Slide away

[undyingking]

Can anyone recommend a good place to get a load of 35mm slides converted to digital? Is it going to be hideously expensive whatever? Should I just get a transparency scanner and a slave to operate it?

Comments

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

I got a scanner with a slide adapter, and having tried a few slides, the quality was rather poor. There was one I used at work, and once I worked out how to (mis)align the lid so the transparancy and scanning bars were both aligned, it gave OK results. I reckon that if you want a good quality scan, you may need to try a few scanners before you find one that works for you.

The alternative is to use a proper slide scanner. We have one at work here, which is unused, and unlikely to be used in the near future as its owner has now left. You and it could perhaps be brought together, but I'd have to check if there's still a computer that'll drive it....

As for cost of professional scanning, I remember when I got this done 7 years ago, it cost a lot of cash - a few pounds per slide. No idea of current costs 'though.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

My father's interested in the same kind of operation, he's got hundreds of old transparencies he'd like to digitise. So far his research has indicated (as dr_bob suggests) that many scanners give poor quality results.

I'd be interested, on his behalf, in hearing if you find a satisfatory and affordable solution. Likewise, if he comes up with one I'll pass on any details he gives me.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

When I was doing this I had use of a film scanner, which was a nice solution. Took ages though, and getting the film clean was the main problem. The time issue wasn't so bad, as I was able to do other things whilst the thing was scanning, and then pop back to start the next one going.

I think that they go for a reasonable amount of cash on ebay, so you could always get one, use it for a month, and then sell it on.

If you can get once with ICE, then go for that, manually retouching the dust on the images gets rather boring after a while. Oh, and good luck!

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

I have an Epson Perfection 3170 photo which gives acceptable results (to me) with film; I haven't actually tried it with slides yet but it has a transparency holder.

Professional scanning will cost you a lot, simply because of the time it takes; it's not the scanning itself that takes the time, it's the setup. Not so much of an issue if you're doing it yourself (as davefish says, you can start it going and then do something else) but gets pricy if someone else is doing it for you.

[smallbeasts.livejournal.com]

I've done a bit of this, using an Epson 2480 scanner. Here's a few tips:

1) Scanners are bad at extracting shadow detail from slides. The density range is too high.
2) Colour balance is tricky, but easier than with negatives.
3) There may be better drivers than the ones that shipped with the scanner. I use Vuescan.


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