Slides to Digital professional service

[rswift]

Morning,

I had a quick search on the forum, but didn't see anything recent re this.

I have just been given a large quantity of slides, 35mm. Mainly stuff from my grandparents taken in the '70's, so bascially a bit of a family archive.

I would like to get these scanned in to share around the family, mainly for viewing, not necessarily for printing.

I don't have the knowledge, time, equipment or inclination to do this myself, so can anyone suggest a reliable and reasonably priced professional service who will do this. I'm a bit nervous about committing the only copies the postal service, but anywhere Home Counties/London or East Midlands when I can deliver by hand would be ideal.

Any ideas welcomed....thank you, and Happy New Year to you all.

[ian in lancs]

Quick google http://www.photosos.co.uk/nasss.html confirms what I thought! 23p each... First task would be to sort the west from the chaff and the second break out the piggy bank.

[ExPat2B]

I have been having some negatives scanned recently..I can't offer any advice about where to have it done as I have been disapointed with everyone that I have tried !

Problems have been :

Jpegs output - gives very little to work with, and the colour balance was often wrong.

Terrible dynamic range on the scanner, blown whites, crushed blacks

Horrific oversharpening with artifacts galore and grain totally overblown.

I have taken to shooting negatives with my D810, macro lens and a slide holder on a white box and a flash behind. The RAW file produced is vastly superior.

[Simpo Two]

I agree. Having tried a couple of 'domestic' slide scanners and found the results to be effectively useless, I re-photograph slides in RAW with a macro lens and backlight. You'd be amazed how poor most slides seem compared to modern photos. I've found that gigitising slides really well means hammering out crap RAW files - intense, laborious and slow.

[rich888]

Give ADTR Videos and Photographs near Nottingham a call, they offer help with cine film and betamax or VHS tapes to digital, as well as negatives, slides or prints, along with restoration, repair and reprinting of old photos, slides prints or negatives. Tel: [phone] or mobile: [phone]. Have no connection with them.

[Weary of internet morons]

I've used a few companies and Exposure 22 seem to do a decent job. Not cheap, but the quality is more than passable.

http://www.exposure22.com