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Community => Photo & Video => Topic started by: TrkyBob53 on December 19, 2009, 04:26:35 PM

Title: converting slides to digital
Post by: TrkyBob53 on December 19, 2009, 04:26:35 PM: Looking for info on converting slides to digital. I have trays full of slides from when I was in the Navy. Have any of you converted some? Trying to find out the best way. Do it yourself, or have it done.
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: gramps on December 20, 2009, 07:30:43 PM: I have a similar project and asked the same question before.
Popeshawnpaul suggested sorting the negs or slides and then renting a high quality scanner from Glasiers (sp) in Seattle and scanning them to a hard drive.
I am gonna buy a scanner for negatives and slides and scan them to a portable hard drive and then sort and discard. This will take awhile, but will allow me to work on them in small batches or for an hour or two now and then. Scanners run couple hundred and up.
Good Luck
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: Jekemi on December 21, 2009, 09:52:24 AM: I have done this before. I own a relatively inexpensive HP flatbed scanner with a slide attachment that fits in the cover of the scanner. Simply insert the slide into the slide holder and scan it in. I use the hightest scan .dpi setting. This will give you a pretty good image, which can be stored on a hard drive or put on a DVD. If your scanner allows you to scan at 1200 dpi you will get a respectable image that can be enlarged to 8 X 10 and still provide good detail.

It is a time consuming process especially if you have lots of slides. Just pick out the ones that you really want to scan and away you go. Each slide takes about 30 to 40 seconds to complete, which means you can do roughly 40 slides per hour. In 4 hours you can do 160 slides.
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: TrkyBob53 on December 21, 2009, 05:36:16 PM: thanks guys. that is some of the info I was looking for. There are cheap scanners and pricey ones. I will probably go with middle of the road.
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: gramps on December 21, 2009, 06:57:29 PM: I have not purchased a scanner yet....I was looking at an HP flat bed with the negative and slide attachment today that had 4800 x 9600 dpi optical on the box. The salesperson said that I would only be able to get 2400 x 2400 with 4 meg of ram on my computer and it would take about 5 minutes per negative. Does this sound correct to anyone who has done this???
Mostly what I have to scan are 35mm negatives.

Thanks
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: EastWaViking on December 21, 2009, 07:17:54 PM: Quote from: gramps on December 21, 2009, 06:57:29 PM
I have not purchased a scanner yet....I was looking at an HP flat bed with the negative and slide attachment today that had 4800 x 9600 dpi optical on the box. The salesperson said that I would only be able to get 2400 x 2400 with 4 meg of ram on my computer and it would take about 5 minutes per negative. Does this sound correct to anyone who has done this???
Mostly what I have to scan are 35mm negatives.

Thanks

4 mb of ram? How old is your computer??
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: gramps on December 21, 2009, 08:27:25 PM: Brain fart....ment to say 4 Gig
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: EastWaViking on December 21, 2009, 08:53:59 PM: That makes more sense! :chuckle:
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: Jekemi on December 26, 2009, 07:40:01 AM: 4 GIG RAM should be plenty. If you are running Windows 7 the memory management is much better. Unless you are planning on enlarging your negatives or slides to 11 X 14 you don't need more than 1200 DPI. The $150 to $250 scanners are perfect for that job. It usualy takes about a minute or so to scan in at the hightest setting. I scanned in a maple leaf once at the highest setting. Took a couple of minutes to scan but the detail is incredible. You could easily blow it up to 16 X 20 and it would still be sharp.
Title: Re: converting slides to digital
Post by: bow4elk on December 26, 2009, 08:30:58 AM: My luck with the HP slide scanning device was marginal at best. You need to ensure your flatbed glass and the negative are free of any dust and constantly check between set-ups. I too have hundreds of slides as that's all I shot for years. I'll look for a sample on my other computer and post.

But then again, I'm sure the newer models have improved the set up and quality.