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07/24/2003 08:55:28 PM · #1 |
Does anyone know of a good and inexpensive slide scanner? I have tons of 35mm slides from the "old" days and would like to get them into digital format. I would appreciate any recommendations.
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07/24/2003 09:00:07 PM · #2 |
| Try E-Bay!!! I dont know what you need but they have just about anything you want. and you can set your own price. |
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07/24/2003 09:38:12 PM · #3 |
bruster54,
I too have a bunch of old slides. I bought a HP scanner with a slide/film attachment but the output was disappointing. I had a set of inexpensive close-up lenses for my C3000Z so I decided to try and photograph the slides. I backlit the slides with a 20W halogen light shining on a white sheet of inkjet photo paper. Once I got the WB set it worked pretty well.
This is an example. This slide was taken almost 25 years ago with an inexpensive point a shoot camera so it doesn’t look that great but I can tell you it looks much better than the scanner output and it didn’t cost me anything. If you are interested I can post a picture of the setup that I used.
Roger
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07/24/2003 09:57:43 PM · #4 |
I have the Nikon LS-30 (Coolscan III), which is a 2700 DPI scanner. They are available reasonably cheaply at this point ($200-$270 on ebay), and this scanner does a very nice job. Its only real downfall is that it does not deal as well with very dense (dark) slides as well as, say, the LS4000, but then again the LS4000 is like $1200 bucks these days.
Also, be aware it is a SCSI device, which may put off some. It originally came with its own SCSI interface card, so if you don't have a SCSI chain already, make sure any used one includes that card in working order.
I use VueScan from Hamrick software, and find that this really improves the output over the Nikon software and markedly improves the ability to scan dark originals. I am in the middle of scanning over 3000 of my dad's slides covering most of the last half of the 20th century. Then it's on to my slides, another 1500 or so from about 1972 to 2001.
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07/24/2003 10:00:51 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by rcrawford:
bruster54,
If you are interested I can post a picture of the setup that I used.
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Please do. I have some slides that I tried scanning with a friends scanner and they were also disappointing. It was a flatbed with a backlight. Another friend has a slightly better scanner, dedicated slide/negative scanner which produced much better results. Until I have the money to buy a proper scanner your method sounds like a viable alternative.
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07/24/2003 10:29:54 PM · #6 |
Okay Here it is. Just a scrap of wood with a groove cut in it to hold the slide and a 20W halogen lamp mounted on scrap wood to backlight the slide. It works best if the room it dark, less reflections on the slide.
P.S. That's my old Pentax K1000 standing in as the model.
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07/24/2003 10:32:58 PM · #7 |
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07/25/2003 06:52:18 PM · #8 |
Since I got a chance to try this I thought I would post the results. My setup was slightly different than rcrawford's but the concept is exactly the same. I used one of those battery operated round lights as the backlight and set up the slide so it was approximately in the middle. I had to use my diopters in order to fill the frame with the slide with just a touch of the mount. Cropped the mount out afterwards.
Sunset - Ottawa River
Begonia
Edit: ( I couldn't resist playing with the channels )
Red Sky at Night, Sailors Delight
Message edited by author 2003-07-26 00:19:20.
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07/26/2003 01:17:59 AM · #9 |
| Looks pretty nice.. What does a hard copy look like? |
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07/26/2003 01:24:02 AM · #10 |
I printed the Sunset and Begonia on matte everyday photo paper and they look pretty good to me. The real test would be how they look on glossy at 8 x 10. Digital has about the same dynamic range as a slide so there wasn't much clipping that happened when I took the picture.
(I didn't print the red one. It was just for fun.) |
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07/26/2003 01:47:49 AM · #11 |
| I know several photographers who ONLY use this method. They shoot in good quality slide film, then scan the slides and end up with files that are around 100 MB! But boy they print up nice and big! |
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07/26/2003 02:14:19 AM · #12 |
I use a Nikon slide copier, stick the slide in copier and set it facing the sun. Then shoot the slide with my digital on macro. I can even crop the slide this way. It works very well. Van
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07/26/2003 08:06:35 AM · #13 |
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07/26/2003 03:44:25 PM · #14 |
| Of course, "inexpensive" is relative, but I use an Epson Perfection 2400 scanner, which was less than $200 and works well for me. It comes with a special adapter for scanning negatives and transparancies. It claims to have a dynamic range of 3.3, which is close to the 3.4 that typical transparency film is capable of, but that would require using 16 bits/channel and I've never tried it. (Most digital images are 8 bits/channel which limits the dynamic range to 2.4, about the same as negative film.) |
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07/26/2003 04:31:30 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by rcrawford:
bruster54,
I too have a bunch of old slides. I bought a HP scanner with a slide/film attachment but the output was disappointing. |
Same here. Especially the negatives *shakes head* |
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07/26/2003 06:19:57 PM · #16 |
| Wish I had seen this info before I bought an HP scanner - I am also getting disappointing results for slides & negatives. |
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07/26/2003 06:29:29 PM · #17 |
Thanks to everyone for the information and suggestions! Can't wait to try some of the home-grown approaches!
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07/26/2003 09:31:26 PM · #18 |
| I use Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400. For the quality and dpi it is very inexpensive. I bought it at jandr.com |
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