Multimedia forum: Photographic slides into digital storage?

I hav just finished digitizing over 6000 slides. I used a low tech slide copier available from Amazon (47th St. Photo about $60). It was labor intensive, but very good. I am now trying to find a program that will allow me to transfer the jpegs from the hard drive to dvd. Any ideas or suggestions?

Each slide out of the tray, I guess, is the only way.

Unless,..... I had thought of projecting the slides onto a frosted glass screen and photgraphing that image w/ digital camera, from the rear(reverse image). Would need software that could then reverse the image to the correct orientation. Any ideas on the software part of the puzzle?

What was the name of the slide copier from Amazon?

Thanks

DML756

However, a digital camera which can capture the resolution inherent in a slide (about 15-16 megapixels with a 16 bit depth) is very expensive. Thus, you will have decreased resolution on the image right out of the starting gate. You will also have trouble getting the slide bright enough for a decent photo.

The inexpensive device described in this thread essentially does the same thing. It projects the image for a digital camera to photograph. Add saving the result as a jpeg, and you've got a very poor quality image.

I have to ask. Why spend all the time and effort for that kind of result? If I were going to do it, I would at least use a good quality, flat bed scanner that has a slide scanning capability designed in. Better yet would be a dedicated scanner.

Good scanners do cost money, and take more time. You get what you pay for. Just my two cents.

The old Kodak carousel scanner I noted was on the second hand or Ebay market. Did you look into that?

As to RAW I doubt it. I'll share that at the VA hospital it's scanned at 4800 dpi and is in a JPEG file. These are for medical records. The quality slider on the JPEG compressor is set at 70 to 80. These images are often pulled up in case any court case occurs.

RAW would take up far too much space but that's your choice. I know one mulehead that went that way and after a year they finally caved and switched to jpegs.

Bob

While good at what it does, I'm unsure if that's what I'd use for cataloging or scanning.

For scanning I just use what the scanners come with.

As to cataloging I've used simple directory systems to keep it organised since I have pictures from many years ago and software would change too often.

As to TIF or JPEG, that's something you'll have to decide someday. Well discussed so I'd let that go with only one comment. JPEG while maligned by some is what we had to go with on the medical slides due to space issues. Quality is fine because we don't use the higher compression settings.

Bob

It also includes a VERY high end piece of capture software called SilverFast Ai. Silverfast is the full rather than light version. Also included are the targets and software (Monaco EZColor) needed to perform color calibration. Photoshop is NOT needed for scanning.

Be sure to look at the pro version of the scanner (I think there's a 700 and a 750) which is the one that has all the software. That's a lot better than $1,400 for a Nikon. The photography program that I'm in has just installed several 750s in place of dedicated scanners.

of their features.

Can anyone speak to the Microtek 900i?

Could you please tell me how long it takes to scan 12 slides? Is that 1800 dpi or 3600 dpi? Some scanners use dpi as a measurement. Also, could you tell me the measurements of the slide window? I am having a problem scanning my slides because the window on the slide scanner tray is too narrow and it cuts off the top. My slides are 1 inch square. I would really appreciate your input. Trying to find equipment that will meet my needs. Thank you.

I did see that unit somehwere in my searching, but had to discount it as it only take Braun, not Kodak carousel trays. My recollection is that the Braun and the Kodak trays are not interchangeable. But thanks for the suggestion.

No, it does not take a massive amount of time. Scanners are no real solution to my needd to digitise ~25,000 of my slides, mainly Kodachrome from 1959-1990, all in groups of 20-24 in steel cases, plus a few carousels.

As a professional engineer I first planned how I wanted to use the results -- mainly to display on a laptop screen or an HD TV. Both could use only up to 2 megs of information in jpeg form.

The easiest way seemed to be to photograph the screen as I ran them through the projector. Trials showed slight keystoning and high corner vignetting -- unacceptable. The same with an old tele-cine device I had (project via a 45 degree mirror onto a ground glass screen.)

My solution was to take the lens out of the projector and point the camera in. Too bright, (even at 1/4000 at f16) so I put an $8 Home Depot dimmer in the projector lamp wiring using two screw connectors then added a white plastic screen between the two condenser lenses (from a bleach bottle), to remove the filament image. The camera on macro setting couldn't quite focus so I taped on a coated close-up lens from my Pentax. Cooking now.

I hooked up the camera to an old laptop, zoomed in sufficient to avoid the curved corners, did a custom white balance and set the camera to macro, 50 ASA, postcard mode (1600x1200 giving ~500KB jpegs) and fairly long telephoto with negligible pincushion. Then I set the camera to low sharpening mode and ran trials. Excellent results, not all the quality from the slides but capable of decent 8x12" prints -- and the family seem to just want 4x6s. The HD TV images are stunning with every pixel addressed.

25 slides in the stack loader, hit the protector change button then check the image on screen, occasionally adjust the exposure or zoom then hit the spacebar and the image goes right into the computer. The Canon camera software lets me name the images, i.e. Oct1962Paris001 --002 and so on. I'm running through 200-300 slides an hour with occasional blasts of canned air, I expect to be finished by the end of the year. The only post-processing is to turn vertical images plus a few crops. Despite no ICE I have seen very few dust spots -- just wished I had been able to afford better quality optics in the 1950s and 60s.

I use a 3.2 MB Canon A510 that I bought at Best Buy last year for $150. (Set down to the 2 MB postcard format.) I like this over higher MB cameras as it is sharp into the corners, has almost no colour fringing in corners and at the tele zoom no barrel or pincushion distortion. It comes with Canon ZoomBrowser software that has remote operation with the supplied computer USB cord -- this free software works for all Canon EOS and A series cameras -- possibly others. This software lets you adjust most camera settings and batch file names from the computer. You click an icon or press the spacebar to trip the shutter and the resultant jpeg is saved directly to the folder of your choice in the computer -- about 5 seconds to transfer, just enough time to change slides and check framing and exposure. I didn't realise the camera could work remotely until I read the manual. Possibly other makes do this? The key is that all Canon A series cameras (which I have used since 1999) have full manual controls, essential to control white balance, and to reduce contrast and colour intensity in the in-camera conversion to jpegs.

I have run into delays today with some slide "stacks" that have had vertical pictures turned. These have to be individually pulled from the stack and turned back (horizontal)-- something I wanted to avoid doing as it exposes the slides to dust.

Sorry your S45 camera does not have a close enough macro for this, maybe with a couple of close-up filters? The camera lens has to go all the way into the projector lens hole and then needs a telephoto setting to frame the slide.

This arrangement only works with projectors with 120 volt lamps -- you should not put a dimmer on a circuit with a transformer. I have the lamp below half voltage (less than quarter output, very little heat, the lamp will last almost forever at this level.) The fan and slide changing motors must still get full voltage of course. If you cannot dim the lamp you would be into neutral density filters -- and lots of heat.

Your camera and mine can be set to "lower definition". The 1600x1200 postcard 2 megapixel setting is exactly what I need. The reviews say my and your lenses are free of distortion at tele. But look at a slide mount at wide angle and you will see the lines at the top and bottom are curved -- not good.

RAW and TIFF are an affectation of so called "serious photographers" who do not want the losses and possible artifacts of jpeg compression. In eight years of shooting digital with the middle jpeg compression I can count the artifacts I have seen on two hands. I sell articles and images to two technical magazines. They specify jpegs only -- and I sold a cover taken with a 4 megapixel camera -- but then they are not "Vogue".

Remember this fast and easy slide digitising at 2 megapixels is not capturing all the info on the slide, which if taken with a good lens on Kodachrome can have the equivalent of 10 megapixels of detail, maybe a little better.

If the jpeg compression distortion/artifacts occurs only on multiple compressions of the same data, this may not be a problem for me. That is, I would be making one digital copy, and burning to CD, and/or an external hardrive. Merely extracting that file (a particular image) and displaying on LCD or projecting through digital (power point type) projector should not add further jpeg compression (hence artifacts). Is this assumption correct?

I don't recall if the Ekatagraphic/Carousel projector bulb is line voltage or stepped down -easy enough to check. Yes, of course, if stepped won through a transformer, then no dimming possible.

We also have a Nikon D70 digital SLR in house with tele lenses and +/- 55mm which originally were for a 35mm Nikon 2002. I also have 85mm, 24mm (parallax correcting)and zoom telephoto. These are manual (non AF)for use on my old FTN. The mounts are compatible, but I don't yet know if there is any compatibility problem with the D70 controls. Any sense if any of these lenses would work in the "apparatus"?

I assume the Nikon D70 software also allows control from the laptop.

The input from Kidpeat and Tompark is much appreciated.