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    Slide Copying

    Mrs. N. has finally decided to we have to do something about our old slides. With an 8k TV on the horizon it hardly makes sense setting up the old screen and getting the projector out any more, in fact I can't remember when we last did such an exercise.

    I'm looking for advice on the best way to go about this. Commercial copier, quality scanner, or slide copier. And to what standard. Recommendations for equipment would also be welcomed. So advice on equipment and standards from any member please. Recommendations on commercial copiers, I have contacted one commercial copier here who copies at 600dpi. How does that equate in lpm or pixel count?

    The slides, probably several 1000's in total, will have been taken on a variety of filmstock from Agfa professional to Ektachrome and on equipment ranging from a Halina 35mm to Fujica and Olympus SLR's. All were commercially processed and mounted in card or plastic mounts.

    Many thanks.

    #2
    Re: Slide Copying

    I purchased a dedicated scanner, struggled with it and the large number of slides I had and eventually took my best selection to a professional to scan for me but I had to do a lot of colour correction with the end results. My best and cheapest solution has been simply to project them and take a picture of the projection with a digital camera.

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      #3
      Re: Slide Copying

      As Karl has indicated, be prepared for an extremely tedious exercise John! Many years ago I purchased a high-end scanner ( Nikon 5000 ) with the greatest of intentions to digitise my films. It was very painful and I bought a large can of paint from B&Q to watch drying instead as it was guaranteed to be more stimulating.

      Unless you can find an automatic batch scanner then think very seriously about simply using a scanning service ...

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        #4
        Re: Slide Copying

        Basically it comes down to 2 options.

        Get it done 'professionally' where you don't have much control on the results and costs. Or buy a scanner and do it yourself, be prepared to spend time getting the settings right and then the time it takes to scan each one.

        I've a Plustek Optic Film 8100, currently costs about £150-180, works well (only scanned negs so far but does do slides too). It's quite time consuming and you'll need to make sure to catalogue well.
        Canon 5D3, 7D2, 60D, Canon 70-200L f2.8 IS II, Canon 300 f4L IS, Canon 16-35 f4 L, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, Canon 1.4 MkIII extender, Sigma AF 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM, Sigma 150-600 Contemporary, Tamron SP AF 70-300 F/4-5.6 Di VC USD, Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS
        https://www.flickr.com/photos/16830751@N03/

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          #5
          Re: Slide Copying

          Originally posted by antoeknee View Post
          Basically it comes down to 2 options.



          I've a Plustek Optic Film 8100, currently costs about £150-180, works well (only scanned negs so far but does do slides too). It's quite time consuming and you'll need to make sure to catalogue well.
          I also own the Plustek 8100 and have used it for both slides and film. It works very well and it comes with a slide holder

          Tom

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            #6
            Re: Slide Copying

            I have successfully used a 'Reflecta X9 Scan' for both slides and negatives. As others have said it is a slow and boring process (except when you come across some long forgotten gem of an image), and you do need to catalogue as you go. I was also selective when it came to choosing which images to scan and save.
            Quentin

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              #7
              Re: Slide Copying

              Done this myself years ago when I had a dedicated scanner slide copier ,it's time consuming as the others have said and the question you have to ask yourself is after spending all the time going through them will you actually want to view them again .
              In the digital age things are moving on so quickly that i for one certainly don't have time to go back over old work ,my suggestion would be akin to a digital library just go through the slides and select the best to copy .put the others away for a rainy day

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                #8
                Re: Slide Copying

                Originally posted by the black fox View Post
                i for one certainly don't have time to go back over old work
                Isn't that the sad truth. How often do we get to look at the photographs we have taken honing our skills? I have quite a few hanging on the walls, but would really like a dozen or so big flat panels where they could rotate according to my mood! The lottery calls again!!!
                Richard Anderson Photography at www.raphoto.me

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                  #9
                  Re: Slide Copying

                  I bought a scanner a few years ago. It cost £50 and at 5mp had a higher resolution than the Canon G2 I was then using. I scanned one negative and was disappointed with both quality and the time it took. I scanned a slide for a friend and ... that's all the use it received.

                  Only yesterday youngest daughter dropped by to look through some photographs in preparation for a presentation she has to give as part of a college course she's on. I pulled out two supermarket veg boxes of prints and that didn't include the numerous folders I also have. This was, and to echo the points being made, the first time anyone had looked at them for years - probably since the first pass through after dropping on the doormat from the processor.

                  Yet, thanks to LR's keywords, I frequently look at old digital images and could really see the benefit of having my old prints digitized. I just don't know how that's going to happen

                  Cheers,
                  John

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                    #10
                    Re: Slide Copying

                    Thank you all. Mrs. N. WOULD like them digitised as it's probably the only way the kids will ever look at them. These views tally with another forum where I asked the same question.

                    I'll check out the plustek, look out for a 2nd hand one or buy new and move it on when finished.
                    Looks like long Winter evenings are taken care of!

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                      #11
                      Re: Slide Copying

                      I've tackled this problem with my late mother's collection of 3000 slides - taken from 1959 through to 1985. I was mainly trying to produce a visual index as my late mother was very good at listing the locations where her slides were taken, but frequently didn't mention in her notes which members of the family had been captured.

                      After trying a variety of scanners, I decided that life was too short to go down the scanning route, and instead, I decided to try simply photographing the slides using an Ohnar Zoom Reverser Slide Copier*. I used my Eos 5D Mk II set to a small jpeg, 550EX flash and STE-2 flash trigger. With a little practice, I was able to do 3 36 boxes of slides an evening, and I've now done around 50% of the collection. (I may have set the camera's picture style to low contrast, but can't remember at the moment.) The slide collection included both early slides in thick mounts, and later slides in the thinner mounts - I found that I needed two types of Ohnar slide copier to deal with the different thicknesses, and the 2 slide shuttle holder included with one of them was the key to speedy image grabbing. If I do find any gems, I have both Epson and Nikon slide scanners to do a top quality scan.

                      * These appear on ebay and will need the appropriate T mount for your DSLR.

                      (Note: When I tried this technique with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 many years ago, the contrast was too high, and the more dynamic slides were caught very poorly.)
                      M Stewart
                      Milton Keynes, UK

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