Convert Slides to CD

[bogleric]

Has anyone used any vendors for converting a large number of slides to digital files on a CD?

 

[dinodan]

Have you thought about buying a film scanner and doing it yourself?

 

[bogleric]

Definitely thought about doing that but wondered if there was an easier way to do a larger volume.

 

[jbylake]

Definitely thought about doing that but wondered if there was an easier way to do a larger volume.

I think it depends on what you consider easier is vs. doing it yourself. Yes it is a bit of a hassle scanning large quantities yourself vs. paying a service to do it for you. Does the $300 or so you'll spend on a good quality scanner and doing it yourself outweigh the convienince of spending possibly much more to have it done by a service. If cost is of no concern, and you want the convienience of kicking back and letting someone else do it, many companies will do it for you.
If you don't mind the hassle, the cost of a good scanner and an excellent printer will quickly pay for themselves vs. having a service done for you.
All of this, I guess, also depends on what you consider to be a large volume. A hundred? Several Hundred? A thousand? More?
J.

 

[benhasajeep]

I am guessing you mean 35mm slides. Are you talking about mounted slides or film strips? And how many is alot?

Reason I ask is if its 35mm mounted slides. And you have say 500 or more to do. A Nikon Supercoolscan 5000 will do an amazing job and its automatic to boot. With mounted slides you would need the optional feeder for automatic use. But you could do batches of 50 at a time. Much easier than the 1 at a time with the included feeder. Also out of the box it will do cut film stips (negatives or positives). There is an optional film strip feeder that allows scanning of an entire roll of film (uncut). Again faster more automated that way.

I have a Supercoolscan 5000 but not the bulk feeder. It's a great scanner. Would be much much less expensive in the long run if you have alot of slides, or even negatives to scan. I elected to purchase the scanner because I knew I would keep shooting slide film. So, it would be usefull beyond the initial mass scanning in the beginning.

They also hold their value well. So could be used and resold for just $100-200 loss??

It is expensive $1,250 for the scanner and I bet $200 more for batch feeder. But the break even point for me and my local lab was about 470 slides vs. the cost of the scanner. I chose the scanner over the lab and now have my own scanner for less money out of pocket.

Just did a search. Batch scanning services online prices were from .38 each to .98 each. Plus shipping, also fee for the CD/ DVD of course. Some required shipping out of the country though. Negatives were about .10 more each frame. Basically the break even point is about 1,500 scans or so using mail order labs.

 

[teneighty23]

I get london drugs to scan my negs when i get my film developed, cost about $2 a roll to get 36 slides scanned, a decent scanner is like $300? thats a lot of rolls, no one in my ignorant city does film anymore either, so there are no scanners in town, and i dont know anything about scanners, just seems like a ton of time (2 minutes for one slide) and money for the scanner itsself, NOW, if i ever go to enlarge pics i do have to get them scanned at max resolution, which costs quite a bit, so im just stuck basically, upsides and downsides of both.

 

[kaiser baas]

Hey bogleric, we sell a PhotoMaker which allows you to easily convert your slides into digital files, which you can then burn onto a CD. It’s simple to use and probably cheaper to buy than going to a vendor. If you’re interested in more information check out the PhotoMaker here: www.kaiserbaas.com