14kphotog Loc: Marietta, Ohio

I would like to buy, borrow, or rent a good slide copier ( Epson 600 ) pm. if interested !

therwol Loc: USA

Why not just buy an Epson V600 scanner? It should be able to copy slides.

FTn

If you shoot Nikon full frame and have a Nikon 60mm micro D or G lens, Nikon makes a great slide digitizer attachment. Just copied a bunch of chromes from a shoot that was done back in '83. Used a D850. The results were noticeably better than the ones done at a local photo shop and they charged $10 per copy.

-FTn

FiddleMaker Loc: Merrimac, MA

This is a real good tip. Glad you posted this. Do you place the chromes on a fluorescent light box ?

FTn

The digitizer uses a holder that you place the slide in and has a plexiglass defuser in front. We used a Balcar head as a light source but I think you can use window light also. I'll try that later today and let you know. We also used Capture One in live view to check focus and immediate viewing to verify that the digital image was good. You can do the same thing with digiCamControl (which is free) and a $10 cable from Amazon.

- FTn

FiddleMaker Loc: Merrimac, MA

Thanks much for tis info. I have thousands of old Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides from the 60s and 70s. But I am approaching 80 and not sure if I will live long enuf to see these all converted to digital.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Epson 600 is not a slide copier/scanner, although it lets you scan them. It's just a normal flatbed scanner!

therwol Loc: USA

Semantics. It's a normal flatbed scanner that can copy slides with the right settings and holder. If one has a massive number these things to copy, something like this that would allow multiple slides to be copied at the same time might be better than anything that only does one at a time, including a camera with a slide adapter in front of a lens. The V800 or V850 can copy 12 at a time. They cost much more than the V600.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The V600 is what you meant, right? It scans slides, negatives, and prints, and costs around $200 to $230 new.

If you use a Mac, note that Epson Scan 2, the 64-bit software for MacOS 15, Catalina, does not (yet) work with the Digital ICE feature (ICE stands for Image Correction and Enhancement, a technology that removes some dust and scratch marks, restores color balance (but NOT saturation), and generally helps you avoid some post-processing).

Epson Scan, the older software, works great on Windows 10 and MacOS 10.14.6 Mojave and earlier.

The V600 also works well with SilverFast 8 and Hamrick VueScan software, although Epson Scan does a better job with Digital ICE. Images from SilverFast 8 and VueScan also work well in Negative Lab Pro, a B&W and color negative-to-positive conversion plug-in for Adobe Lightroom Classic. (In my experience, Negative Lab Pro is the very best tool for converting raw files of negatives copied with a dSLR or mirrorless camera and a macro lens.)

FTn

Unfortunately what you gain in speed you give up in quality. Unless you go with a very expensive drum scanner the quality of your scanned images is mediocre at best.

- FTn

14kphotog Loc: Marietta, Ohio

Thank you all for the good suggestions. I plan to try and make a holder for the slides and photographic them with my macro lens.

therwol Loc: USA

This is absolutely true, but if someone wants to copy thousands of 50-60 year old slides, some compromise may be necessary for time sake. I ran into that issue myself, copying 8000 slides and negatives. I debated photographing versus scanning. I tried both. The photographed slides were of somewhat better quality, but it wasn't worth my time except in special cases.