Scanning old 35mm slides?
Discussion
Has anyone done/does this?
My dad was a keen photographer when he was alive and my mum has boxes and boxes of old 35mm slides he took over the years.
What's on the market for scanning the slides to, say, .jpg format?
Any help gratefully received. I'd like to get some printed off as a present for my mum and give her discs with the rest on.
My dad was a keen photographer when he was alive and my mum has boxes and boxes of old 35mm slides he took over the years.
What's on the market for scanning the slides to, say, .jpg format?
Any help gratefully received. I'd like to get some printed off as a present for my mum and give her discs with the rest on.
There are machines you can buy which will do this, alternatively I believe there are services where you could post the slides to them and they would scan them en-batch and post the slides and CD's back to you.
However, your slides are no doubt irreplaceable/priceless so consideration should be given to the possibility that something could happen to them when they're posted off. Post does, unfortunately, go missing from time to time. But do weigh this up versus doing it yourself at home, as this would be a very time consuming process.
However, your slides are no doubt irreplaceable/priceless so consideration should be given to the possibility that something could happen to them when they're posted off. Post does, unfortunately, go missing from time to time. But do weigh this up versus doing it yourself at home, as this would be a very time consuming process.
I bought the Canon 9950F scanner. Does photos, slides and negatives. I think I'll be finished in about 10 years..........
The question though is at what level do you want to scan them? If you try and scan at the highest quality (4,800 dpi) then you are looking at several hours for a 36 frame film. I scan at 2,400 dpi and then rescan any particularly interesting shots at the higher level. It saves time that way.
The question though is at what level do you want to scan them? If you try and scan at the highest quality (4,800 dpi) then you are looking at several hours for a 36 frame film. I scan at 2,400 dpi and then rescan any particularly interesting shots at the higher level. It saves time that way.
lowdrag said:
I bought the Canon 9950F scanner. Does photos, slides and negatives. I think I'll be finished in about 10 years..........
The question though is at what level do you want to scan them? If you try and scan at the highest quality (4,800 dpi) then you are looking at several hours for a 36 frame film. I scan at 2,400 dpi and then rescan any particularly interesting shots at the higher level. It saves time that way.
Not sure how many would actually need to be scanned and done as prints to be honest. I don't mind putting some time in. Mum won't be bothered with that good a quality pics I don't think....just something to look through and keep which is easier than slides. Getting all the gear out to look at them is just a pain!The question though is at what level do you want to scan them? If you try and scan at the highest quality (4,800 dpi) then you are looking at several hours for a 36 frame film. I scan at 2,400 dpi and then rescan any particularly interesting shots at the higher level. It saves time that way.
Will have a look around and see what I can find!
There are a couple of options for you if you self scan.
You can find dedicated 35mm film scanners that will mostly do an excellent job though the more expensive ones will be much better than the lesser ones. Currently Nikon are the only manufacturer in this market at the vaguely affordable consumer level. Minolta were there with some good products but shut up shop for all photo kit a couple of years ago. Canon also used to produce them.
There are usually examples of this type of kit, often little used, for sale on eBay. One problem might be keeping them working with new operating system releases if the drivers are not updated.
Another approach is to use a flatbed scanner with a dedicated attachment for film and slide scanning. These often start at quite low prices for units with, typically, 4 slide/6 negative film strip holders and software to make use of them. Prices and capabilities then increase in stages up to several hundred pounds after which any demands for even higher quality will usually be moved into the domain of semi-pro dedicated scanners or on to pro drum scanners.
The Flatbeds will also act as normal scanners but are usually especially good at graphics and images and tunes to films (of different sizes) and photographic print reproduction.
If you check out the reviews on www.photo-i.co.uk and perhaps browse the relevant sections of the forums you should get some practical ideas regarding the options. Note that the debates found everywhere comparing ultimate quality are probably not worth being concerned about based on your outline requirement above. Usability and speed may be more important to you and I suspect that the results will be more than adequate for your purposes for mass processing. At least that has been my experience.
If you find some worthy originals that would be worth absolute top quality processing (most people have very few but you never know ...) you would probably need to resort to a pro service anyway to do them full justice without spending a lot on a rarely used peice of technology.
There is a third option whch involves buying an adapter to fit on a digital SLR (or similar) camera and sorting out some suitably consistent lighting arrangement and them 'snapping' the slides one at a time. A few people have been looking at that option and equipment is available.
Just initial thoughts.
How far might you want to get involved with processing and 'enhancing' the results? There may be recommendation about the most efficient software to use (probably that packaged with the scanner in most cases) that will vary with your eventual objectives.
You can find dedicated 35mm film scanners that will mostly do an excellent job though the more expensive ones will be much better than the lesser ones. Currently Nikon are the only manufacturer in this market at the vaguely affordable consumer level. Minolta were there with some good products but shut up shop for all photo kit a couple of years ago. Canon also used to produce them.
There are usually examples of this type of kit, often little used, for sale on eBay. One problem might be keeping them working with new operating system releases if the drivers are not updated.
Another approach is to use a flatbed scanner with a dedicated attachment for film and slide scanning. These often start at quite low prices for units with, typically, 4 slide/6 negative film strip holders and software to make use of them. Prices and capabilities then increase in stages up to several hundred pounds after which any demands for even higher quality will usually be moved into the domain of semi-pro dedicated scanners or on to pro drum scanners.
The Flatbeds will also act as normal scanners but are usually especially good at graphics and images and tunes to films (of different sizes) and photographic print reproduction.
If you check out the reviews on www.photo-i.co.uk and perhaps browse the relevant sections of the forums you should get some practical ideas regarding the options. Note that the debates found everywhere comparing ultimate quality are probably not worth being concerned about based on your outline requirement above. Usability and speed may be more important to you and I suspect that the results will be more than adequate for your purposes for mass processing. At least that has been my experience.
If you find some worthy originals that would be worth absolute top quality processing (most people have very few but you never know ...) you would probably need to resort to a pro service anyway to do them full justice without spending a lot on a rarely used peice of technology.
There is a third option whch involves buying an adapter to fit on a digital SLR (or similar) camera and sorting out some suitably consistent lighting arrangement and them 'snapping' the slides one at a time. A few people have been looking at that option and equipment is available.
Just initial thoughts.
How far might you want to get involved with processing and 'enhancing' the results? There may be recommendation about the most efficient software to use (probably that packaged with the scanner in most cases) that will vary with your eventual objectives.
In reply to LongQ Canon stopped making specific scanners because they found (as I have) that the new flatbed is as good as the older types. They didn't do 4,800 dpi anyway. This type of scanner is extremely useful since it does slides, negatives, documents and photos. Nothing is perfect unless you use professional scanners but I have found that for my purposes it is quite adequate. Really though, it depends how many negatives you have to scan and whether it is worth spending the money.
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