[Tom Lapointe]

I recently came across several circular trays of 35 mm slides I shot in my earlier years of railfanning & model railroading /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif (back before I started shooting video!).  I know I have LOTS of interesting shots in these; stuff like the American Freedom Train's visit to Providence RI (powered by ex-Reading 4-8-4 2101!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif), my own first "serious" model railroad (a half-room-sized N-scale layout - back when I still had eyesight /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif capable of working on N-scale!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif), friend's layouts, a railfan trip on the old Naragansett Pier RR (an 8-mile shortline off the present-day Amtrak (former NH RR main) NE corridor - the old NPRR right-of-way is now a bike trail/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif), & other interesting "stuff"!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/wow.gif

What I'd like to do is get these transferred to digital somehow; I'm wondering wether to use a photo service such as maybe the local CVS? - I know they have a film-to-Photo CD transfer service, but I'm not sure if they'd be able to transfer the slides directly or if they'd need the negatives (which I doubt /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/unsure.gif I have any longer)?  OR should I take a "do-it-myself" approach?  (I still have my old slide projector, but am NOT sure if it's still operational/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/ermm.gif).   I have access to a 5-megapixel digital camera (a Christmas gift to my girlfriend/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/kiss.gif a few years ago - I have "borrowing rights"!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue2.gif), but I wonder if there'd be a better method of transferring the slides than shooting off a movie screen?  Any sugggestions would be appreciated!

Tom

 

[Semper Vaporo]

I am sure the local film to disk places can handle slides. They may even have the hardware to handle the multi-slide cassettes without you having to remove the sides.

BUT, I have never had good results from these places. They always produce poor quality images on CD. Don't know why, it is so simple to do.

There are scanners you can hook to your PC to scan slides yourself and then you have control of the outcome and can re-do it if it is not to your liking.

Of course, YOU have to do all the work! Sometimes poorer quality is worrth the hassle of doing it yourself. Also these slide scanners are usually one slide at a time and that will take extra work on your part... at least the least expensive scanners are one at a time. I suppose you could spend the big bucks and get an auto-handler scanner.

 

[Jerry Barnes]

I've thought of just projecting the slide and taking a pix of it with my digital camera. I also have the mirror reflector thing that you shine the slides in one side and set up your camera in the other to take a pix of the slide. Just never bothered. I put them on video tape years ago, had those dubbed to cd, but the quality was NOT very good. Jerry

 

[astrayelmgod]

"but I wonder if there'd be a better method of transferring the slides than shooting off a movie screen?"

Off hand, I can't imagine a poorer way to do it. Images on movie screens aren't nearly as bright as you think they are, and the light is not evenly distributed.

 

[Mike Reilley]

I have an EPSON RX500 All in One printer/scanner. It scans 35mm slides and has a gizmo called a "transparency holder" as part of it to hold the slides. Mine is NOT sold anymore, but newer Epson (and probably HP) scanners and all-in-one printers/scanners may have the same capability. These are NOT expensive printer/scanners. I think I paid $65 for mine....which is the same as the cost for one full set of ink cartridges.

I'd advise you to do some research on the HP and EPSON sites and see what they offer that scans slides.  Normally, if they scan slides, they'll scan negatives too.  These things do a pretty good job. Some have high enough resolution to print large photos from scans of slides. They all come with photo software that will clean up the scan too.

One last piece of advice....make sure it has drivers that work with your computer's operating system. I've LOST my scanning ability on my RX500 with my MS Vista machine. Epson's revised drivers....or Vista...do NOT work for scanning to the computer. I have to scan to an SD card...then put the SD card in my computer to get the scans....thank you very much Microsoft and Epson.

 

[GaryY]

Tom
I too have many many RR photos on slides from my 35mm days. I found that many were starting to fade / discolor etc and also to some of my family slides etc that you want to keep for memories.  

I checked out local camera stores etc and their costs were pricey and as was previously stated the results are often so-so.  Anyway, I decided to do my own and purchased a slide scanner a couple of years ago and have been transfer them to a digital format and now have them stored on my HD and backed up on CD's.  Once on CD's you can display on your PC or on your TV.

I needed a scanner anyway for regular home/office work and for the price difference I bought a mutipurpose flatbed and it takes four 35mm slides (in the cardboard mounts) at a time; or 35mm film strip; or negative film strips in different formats.  You can also get them for 8 or more at a time but the 4 serves my purposes.

The scanner came with some software that automatically helps adjust the color etc.   I use Photoshop to touch them up further when required.  It's not a quick process by any means, but the results are worth it. 
One note.... I scan mine at a very high quality and they therefore take up a lot of HD space!
 
There are several very good film scanners out there made by the likes of Canon; HP; Epson etc and they are making constant improvements on the speed and quality.  Shop around first.

Regards
Gary

 

[jamarti]

A good camera/film store should be able to handle this. Last time I checked they had three different levels of service. If you wanted a cd burned you could get the many slides burned at a lower resolution. The more resolution, the more $$. I was checking at a store named, Norman's in Kalamazoo, MI. (I am not affiliated with Norman's in any way) www.normancamera.com

My mother's scanner had a slide tray. i.e. one slide at a time. Never tried it.

 

[Scottychaos]

You need a camera shop that specifically scans slides as a service..
scans of slides require special processing (software thats does specific color and density corrections) to get the color balance right..
most people dont know this, but all slides are actually very dark and very blue.
they need to be this way to appear "normal" when projected on a screen in a dark room.
if you scan the slide as it actually appears, with no specific corrections, you end up with a very dark and very blue result!
you dont WANT an accurate scan of the slide!
you need some specific post-processing specifically meant to balance digital scans from slides.

most average labs, like CVS or Walmart, dont have the equipment or knowledge to scan slides correctly.
there is such a small market for it, they dont bother.
you need a good old fashioned "camera shop" (if you can still find one!) that has its own lab and does its own work in-house.
that kind of lab would have the scanners and software to correct the scans properly.

but I'm not sure if they'd be able to transfer the slides directly or if they'd need the negatives (which I doubt I have any longer)?


you never had any negatives to begin with! 
when you shoot "color print" film, and get prints, the actual piece of film that was in the film casette ends up being the negative.
then prints are printed from the negatives.

but with slide film, the actual slide itself IS the actual piece of film that went through the camera!
there never was a negative.
the slide IS the film that was in the cassette.
its a different film, and a different development process, that gives you a positive piece of film instead of a negative piece of film.

Scot

 

[East Broad Top]

There are dedicated slide scanners you can get for your PC. They're not what I'd call inexpensive, (between $800 - $1500) but if you've got hundreds or thousands of slides to scan in, it quickly becomes cost effective. The fancy ones do handle slide magazines, so you can batch scan dozens of slides at a time, depending on the capacity of the magazine. The ones I just looked up are 3600 dpi, which is going to be finer resolution than what the film itself will give you. Use the scanner via Photoshop, and it will remove any cast and color correct for you as well.

Later,

K

 

[Tom Lapointe]

Thanks for the TONS of information, guys!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/w00t.gif  I did do Google search on "slide scanners" - the first prices ($$$$) shocked /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crazy.gif me a bit!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif  (I have maybe a few hundred slides to transfer, can't really justify a big investment).  I just happened to check Tiger Direct (where I bought my current PC) & found a resonably priced Epson model ($74.99 after a $15 rebate!).  It also specifically states that it will work with Windows XP Pro x64 Edition (the 64-bit version of XP), which is what I'm running for operating system.  Going to do a bit more research, but this is the most promising lead so far; thanks for all the help!

Tom

PS - Here's the link to that Epson scanner:

www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp

 

[acmartina]

Tom,

I bought a dedicated slide / negative scanner a couple of years ago for under $400. The scan quality is very good but it is hopelessly slow (3-4 minutes per slide). Then last summer, I bought a new flatbed scanner for my father (CanoScan CS8600F). 

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-1307B002-CanoScan-CS8600F/dp/B000HDQ2FW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1202562101&sr=8-3

I didn't realize it when I ordered it,  but it is also capable of scanning 5 slides at a time in a tray, or a negative strip. He has since scanned hundreds of slides at decent quality and quite rapidly (a minute or so for a tray of five). I think many of the newest generation of flatbed scanners have this same capability. This one was $160.

There is a scanning technology called ICE (I forget what it stands for) that removes marks and scratches automatically. This is essential for older slides. The difference in a scan with and without ICE switched on is astounding. Be sure the scanner includes this feature.

Good luck.

Steve H.

 

[Skip]

Tom, its a big job, if you want transfer all that you have over. Transparency scanning is tricky business, to get a digital file that retains any of the image quality of the original, and its a very slow process, even for scanners that have cassettes (I have about $6K invested in film scanners). Questions of desired resolution, ultimate end use determine how the scanning is done. ICE is useful, but is resource intensive - you need lots of cpu and memory horsepower for ICE. Epson and Canon both make decent consumer level scanners that will handle transparencies, at not too bad a price (yeah, I know, thats relative). Re-photographing is difficult - it requires a very high quality, color corrected light source. Contrary to an opinion above, projecting and rephotographing may be quite feasible for a few shots. Use a projector with a good lens (sharp corner to corner), keep the image small (about 12x15), and project on a high quality piece of matt photo paper - you are looking for a paper that is heavily coated, with little to no observable texture. Mount the camera on a tripod. Unfortunately, this technique s tricky with most consumer cameras now - they keep leaving off the good stuff like remote release (I still don't get why they won't include the threaded button for a simple cable release).
The work begins when you get a usable scan - color profiles for scanning transparencies are troublesome, and if the slide has a color shift, you are looking at a fair bit of post processing in P'shop or other. In short, a usable copy is not difficult to get - a good copy is. Send out a one or two to different places in your area and see what you get back - let that be your guide as to how deep you want to get into it.

 

[stumpycc]

Tom,

I own a HP scanjet 3970 scanner, I used it to scan an old slide that I found amongst my mom's old pictures, it was one of her and myself when when I was jus t a wee little lad. ( probaly about 6 or 8 months old) 1964 or there abouts. It has a built in slide holder and it did a really good job, if I could find the pic on the computer I will post it to show how well it really works.

Cliff

 

[weaverc]

Tom,
I have an inexpensive all-in-one HP Photosmart 3180 (printer, scanner, copier) that I bought at Best Buy. It came with a special holder to copy several transparencies at once. It is easy to use. The only drawback is that the color ink cartridges are a little pricey if you are going to make a lot of color prints. If you are just going to copy the slides to a file, then this is not a factor. Once you develop a routine, copying goes fast.

 

[Tom Lapointe]

Carl, thanks for the info on that HP Photosmart 3180 all-in-one printer-scanner-copier.  I currently have an older HP PSC-500 all-in-one, purchased originally for use with my last computer (a 600 MHz. PIII running at first Windows 98 2nd edition, later Windows 2000); my current desktop PC runs a dual-core AMD Athlon 4400 CPU running Windows XP Pro 64-bit edition; I've been unable to use my old PSC-500 as a scanner with it./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif  Although the PSC-500 is starting to get a bit "tired" (occaisionally gets cranky /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif with the paper feed), the copier function (which will work with the PC turned off) works fine, so I know the scanner "hardware" is OK; the problem is that it's an old enough model that HP never came out with 64-bit drivers for it./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/ermm.gif I'm more concerned with copying the slides to a file, both for archival preservation, & posting them here /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif & on other railroad-related boards, than I am with physically printing them out.  Thanks again!

Tom

 

[Pete Thornton]

Posted By Tom Lapointe on 02/13/2008 5:17 PM
Carl, thanks for the info on that HP Photosmart 3180 all-in-one printer-scanner-copier.  I currently have an older HP PSC-500 all-in-one, purchased originally for use with my last computer (a 600 MHz. PIII running at first Windows 98 2nd edition, later Windows 2000); my current desktop PC runs a dual-core AMD Athlon 4400 CPU running Windows XP Pro 64-bit edition; I've been unable to use my old PSC-500 as a scanner with it./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/crying.gif  Although the PSC-500 is starting to get a bit "tired" (occaisionally gets cranky /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blink.gif with the paper feed), the copier function (which will work with the PC turned off) works fine, so I know the scanner "hardware" is OK; the problem is that it's an old enough model that HP never came out with 64-bit drivers for it./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/ermm.gif I'm more concerned with copying the slides to a file, both for archival preservation, & posting them here /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif & on other railroad-related boards, than I am with physically printing them out.  Thanks again!

Tom



Tom,

A suggestion for bypassing the HP drivers.  Microsoft has Twain support built-in to Office, through the "MS Office Scanning" utility.  I found it on my Office menu [All Programs/Microsoft Office/Microsoft Office Tools.]  The utility will handle my old Visioneer scanner, whose software doesn't work on my current XP machine. I thought I'd have to buy a new scanner, but it works fine.  If your PSC-500 is Twain compatible, then it should work fine.

 

[Tom Lapointe]

Pete, thanks for that suggestion using MS Tools - I'll definetly give that a try!/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/blush.gif             Tom

 

[Paradise]

Normal flatbed scanners at 600 (not interpolated) dpi etc. will only end up with a low res digital image.
You need to print at least about 600 dpi so the printed size is gets limited.
A good quality digital camera which will focas as cloase as a slide, mounted over a lightbox works for me