikon AFAIK.

Lots of options. Time to do your homework.

Bill P

You bet. Don't know if it will be better, it's dependant on your skill level, but it is cheaper and you can cut and try. Before retirement When I was still shooting film but converting to digital for prepress work, I quit shooting chromes altogether. They were a PITA, exposure had to be withing .0001% of dead on, dynamic range was, well, limited and scanning was not all that easy. I found that shooting color neg film was a thing that made my life much easier. And there's no magic involved in scanning negs. You will need to do just a bit of photoshop magic, but nothing that can't be done with elements.

But as often as not, I sent negs out for sanning, because I could pass the cost along to the client. Since you are the client, scan yourself and save you money.