Converting Slides and Negatives to digital images.....

[FinanceDude]

I have done some research, but am now stumped. DW saw one made by Veho, but it's only 1800DPI and 5 megapixel quality. Based on online reviews, it only works for small prints up to 3X5.

Nikon has a couple really nice ones, but they're $500-$800!!

Any ideas, I am willing to spend up to $250 for a decent one.

My late sister left me a TON of slides, and I want to convert them so I can back them up to share with other family members and also to have a backup "just in case"

[TromboneAl]

You may not believe this, but it worked for me: I held the slide right up against the lens of my Sony Mavica, aimed it towards a bright piece of paper and took the shot. The quality was not bad at all. I made photobooks for my sisters from the old family slides.

You might find that some variation on this may work for you.

[calmloki]

My gal has converted about 4500 slides to digital (both her Mom and Step dad were avid photogs and he had a bunch of shots from time as a trading post/tour operator in Monument Valley just after WW2). She has been using an articulated Nikon Coolpix 950(?) and bought an adaptor that screws onto the lens threads. That and a desk lamp and a bunch of patience has worked for her. It cost less than $50.

[saluki9]

FD

I just read an article in a photo magazine about a service that just started that will give you RAW or Jpeg images from your slides. They have a high speed scanner and they do them very reasonably. I will have to look.

[FinanceDude]

Thanks for the replies so far..............

[CCdaCE]

I own a Canon PIXMA MP800 All In One Photo Printer. It has a tray built into the top of the scanner to scan 5 slides at a time, then the software converts them to .jpg or whatever.

I tried it on some of my dad's slides from 1976 or something and it seemed to function surprisingly well.

Haven't tried it on negatives (couldn't find any to try).

-CC

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CCdaCE I own a Canon PIXMA MP800 All In One Photo Printer. It has a tray built into the top of the scanner to scan 5 slides at a time, then the software converts them to .jpg or whatever. I tried it on some of my dad's slides from 1976 or something and it seemed to function surprisingly well. Haven't tried it on negatives (couldn't find any to try). -CC

I have a Canon Pixma,I wonder if that would work??

[calmloki]

This is Nikon's version of what she's using - NIKON COOLPIX 990 ES-E28 SLIDE COPYING ADAPTER - NR - eBay (item 260200209282 end time Jan-15-08 00:31:06 PST)

And this is the company she bought from i think - remember it was right close here in Oregon - Pro Slide Copier for Nikon Coolpix 8700, 5700 - Adaptor - eBay (item 230068113802 end time Feb-11-08 21:05:08 PST)

A gotcha with this design is that the amount you tighten down the adaptor changes the angle at which the digital image is taken. Very irritating to have a bunch of shots not quite straight.Suspect the factory version has less of a problem, but worth checking after a few shots to be sure the setup is right on. I cut a shim for my gal to get hers spot on.

[TromboneAl]

I couldn't find those old pictures just now, but here's an example of what you can do. I just held the slide up and took a picture with DWs Canon powershot A560,

HoldingSlide.jpg

then cropped and processed the image.

PhotoRestored.jpg

With a little cardboard and duct tape, you could do better. If these are just snapshots, that may be all you need.

[FinallyRetired]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl I couldn't find those old pictures just now, but here's an example of what you can do.

You mean, scan the slides, or actually go outdoors in pants like that?
Those were the days.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoonToRetire You mean, scan the slides, or actually go outdoors in pants like that?

Hey, give Al a break. I'm betting his kilt was in the laundry...

[calmloki]

k, so here's a pic of a copy of one of the early Monument Valley pics. Note that dirt on the slide is faithfully rendered. That is his 60 +YO son in the fancy foot gear with the two dinkys.

[Jeb-NY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calmloki My gal has converted about 4500 slides to digital (both her Mom and Step dad were avid photogs and he had a bunch of shots from time as a trading post/tour operator in Monument Valley just after WW2). She has been using an articulated Nikon Coolpix 950(?) and bought an adaptor that screws onto the lens threads. That and a desk lamp and a bunch of patience has worked for her. It cost less than $50.

I have a similar setup with a Nikon 995, works great I have done a 1000+ slides. Much faster than a scanner and you can always have the few slides that you want to blow up big scanned at higher resolution for a fee. The Nikon 9XX series have a negative mode so you can scan negatives also. Color Negatives need some correction because of the orange mask but I had good results using PhotoShop removing it. Used Nikon 9XX can be picked up fairly cheap.

Jeb

[UncleHoney]

Just a sample of what a dedicated scanner will do for slides.

Scanned from a 1951 Kodachrome with an Epson 4990 Photo scanner.

[free4now]

I'd suggest looking into finding a service that will scan the slides for you.

Unless you continue to shoot slides, this will be a one time project and the hardware won't be useful after it's done.

It does get really boring scanning a large number of pictures. In between scans you will likely have to wait for the computer long enough that it's annoying, but not quite long enough that you can do anything else useful with the time.

Also consider getting a flatbed scanner where you can load a whole bunch of slides into a tray and process them all at once.

The megapixel race in cameras these days has made people think they need huge numbers of pixels, but the reality is that the limiting factor in quality is usually the lense of the camera, and the one touch cameras of yesteryear with plastic lenses didn't have very high quality (although the SLRs did have good lenses).

Unless you used a high end camera and technique to take your pictures, they probably don't have enough sharpness that you need high end scans.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by free4now I'd suggest looking into finding a service that will scan the slides for you. Unless you continue to shoot slides, this will be a one time project and the hardware won't be useful after it's done. It does get really boring scanning a large number of pictures. In between scans you will likely have to wait for the computer long enough that it's annoying, but not quite long enough that you can do anything else useful with the time. Also consider getting a flatbed scanner where you can load a whole bunch of slides into a tray and process them all at once. The megapixel race in cameras these days has made people think they need huge numbers of pixels, but the reality is that the limiting factor in quality is usually the lense of the camera, and the one touch cameras of yesteryear with plastic lenses didn't have very high quality (although the SLRs did have good lenses). Unless you used a high end camera and technique to take your pictures, they probably don't have enough sharpness that you need high end scans.

I have a photo printer and also an HP that does scanning. Maybe I could try those first??

[TromboneAl]

That's interesting. Never thought of that. Here's the same image scanned at 1200 DPI on my flat bed. I had to do a salt and pepper filter, since there was some dust that I was unable to remove.

[TromboneAl]

Now you got me started. I took out the old slides, and am thinking about scanning more in.

Here's another page about a do-it-yourself system:

BackLighter

[free4now]

Yep, you need a flatbed scanner that has a light built into the lid. That's usually called a "transparency adapter".

I happen to have a very old UMAX AstraNet e3470 scanner with a transparency adapter that I am getting rid of... it's in the "donation" pile right now. If anyone has a use for it I'd be happy to send it for the cost of postage. It has a 4x6" or so transparency adapter built into the lid. I never made any use of the transparency adapter so I can't vouch for whether it works, but the 1200 dpi (IIRC) scanner works fine. Also drivers are an issue... it was purchased with drivers for Win98 which don't work on XP. XP has built in simplified drivers but I don't think it has a way to activate the transparency backlight. It's probably not worth bothering with, but if someone wants to tinker....