Digitizing old 35mm slides.

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nihilist

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So I embarked on this tasks for the parents, offering to digitize all their slides.

I now have, probably over 2000 slides.

Go me!

Anyway, I pulled out the old unused HP Scanjet 3500c, it has the port for the backlight/TMA gadget for slides, but I don't have one. I borrowed one from a newer HP Scanjet but realised they're not compatible.

So I'm using the cheap man's method, placing the slide on a stand, putting camera infront of slide with a white wall behind and a good light source, the results are pretty decent. The camera is a Canon Powershot A95, 5MP camera, results are more than acceptable to my parents, though the task is going to take months.

Are there any cheap hacks to do batch scanning? Even if the end result is 800x600 - as long as the scans are crisp with good colour, it's OK.

Photoshopping the images to restore contrast, colour and lighting is quick enough.

Any tips, before I stick to a method and spend time on this task?
 
I am in the same boat!

My old Canon also had a slide scanning thing... non functional as fate decrees.

I think we need to source one of these...

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/19/slides-2-pc-slide-sc.html

Ion Audio is now selling a USB 35mm slide digitizer called the Slides 2 PC. For less than $100, it digitizes each slide at a respectable (but not incredible) 5 megapixels. The whole process is painless: you simply push a slide into the box, push a button, and the slide is scanned in less than a second. There's even automated exposure and color balance.
Click to expand...

ion-slides-2-pc-thumb-200x206.jpg
 
koffiejunkie said:
nihilist, how much are you willing to spend? This will probably make more sense.
Click to expand...

For 2000 negatives it would cost R4340.

I think this is a bargain considering you have to buy a scanner and then spend LOTS of hours scanning the stuff and probably post prossesing it.

The only thing I would do is to send the negatives to a local lab so they can run them through a chemical bath again. You could also build your own bath with sonic vibrator to clean them up.

The only worry you have is the negatives getting lost on the way there.
 
ponder said:
For 2000 negatives it would cost R4340.

I think this is a bargain considering you have to buy a scanner and then spend LOTS of hours scanning the stuff and probably post prossesing it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the hundreds of hours I'd have to spend on something like this really isn't worth the saving if I already had a decent scanner. And a decent film scanner is more than this anyway.

ponder said:
The only worry you have is the negatives getting lost on the way there.
Click to expand...

This is my concern too. Although I decided I'm going to end my most recent roll in as a test.
 
Good tips there, ta.

I'll phone various photo labs in KZN and see what they charge for slides (cleaning and scanning)

While we're on the topic, does anyone know a good app that can do batch scanning and auto rotation/cropping. I haven't used a scanner in years, I remember Vuescan was all the rage, but from I've read on forums, it doesn't auto pivot/rotate. I can flip hor/vert on the fly with XnView, but doing minor adjustments in PS is time consuming.
 
nihilist said:
Good tips there, ta.

I'll phone various photo labs in KZN and see what they charge for slides (cleaning and scanning)
Click to expand...


I have phoned around before and gave up as it was frigging expensive for scanning. The chemical bath part was not to bad.

Hopefully you have better luck, let us know either way.
 
Hmmm...

Ion Audio is now selling a USB 35mm slide digitizer called the Slides 2 PC. For less than $100, it digitizes each slide at a respectable (but not incredible) 5 megapixels. The whole process is painless: you simply push a slide into the box, push a button, and the slide is scanned in less than a second. There's even automated exposure and color balance.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the quality is like at less than 1 second per scan. That should be around 3 hours for 200 slides. If you do an hour a day, 3 days, which is not too shabby at all.

It all depends on what the end result actually looks like.
 
koffiejunkie said:
nihilist, how much are you willing to spend? This will probably make more sense.
Click to expand...
My family just sent them a big batch of my grandfathers slides however they only accept orders from the US and Canada.
 
Okay well I phoned Fotofirst, 2 branches in KZN. Looks like it's gonna be R4 per slide with a quantity of about 500, there are more, but we can select the best ones.

Although they recon only 300dpi, and no chemical cleaning is involved.. hmm, there must be other places in SA that do this, surely?
 
As mentioned before on another thread for something similar.. Try Beith

There number is 011-555-5700

I found them when asking a local photo shop to develop my slide film and they recommended I just go to Beith myself as they would be sending it there anyway (Which I've since found out, many photoshop's end up doing as well)
 
The best way of doing this is to mount the images onto a high-end drum scanner. Beith and all repro houses might still have one. I have one but haven't switched it on in over a year because everything is now digitised. R4 a scan is very cheap considering drum scanners cost about R200 grand in their day and the bigger the enlargement, the longer the scan takes. You can also scan at a resolution higher than 300dpi, depending on your enlargement but the image can look quite grainy if the slide isn't of good quality. PM me if you want some more info.
 
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