Digitizing Old Slide Film?

[purdnost]

My parents have hundreds of old film slides. They wanted to take pictures of them, projected onto the wall, then toss them in the trash. I want to preserve the quality of the images digitally. I understand there are businesses with professional scanners that can achieve this, or consumer scanners that would just require a lot more time, and might potentially compromise image quality. I suppose my options are - expensive, with good image quality, or super expensive with better image quality.

Interested in any suggestions.

 

[robotica]

If you have hundreds of them, I would personally get them done professionally just to save my own sanity! You can do it yourself on a normal scanner I think. It’s been a long time since I have done anything like that.

 

[jz0309]

My parents have hundreds of old film slides. They wanted to take pictures of them, projected onto the wall, then toss them in the trash. I want to preserve the quality of the images digitally. I understand there are businesses with professional scanners that can achieve this, or consumer scanners that would just require a lot more time, and might potentially compromise image quality. I suppose my options are - expensive, with good image quality, or super expensive with better image quality.

Interested in any suggestions.

I did this like 15 or so years ago, bought a scanner that came with a "template" (a plastic sheet with cuts for the slides) so that I could do like 12 or 16 (can't remember) at a time. I have like 2500 or slides ... scanners have resolution settings you can choose, be aware of file sizes, TIFF gets rather big.
Quality is ok, I would like to see what a modern scanner can do but not really into it at this point.
never used a service

 

[artfossil]

Used a service to digitize my remaining family photos (decades, decades, decades worth). The process is the same for slides.

1. Purge. Only digitize those that are good quality and meaningful to you.
2. Research your options, both online and local photo labs if you live in a city. There are tradeoffs between price and quality AND don't aim for greater quality than you need.
3. Also pay attention to what type/how much organization you need or want to do pre-scanning.
4. Pick an option and send them off.

(I used https://www.fotobridge.com and they were so easy to work with and the results were terrific. They do prints and slides.)

 

[oblomow]

I agree with @artfossil : only keep the meaningful ones ( containing people, fond memories ) and the most beautiful ones. I recently digitized our slides using a macro lens with a slide adapter mounted on it. As a light source I used the slide projector projecting light through some milk white glass.

 

[Steven-iphone]

I am considering this place for slide digitizing.

Professional Photo Scanning Service and Video Transfer Services

Preserve your precious memories with DigMyPics' professional photo scanning and video transfer services.

www.digmypics.com

 

[jazz1]

I’m glad I found this thread! I plan to go through some old film slides and try to determine which ones might be worth saving. I probably will go with a service, but still the geek in me is interested in scanning my own via and external device to an M1 Macmini. Can anyone recommend a physical scanning device that supports scanning using a Mac with Big Sur??? I actually have used VueScan, but my simple Epson paper scanner would would not work (I asked VueScan).

 

[robgendreau]

In the past I used a service. Decent results, and they did the cleaning. They can put them online and you get to reject a certain number. Not cheap.

I've also scanned them. Slow. And it takes some prep time. And a good scanner of course.

Now I use a camera, with macro lens. Better results than all but the best services. And pretty fast, depending on how you set up to do it.

I've used an old bellows slide copying rig from the film days. Works well. You can find them cheap on eBay.

I've also used the same setup I use for negatives. I have a slide holder from the scanner I used to use (although not strictly necessary) and then I put them a bit above my iPad set with a white screen (there are apps to do a white background, or just do it with a white image at full screen). The trick is to have it a bit ABOVE the light source and use a fairly wide aperture so you don't pick up the pixels on the iPad. Focus in, set up a good speed, and start firing away. Easier if you tether of course. Works really well; a fun project actually. Helps if your tripod has a way to get above the iPad of course since it needs to be on the same plane as the slide. A lot easier than it sounds, especially if you've ever done macro work. And it helps if your camera has focus magnification in live view; focus in so you are focused on the film grain. I now prefer this method.

Nikon sells an add-on that fits on a lens, but it's not necessary. YouTube is full of how-tos. Here's one:

And BTW, if you do a lot of color negatives, look into Negative Lab Pro. Not cheap, but it really is amazing and fastest way to post process color negative film. It's amazing.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

The biggest challenge with doing this yourself is dust control even if you are able to acquire a high-quality 35mm slide scanner.

There's also the time commitment. Realistically scanning one slide might take 2-3 minutes when including removing the slide, blowing off any dust with canned air, positioning it in the scanner, scanning it, running automated dust speck removal algorithm (optional -- note that this will decrease image quality as it is a lossy correction), saving it to whatever storage device, unmounting the slide and refiling it.

Do you have carpets? Pets? Lots of textiles in the room? These are all dust control factors that will influence the quality of the initial scan. It makes questionable sense to get a scan with 5-6 dust specks that need to be dealt with in post even if there are fairly automated filters to help with removal.

Twenty years ago, it was way cheaper to send out the slides to be slammed through a Kodak PIW (Picture Imaging Workstation = basically a Sun Microsystems UNIX workstation connected to a pro-grade scanner) than to do it yourself. Those were operated by professional technicians who probably had some sort of procedure and facility to reduce dust issues.

Not sure if there are similar services these days. If you can find something $2-3 per slide, that still might be better than doing it yourself. If it takes you about three minutes per slide and you take a short break every hour, scanning a hundred slides will take 5-6 hours of your time let alone the cost of a scanner.

 

[bunnspecial]

I have several high end consumer film scanners-mostly Nikons-which are great but are pigs to use(slow). They are also expensive.

My former local camera shop had a set up using a Carousel projector and a DSLR that gave great(not scan or big print quality, but more than good enough for most uses) results and was fast. If your slides are in Carousel trays already, a set-up like that is a lifesaver as it was basically drop the tray on and go. If they're not in Carousel trays, just loading those is a job by itself.

DSLR "scanning" is the popular thing now, and I've seen it turn out great results. I've played with it some on my old PB4 bellows with a slide duplicating attachment(from the ancient days when that was how you made a copy of a slide) but the modern dedicated set-ups are better. It's a fast process, since a good scan can take 2-3 minutes and at worst it's 30 seconds to load, focus, and shoot a slide. Done right the results are right up there with scanning if not better(i.e. grain resolved). Most of these set-ups use a trick that we've known about in the darkroom for 50 years now-they use a diffusion light source, which tends to minimize the appearance of dust and scratches.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

I’m glad I found this thread! I plan to go through some old film slides and try to determine which ones might be worth saving. I probably will go with a service, but still the geek in me is interested in scanning my own via and external device to an M1 Macmini. Can anyone recommend a physical scanning device that supports scanning using a Mac with Big Sur??? I actually have used VueScan, but my simple Epson paper scanner would would not work (I asked VueScan).

I highly recommend ViewScan (I have the Pro version). Anyway, every now and then I scan some of my slides and 35mm film using an Epson Perfection V700 Photo scanner. It is an older flatbed scanner you can use to scan just about anything. It comes with all the accessories to scan around 12 slides at a time, but I limit it to 5 or so. Anyway, the new Epson scanners are very expensive, much more than the $400.00+ I paid for this one several years ago.

But again, you could always have somebody scanning them for you, because it takes a lot of time to do it right. Firs you have to dust the slides with a lens brush (or blow the dust with a sensor blower), then scan it, and finally use an app such as PhotoShop or similar to remove dust, scratches, etc. (you have to edit the photo to attain the results you want). The Epson V600 is relatively inexpensive at under $300.00, but I don't know how good or bad this scanner is . You can scan film, slide, and documents with it.

 

[oblomow]

I did it myself. Using the methond I described above. It was fairly quick. Do the images all look professionally scanned? No. Can I still watch my old slides on my computer? Yes. I wanted to keep the memories. Most slides that I made back then weren't even high quality to begin with...
It is nice to see old friends&familiy again on slides. It's easy to ignore some vignetting and the occasional dust.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Digitized many of my Mom's old slides including these three. Used a now ancient Epson 2450 scanner and scanned at 1200ppi. Yes it can be time consuming and the results will very much depend on how good the slide is. A micro-fibre cloth for cleaning glasses was invaluable for removing dust just before scanning. Even so there was always a spec or two that needed additional attention. A few samples, all were from Kodachrome and have been slightly reduced in size from the original scan. Very slight sharpening in Preview as well. From 1953, 1949, and 1965 respectively.

 

[purdnost]

Had anyone used Photomyne’s apps (SlideScan, FilmBox)?

Photomyne: Save & Cherish Family Memories Forever

Scan, enhance, and celebrate your family's past caught on camera for years to come. Restore old photos with photo sharpening and B&W colorizing tools too.

photomyne.com

Seems to be a fairly effective and efficient method. Losing out on some quality I would imagine for the convenience.

 

[USAntigoon]

A few weeks ago I finished digitizing 1,100 slides by using my Canon 5D III and a EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS macro lens.
I also have a Wolverine scanner device I sporadically used in the past..Alas the results are nothing in comparison with the macro DSLR shots..
I made a special set up allowing me to use the Wolverine sliders holding several slides. I also installed a LED source and this link will show you how the set up was done and I included some comparisons as well..
Good Luck..


https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWXUqpd

 

[tizeye]

Ironic, as I opened Facebook today, greeted by an iPhone app advertisement for scanning slides on the iPhone. Of course, they came out excellent...like you would expect anything else.

Several years ago had a similar task scanning all my parent's slides. My photo scanner was old so went to see about javing professionally done. I calculated the cost and it easily paid for a new scanner. Ended up buying an Epson V550 Photo - now a generation or two old. Should note that the drivers and imaging software hadn't changed, just the upgraded specs of the scanner. That was a win-win all around.

 

[dimme]

I have probably scanned about 6,000 to 8,000 slides so far. I have used everything for Pro film scanners ( I used to work in a pro photo lab) to a epson flat bed. For me what determines how I scan the film is what I will use it for. About 10 years ago when I realized the the photo lab I worked at for 25+ years was not going to around much longer, I would go in on Saturdays and I scanned my best pieces of film with the high end scanners. Next was thousands of slides my Dad had which I scanned for the family, because we were not printing large prints from these the Epson scanner did a great job. Now I am going through boxes of old slides that I never we scanned and I want to digitize them and possibly toss the slides. For this my DSLR, a macro lens and film holder that attaches to the lens to keep everything square, this is working great. As with all these methods the scanning is the quick and easy part. It's the dust removal which takes time. Headphones and good music helps