Help Req converting old photos to Digital

[jonnypb]

My dad has some old pics that I'd like to get converted into digital.

Forgive me for not knowing the correct name but the pics are colour slides that you use to put in a machine and they'd be projected onto a screen (Before my time )

Does anyone know of any places that would do this for you and have any recommendations??

Many thanks

 

[Mike.P®]

Forgive me for not knowing the correct name but the pics are colour slides that you use to put in a machine and they'd be projected onto a screen

You mean a a slide projector?

A lot of decent scanners have an attachment for just this job if you have one/know somebody .. otherwise most decent print places should be able to help.

 

[TonyH]

You mean a a slide projector?

A lot of decent scanners have an attachment for just this job if you have one/know somebody .. otherwise most decent print places should be able to help.

Yes check the price a shop would charge, then look at the price of scanners with said attachment.

 

[SPRINGERS]

Maplins are currently selling a film/slide scanner for about £65 I think. You just connect to a computer drop in the slide and copy the image, hope this helps.

link http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=225878&source=1

 

[jonnypb]

Thanks, does anyone know what type of quality you can expect from the scanners?

 

[Member 351198]

Thanks, does anyone know what type of quality you can expect from the scanners?

Hi ya

It all depends on what you want to use them for. If you just want to view them on the computer then any cheap scanner will do, if however you require half decent prints then go for a more expensive scanner. Also it is the person using the scanner that can also determine the quality/colour of your images.

I use to do this professionally working in London so i do know a bit about this subject.
Good Luck

Mike

 

[jonnypb]

Hi ya

It all depends on what you want to use them for. If you just want to view them on the computer then any cheap scanner will do, if however you require half decent prints then go for a more expensive scanner. Also it is the person using the scanner that can also determine the quality/colour of your images.

I use to do this professionally working in London so i do know a bit about this subject.
Good Luck

Mike

Cheers, I'd like to be able to get half decent prints. I think I'm going to go for something like the Plustek 7300

 

[ryart]

One thing to weigh up when comparing the price of getting it done or buying a scanner to do it yourself is that doing it yourself is a very time consuming operation. There will very likely be some post processing involved to get the best quality. Dust on the slides is usually a problem and whilst the scanner can attempt to help it is usually better to do it in PhotoShop or the like.

Another thing to bear in mind is that if the slides are Kodachrome then they will be especially difficult to get good results from.

As for the final quality, you do get what you pay for and really good scanners do tend to cost a lot of money.

 

[happyhomer]

Another thing to bear in mind is that if the slides are Kodachrome then they will be especially difficult to get good results from.

I'd second this; I've recently bought an Epson V500 to replace my Canon LiDE 80. For negatives I've got to say I'm really chuffed-the quality is excellent, and I haven't even come close to learning how to get the best out of it. However I tried scanning some of my mother-in-law's Kodachromes from the 1950's-'80's and had the well-documented problem of them being too dark (Google Kodachrome Slide Scanning and all will become clear). Shots from sunny skiing holidays were just about workable; anything else was just impossible to get a useful scan from (even if I ramped the brightness & contrast to the maximum settings). These were all well-exposed shots that have been stored properly-no fading or scratches to worry about, but still impossible. I've read that Vuescan is meant to do a better job, but I couldn't get on with it, and with the extra time involved, it really would take an age to get decent scans.
The advantage to me is that I'm not going to be asked to scan 3000+ slides


I have read of several people who have found that a good way to digitise Kodachromes has been to use a slide projector and to then use their digicam to photograph the projected image. Perhaps that would be worth a try if they are Kodachromes.

 

[ryart]

Following on about the Kodachrome problem my current method is to adapt an old slide projector by placing a diffuser (cut from a white porcelain plate) in between the condenser and slide, remove the projector lens and using a Canon 450d with a macro lens shoot down the hole left by the projector lens. With the camera connected to the PC it makes for quite quick operation. Shooting in RAW is almost mandatory to give the opportunity to sort out the wide tonal range of the originals.

This method gives the sharpness of a Nikon slide scanner but without the flare and better shadow detail. The results are also much sharper than an Epson V700, although the Epson has much less of a problem when you have an image with strong highlights and shadows next to each other.

 

[jonnypb]

sorry to be a n00b about slides but is there an easy way to tell if it's a Kodachrome slide? I've had a look and all the slides are mounted in a white frame with kodak on

thanks

 

[happyhomer]

All the plastic-mounted Kodachromes that I've seen have been marked as such on the holder, so it may well be that yours are Ektachrome or something similar, which should be a lot more straightforward to scan. That said, just make sure that wherever you get the scanner from has a decent returns policy just in case you're not happy with the results

 

[jont]

Anyone know if you can still get the old 'slide duplicator' devices that fitted to a 35mm SLR and you put a slide in, held it to the light and took a new shot ... wondered if the same principle would work with the Kodachromes - similar to ryarts idea ...

Jon

update - found this - was what I was thinking of - might have one on ebay cheaper ? ... http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/prod.asp?i=8537&1=Soligor+Zoom+Slide+Copier+(Full+Frame)

 

[jonnypb]

I was about to get the epson perfection v500 (and still might) but have found out a large selection of the slides are Kodachromes

I've read Kodachromes don't scan very well but have never seen any examples. Has anyone any experience of scanning Kodachromes using a scanner such as the v500?

thanks

 

[Malone]

Don't know about anyone else but slide scanning can be very laborious. You can get them done for about 20p to 40p per slide professionally which is an option depending on how many you need to do.
Matt

 

[jonnypb]

I did think about that but there are tons of old slides and negatives (40 years worth) which I want to digitize for keep sake. I know it'll take me a long time to do but I'm in no rush