8mm Forum: Digitalizing 35mm-slides

This is topic Digitalizing 35mm-slides in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 26, 2010, 03:41 PM:

My grandfather-in-law, if such a term exists, has a lot, and I mean a LOT of 35mm slides in his attic, which me and my fiancee, and the rest of the family, loves to come in and watch him project. Problem is that he's getting older, turning 82 soon, and it's alot of hassle for a 82-year-old to drag hundreds, if not thousands of slides up and down the attic stairs along with the projector and screen, so now I've told him that he can have the pictures digitalized so that he can view them on his PC or TV.

So my question now is: what is the cheapest/easiest/best solution for digitalizing slides?

Due to the risk of damage and/or loss in the mail, I'm not interested in shipping all the way to the US, but the UK/rest of Europe will do.

I don't have an exact number of slides here, but it's probably close to 3-4000 of them.

Posted by Jon Anders Klausen (Member # 818) on January 26, 2010, 03:54 PM:

There´s always the option of buying a scanner that can take these..? Will take a lot f time though.

I think there are many who offers this service in Norway. Have you googled it?

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 26, 2010, 04:01 PM:

Yes, I have! Forgot to mention that [Wink]

I found several services in Norway, and the cheapest one is 4,80 kr pr slide (about £ .48 pr slide). I was hoping to find something cheaper, as it's a loooot of slides [Razz]

Posted by Chip Gelmini (Member # 44) on January 26, 2010, 04:48 PM:

Many years ago I bought the HP Slide scanner model S20 and love it. I had about 1200 slides that I burned to disc. The unit is affordable ($500.00 USD) and works quite well. Although be warned: One box of 36 slides takes about 45 minutes to scan because it is the scanner it'sself that requires the time to move the slide. This unit is still available I think. It also has the option of scanning 35mm strips and prints up to 5 x 7.

This is not an ordinary glass top flatbed scanner. The S20 actually feeds the mounted slide inside the scanner before it does the job. Think Nikon Coolscan at a much better price.

Before I got it, I dealt with Kodak via the local camera shop and I had some of my first slides done to Kodak Photo CD. Now that's an impressive disc technology - however @ $1.50 per slide it added up to alot of money when the discs were filled (100 slides capacity). Also, the morons at the labs often scanned a vertical shot in horizontal position or vice versa.

With the S20 I can scan the slides properly and at an average of 1200dpi. I think it does better than that but I never went any higher. I am not aware of this scanner being Vista or Windows 7 ready - so plan on XP or Win 98 to get started.

The scanner has never failed and I am pleased to have made the purchase back in 1998.

If you get a used one make sure to get the manual and digitizing card - because it is required for calabration upon software install. This card is inserted like a 5 x 7 print and is read by the scanner and sent to the installed software. So if you shop on Ebay MAKE SURE all the parts are included.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=59968&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&c c=us

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on January 26, 2010, 05:02 PM:

As Chip said,

The HP PhotoSmart S-20 is a dedicated little "shoebox" of a scanner with a motorized slot in the front. It is a bit picky about its software installation, but it does a good job with negs, slides and small prints.

http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Photos mart-USB-35MM-Film-Scanner-C5101A-S20_W0QQitemZ400097737624QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5d27aefb98

A bit of a hidden treasure, as no one else has done such a model at that price point. It's now out of production.

Just make sure, if you go looking for one, that it is in fact the S-20 like the one above (which runs on a USB connection and can be used up to/ with Windows XP) and not its predecessor, which looks exactly the same, but has a serial port and will only work up to Windows 98.
The giveaway is the USB port and the little "S-20" below the name on the cover.

And, yes, if you want to do this yourself, plan ahead and set aside some regular time several days a week.
Get an external harddrive dedicated to the pics. From there you can portion them out to CDs as you need them, for printing and sharing.

Claus.

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 26, 2010, 05:15 PM:

Chip and Claus, thanks for the tips and for the link!

I use Windows 7, but XP hardware usually works fine with that system so that shouldnt be an issue. The problem is, like Chip said. A box with 35 slides takes 45 minutes to process. That's 1 1/3 minute pr slide. If I'm doing that with all ~3000 slides, according to my calculations it would require me to scan continuously for 2 3/4 days to finish!

I'll consider it though, thanks [Smile]

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on January 27, 2010, 06:01 AM:

Hi,

you might also think about this device as you can simply enter the magazines...
http://reflecta-shop.de/en/products/detail/~id.19/reflecta-DigitDia-5000.html

Jörg

Posted by Hugh McCullough (Member # 696) on January 27, 2010, 06:48 AM:

Hello Christian.

I use the CanoScan 8800F flat bed scanner.
This not only scans ordinary photographs, but also 35mm and medium (120 film) format slides.
I purchased it from Amazon for £150.48 in November.
It has an output resolution from 50 dpi to 9600 dpi.
For most 35mm slides I use 1600 dpi. This resolution seems to give the best results without too long a scanning time.

Hugh.

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 27, 2010, 11:42 AM:

Hi Joerg! I'm afraid that particular model is abit out of my price range, but can you tell me anything about the other scanners that they have?

Hugh, how long does it take to scan them with a flatbed scanner? Are the results good?

Posted by John Davis (Member # 1184) on January 27, 2010, 04:32 PM:

Hi Christian,
I use an Epson Photo 4490 which is a flatbed type and I'm quite impressed with the results, plus it has the added advantage that it lets you do multiple scans of slides or negatives (including larger formats); UK price starts at approx £150.
John

Posted by Hugh McCullough (Member # 696) on January 27, 2010, 06:15 PM:

Hello Christian.
You can scan four mounted slides, or two strips of six slides/negatives at one time.
I find that to scan four slides at 1600dpi takes about four to five minutes.
The results are suprisingly good.
If you would like to see the results then please go to www.projectioncrewonly.co.uk
I have placed some glamour, and flower slides on this site.

Regards.
Hugh

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