Digital cameras forum: Best way to digitize 35mm slides?

http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN/CS9000/9000F.HTM

Thanks one and all for your suggestions. I was originally looking at those converters that copy your slides but I understand the picture results are quite small. I have an old HP scanner with a slide attachment that just doesn't work, so maybe one of the reccommended scanners will work better. I understand it's a tedious process to do myself, but as long as the results are satisfactory, the time is well spent.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed, I appreciate your time and input.

Paul G.

Check out Tiger Direct (website) for an in expensive 35mm slide capture device (USB) and it's quite nice and quick to capture your images.

Like everyone else indicates, clean your slides/film before you try to get your images.

MarkinTO

I use an Epson Perfection V500 Photo and am very satisfied with the results. It will accomodate all sizes of negatives and has built in software to make corrections for dust and colour shift due to ageing. There are also options to increase the size of the digital image by scanning to a higher dpi.

How would I edit or remove previous post??

If you have a decent DSLR camera, that is the only way to go for prints. And for slides but only if you have a good way to project them on a screen. The cameras I use have good telephoto lenses, both with fields of view of 75degrees to 8 degrees. These are both high end consumer cameras and it is no sweat to capture exactly what the object looks like. But I gave up trying to photograph slides lying on a light box. It was a lot of work to arrange the slides but the main problem was that working at 18-24 inches with a 300 MM lens the depth of field is almost non-existent, which I could handle but the camera always wants to focus on the text on the frame for the slide and it simply is not worthwhile for me to screw around with it, since most of my old slides are not that hot anyway, taken by ex-wife with slow speed film and the 50 MM lenses so common 20 years ago. The size of the image area on the slide is not the problem because I very easily get good images of dental x-rays which are the same size.


My cameras are a NIKON D700 with TAMRON 28-300 VC and a NIKON D200 TAMRON 18-200 but less expensive cameras should work just fine given a proper lens. I photograph lots of slides (but only on a screen) , photographic prints and medical x-rays including dental films. At conferences with a zoom lens on one of these cameras, one can easily photograph slides as they are being presented from the back of the room but up close is better because of faster exposure times. I normally have a camera with me which enables me to photograph prints of interest such as other peoples photo albums and even the types of pictures that some people keep fastened to their refrigerator doors.

The resolution of these camera systems is far and away higher than that of the objects being photographed.

You should be prepared to critically inspect your work as you go along and be prepared to learn. For example experiment with different projectors and screens if you have any available. Experiment with different distances between projector and screen since the smaller images will be sharper and brighter which might make a difference. Make sure you reduce ambient light. Experiment with different ISO to have fast enough exposures to eliminate motion. My own speeds are fast enough that I never even have to consider using a tripod. Dont be afraid to experiment with different exposure levels and use bracket mode if you have it since different slides will look better at different densities.

There are a number of scanners with slide adapters or slide scanning options. Myself, I use a USB video capture device, projector and a telecine screen to input the images into my computer.

<<<< I wouldn't trust my slides to any one.>>>>

Somebody can show you all the samples of their work that you may care to see and it means absolutely nothing. In the end they are sure to have your money and you may have very little.

I still would like to see somebody comment on experience shooting slides as they are projected on a screen. With a decent camera it should go well.

I tried direct photography of some old slides recently strictly out of curiosity since they are not that great and the problem was the camera focusing on the frame instead of the image and they were absolutely worthless. So I intend to shortly try it again by placing a dot on the slide (image) to focus on.

Slide handling was burdensome but I plan to handle that by placing something on the bottom side of the viewing window of my horizontal light box to define the space to push the slide over. My light box? It resembles an x-ray view box. I took a 58 quart Sterilite plastic container and screwed a couple of those plastic outlet strips (six outlets) along the bottom. You should recognize them from seeing them at places like Wal-Mart, with the switch and 3 foot cord at one end. This enables mounting of a variable number of the fluorescent bulbs that run so much cooler than incandescent bulbs. A plastic chopping board of appropriate size and appropriate translucence furnishes the viewing surface.

I had the same problem, with close to 2000 slides and maybe more than a thousand negatives.

I looked around for some time for a scanner where I could scan at least 2 or 3 slides simultaneously. Finally I found an excellent solution, an Epson Perfection V100 Photo that allows for 4 slides or negatives per round and I'm very happy with the results.

This model is discontinued and its current equivalent is the V300 Photo, but take a look also at the V500 and V600.

In any case, it's a manual and time consuming job. Don't try to finish in a few days. I never had scanning sessions longer than a couple of hours a day.