burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Here's a simple home brew solution. It works well with iPhone 15 Pro Max, using the 5X telephoto lens setting.

https://www.instructables.com/35mm-Slide-Converter-with-Cellphone/

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

I have only used it once, but the results look quite good.

Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter Set https://a.co/d/5SGnwiM

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Add a Viltrox L-116t LED light panel with its optional AC adapter (total about $50).

Add a sheet of 50% transmission milk plexiglass or Perspex.

Add a filter adapter ring for the ES-2 to mount it on the appropriate focal length macro lens for your camera sensor format:

> Use a 60mm macro lens on full frame

> Use a 40mm macro lens on APS-C DX Nikon or Fujifilm

> Use a 30mm macro lens on Micro 4/3

neillaubenthal

If you actually want usable images out of the slides after scanning…use one of the commercial scanning operations. They do this for a living and have the proper equipment to get it done. If all you're interested in is something good enough for instagram…then you can do it yourself…but few people have the patience to clean, scan, and clean up 1,000 slides on their own unless they're getting paid to do so IMO.

While some of the options presented will work…one has to consider what your time is worth and the relative quality of some of the do it yourself options as well as what you want to do with the final scans. I've got well more than 1,000 old slides from back in the film days and if I were really interested would probably pick that many or less to actually scan…but then again they're going on 50 years old and likely have some color change issues and while I could fix them…it's just better to pay somebody professional to do it for me. If it were just a few to a couple hundred slides and if I had the macro lens then spending a few bucks to get an appropriate light source and filter adapter slide holder might be worth it.

User ID

The main connection to the Nikon ES-2 is a 52mm thread. The ES-2 design assumes a "normal lens" FL, IOW, its not for the short tele FLs that Hawgsters prefer for shooting bugs and such.

The ES-2 still works perfectly if only you can increase the distance to the slide (pretend its a bug !)

You can accomplish that longer distance for about $15 on ebay. Theres plenty of Nikons vintage, fully manual, original macrofocus extension tube sets on ebay. These tube sets incude 3 different lengths of male-to-female 52mm threaded tubes. Problem solved.

The rig shown below makes 80 MP copies so you can crop madly in post !

A long macro needs some distance to see the whole slide. Old Nikon macrofocus tube set is added here onto ES2 to build up the distance.

(Download)

mikee

You have a project. I used a Wolverine slide digitizer, which are available on eBay for little money. The image quality is OK, not great, but then again our slides were projected onto the kitchen wall for viewing so this isn't that bad. The problem comes with having to load each slide into a carrier that goes into the magic box that does the work. It's a bit tedious. Records to a SD card. I think the only option is to produce a jpeg, but maybe the newer ones give you more options.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Note that one of the advantages of a dedicated film scanner, similar to the CanoScan that I use, is that you can load up to four mounted slides, or a six frame strip of 35mm negatives or a 12/25 exposures APS cartridge, and then just let it run, automatically saving the high quality images, in the case of the CanoScan, up to 4,000 dpi (dots/data points per inch), which for a standard 35mm slide works out to 6000 x 4000 pixels and an approximate 24 MB file size.

BTW, that 6000 x 4000 pixel size is exactly the same as I get using my 24.2 MP Sony a6500 camera.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Copy work of all sorts is precisely why I bought the Lumix 30mm f/2.8 lens... 60mm is perfect for full frame/FX, and 40mm is perfect for APS-C/DX. I don't use an ES-2, though, since I have a copy stand and an Essential Film Holder setup. I have a 2x2 inch slide holder for that.

However, the basic ES-2 with a 46mm ø to 52mm accessory step-up adapter ring works well on the 30mm macro.

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

Best quality, use a scanner. Or use a macro lens on a light table.

If you are not concerned about the quality, there are programs for your phone that will copy them.

I would get a cheap scanner and do it myself. It would take a long time, but if you are really interested in doing it right, that is the way to go.
You can also send them to a professional scanner and have no problems.

Only you can determine what is the best cost benefit ratio