Copying Slides

[pubstud]

I've got a big carton full of slides, all stacked away in their little yellow plastic boxes, been there for the past 10-20 years. I really want to digitalize them ASAP. Does anybody have any tips on 1) getting this done professionally 2) doing it myself.

 

Cheers.

[Dr.Winston]

I recently scanned hundreds of slides for this thread. I bought a Canon Canoscan 5600f and was pretty pleased with the results but judge for yourself. Scanning slides does take a fair bit of time and is the domain of fairly high end scanners only. Any dust or dirt on the slides becomes really obvious in the digitised pictures, I had to spend a fair bit of time cleaning some of them in Photoshop.

 

With the benefit of hindsight I would have gone for one of the high quality Epson scanners that come with built in automatic cleaning software called 'Digital Ice'. By all accounts it's very effective and although the scans take longer you will probably save lots of time by not having to manually clean them up.

 

Good luck, please share the results with us if they're Thai related.

[astralrecon]

dr winston is the man for slides

he knows what he is doing

you in good hands with the doc

good luck there

[jasonbalmer]

I've got a big carton full of slides, all stacked away in their little yellow plastic boxes, been there for the past 10-20 years. I really want to digitalize them ASAP. Does anybody have any tips on 1) getting this done professionally 2) doing it myself.

 

Cheers.

 

I can't tell where you live, so apologies if this is off the mark.

 

I had exactly the same situation some years ago and elected to rent a high end pro quality slide scanner with auto feeder; a Nikon product if I recall correctly. There was no point in buying such a thing because they're expensive ($3000 at the time -- maybe less now) and what would I need it for once the slides were scanned?

 

It came with "cleaning" and color correcting software that seemed to be quite effective but slowed the process down by quite a bit. But today's processors, having more computing power, might not be so sorely affected.

 

Things I learned/experienced

 

1 - it can take a lot of time. I essentially sat up all night and day with it throughout a long weekend doing several hundred slides. It cost about $100 for the three day rental.

 

2 - the resulting files can take up a lot of space. Be ready for that beforehand. Of course storage is much cheaper these days

 

3 - the quality of the slide mounts can be a source of problems. If they're old, cardboard mounts and not so flat, be ready for lots of manual feeding and jam clearing. Unless they're pristine, pro mounts it isn't going to be a "load it up and forget about it" process.

 

Good luck.

[pubstud]

Thanks for those tips guys. I didn't want to put too much detail down in the initial post so here's some extra info. I live in Thailand, in the NE, I'm retired and have lots and lots of time on my hands, so doing it myself doesn't worry me. In fact I'd rather do it myself and have that extra control over the process.

 

The slides in question were taken in Thailand with professional SLR cameras (Leica, Canon EOS, Pentax) I used to shoot travel features for various Thai publications in the 1980s-1990s, and these slides are from those days. So they are well worth digitalizing and keeping.

 

The are in good nick. I checked some out randomly the other day and they seemed perfect, so it's not like they are in some horror-show condition that would require massive retouching and correction. However, I have heard about "Digital Ice" and will be investigating it soon.

 

A mate suggested I could get a Thai in a photo lab to do it for me. This appeals obviously as it would save me a couple of weeks work and a pro photo shop will probably have a higher quality copier. But I have yet to find a photo store with equipment for doing this job, let alone get a quote. I checked out a shopping center yesterday to look at slide copiers but nobody had one for sale. It's all digital these days. So even buying a slide copier might have to wait until my next trip to BKK.

 

Meanwhile I'll keep asking around. Any further tips are most welcome.

[pubstud]

Update - I'm just back from searching for a slide copier (any slide copier) nothing. Looked in Tuk Com and photo shops - nothing at all. So looks like I'll need to order one over the Net or try BKK. I asked in a photo shop about copying slides - they can do and ask 10Bt per slide. Well I have a couple of thousand slides so that rules that option out. Looks like i do it myself for sure, no probs at all. Just got to find a slide copier somewhere, somehow.

[Dr.Winston]

It all depends upon what they are going to be used for. If they're just going to be posted on the internet or viewed on a computer monitor I would go for one of the higher end Epson consumer scanners with Digital Ice software as I said before, of course it will a pretty useful scanner to use for other scanning tasks as well.

 

Proffesional film scanners would be the only way to go for things like poster style prints. Also pay attention to how many slides or negatives can be scannned at the same time if time is important to you. Even slides that look clean, or have been cleaned with compressed air can still show many marks after they have been scanned which is why I wish I had bought the Epson with Digital Ice over the Canon. I also found it helps to clean the scanner bed glass often as dust gathers remarkably quickly and does show on the scans. It is very different to scanning prints where you seem to be able to get away with almost anything.

 

I scanned in high resolution and then only reduced the files after post processing. I wouldn't worry too much about getting them the correct way around for scanning as it can be corrected at the touch of a button.

[Dr.Winston]

Another thing that helped me was scanning directly into Photoshop rather than via the provided software. It's quite easy to set up this way but I'm not sure if 'Digital Ice' processing would effect the ability to do this or not?

[pubstud]

Thanks again for your help. I've been reading more on the Net about ways to do this. Up to now I've been looking at slide copiers that connect via USB to a computer, but how about the attachments that fit onto the lens of a digital SLR and you actually take a photo of the slides? What are your feelings about doing the job that way?

[Dr.Winston]

Thanks again for your help. I've been reading more on the Net about ways to do this. Up to now I've been looking at slide copiers that connect via USB to a computer, but how about the attachments that fit onto the lens of a digital SLR and you actually take a photo of the slides? What are your feelings about doing the job that way?

I used to get 'inter negatives' done for me in Thailand in the early 90's. I still have a couple of them. They're good enough for small prints or using on the internet but I think that there would be issues with critical work. The contrast ratio of slides films is much higher than negative films which could cause problems. Different exposure settings would have to be tried and let's face it film isn't as cheap as digital. It would be a time consuming process In short I'd consider inter-negatives for a few slides but for quantities I'd go for a high end consumer scanner with slide scanning facilities or a proper film scanner for critical work where only the best will do.

[plahgat]

Most highend scanners will scan slides as well.

A few years ago I had all my slides scanned using a Canoscan 9950F.

It can scan up to 12 slides at once.

I didn't use the dust or scratch removal features takes too long time,

I opted to use the Photoshop as well for later adjustments before I

put them up in albums on the Internet.

I had approximately 15000 slides and it took me some 3 months or so

with constant work from mornings into late nights to finish the task!

I still have 1000s of scanned pics that I haven't edited and sorted in albums yet,

I'll save that work for after my retirement!

 

Plahgat