Digitalizing Photo Slides

[Tom_Averwater]

I have a lot of photo slides from when I used to scuba dive. Is it possible to digitalize them? Is it something I can do myself on my computer ? Anybody know ?  Thanks Tom

[Radar67]

There is a scanner on the market that has an attachment to scan slides and negatives, its the Microtek Scan Maker 4850. The attachment plugs into the scanner and rests on the scanner bed while holding the slides. It runs about $100. Another option would be to take the slides to Wal-Mart or a Professional Camera Shop (like Wolf's or Ritz), I don't know what they would charge, depends on how many slides you want to convert.

Stew

[Tom]

yes, there are scanners with back-light devices that will copy them.

You could display them on a screen and take a picture of the screen too.  It's not too good a choice though.

Hewlitt Packard makes several different models.

Here are 3 of many I have done. 

slide1

slide3

slide2

I am digitizing and recording on CD a lot of old family pictures.

[pigman]

Last year I had about 200 old slides put on CDs at Wal-Mart.  It only cost about $6.  It did take two trips there to find someone that knew what a slide was. :

[wesdor]

I digitize a lot of slides and have been happy with the Epson 3200 scanner. It is about 4 years old, but they now have a 4800 scanner.  A friend of mine in Seattle purchased the similar model from Canon about 6 months ago and has done several hundred slides.  When we have compared slides (mine at 3200 dpi and his at 4800 dpi), there seems to be little if any difference.

He reports to me that the software on the  Canon is not at all user friendly.  If you are doing a large number of slides, you are required to name each slide on the Canon.  Using the Epson, you can have the software name each slide.  On the positive side, the Canon allows you to scan 12 slides at a time, while the Epson only scans 4 at a time.

Neither of these options are a dedicated slide scanner, but I have used the Nikon slide scanner and found the results to be not very different from what I have with the Epson. 

Both of the scanners (Epson and Canon) can be purchased in the $300 - $400 range.

[SwampDonkey]

Most flatbed scanners have an option/attachment you can buy to scan your slides. We had a $300 scanner at work that came with one. It was an HP. I remember those slide scanners 15 years ago, when the scanners where $2000.

[Slabs]

I've had REAL good luck with my HP 3970 scanner scanning slides and negatives. (you just tell it that it's a negative and it hands you a positive) and it was much cheaper than the Olympus ES-10 that crapped out just out of warranty.

[Tom_Averwater]

Thanks for the info.  Tom

[HP]

Hi

I have found that the fastest and most simple way of digitizing 35mm slides is to take pictures of them with a digital camera.  I use a hand held slide viewer against the lens of my digital camera, and a light with a dimmer control to adjust for over/under exposure.  You can also use your camera's zoom to make closeups.  I will try to attach a photo to this post.  I
if I am not successful, you can find in my gallery.                                       

[SwampDonkey]

I would think you would suffer quality loss. One of those slide scanner attachments can't be very costly. Some scanners have them freely included.

[junkyard]

Would it work to build a box with a slide holder and back light the slide? I heard of some one doing that with negatives. Never tried it myself but this Forum has all of the answers. Just have to ask the right questions
                      Junkyard

[Bill]

I'm kinda interested in that also - I went thru the trouble of building a box with a bulb and a homemade reflector and then cutout a section for an old 4" glass negative ( the pic's are bygone family and neighborhood just after turn of last century so worth the effort ) . With an 8MP digital camera the results were slighly better than an older ( 1200 or 2400 bpi ) HP scanner with the back light attachment. They were OK but not as good as orginals from a regular enlarger and photo paper. So maybe a newer scanner  . . .   trouble has been accommodating those old large glass negatives as even film seems to be old fashioned.

Any tips would be appreciated here also - Thanks.